TRUTH . . . IS EXPERIENTIAL

It is many years since I heard the first true story that helped to radically redirect my life.

Bakt Singh had always wanted to see the sunrise on Mount Everest, in fact ever since a friend had eulogised about the sight. One day while travelling in the Himalayas he got the opportunity, but of course it meant getting up in the middle of the night. Along with a dozen others he was led by a Sherpa guide to the viewing point. The group stood quietly together in the darkness as gradually the sun rose and they could all see Everest away in the distance.

One by one the party started to turn and make their way down the hillside, but Bakt Singh remained. He turned to the guide and said, 'I am not very impressed with the sight. It is nowhere near as wonderful as I have been led to believe'.

'Stand still, Sahib' replied the Sherpa, 'and wait until the mist clears away'.

The pair stood alone gazing into the distance while the rest walked back down commenting on the distant sight they had witnessed. Maybe they were professional tourists and just wanted to tell their friends where they had been, it was evidently not essential to them for the goods to match the advertising. They had seen the event and that was enough. They were not liars, what they said was true; but it was not 'the truth'.

Bakt Singh waited in the stillness as the mists gradually cleared. He said it was as if the world's highest mountain leaped from the background to the foreground and stood before him in glorious majesty. 'I felt I could almost reach out and touch the summit' he whispered.

The others had seen the daybreak on Everest, but they had not seen nor had the same experience as Bakt Singh. He would never forget, never need to exaggerate. He had seen the living reality and received an awesome and indelible impression.

For many years I had treasured the words, 'Be still and know that I am God'. Bakt Singh helped me begin to understand them.

© Maurice Smith 2004

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