SUFIS CALL IT "DUMBFOUNDING"

 
Once, in Manzil-e-Meem in Bombay, the mandali and I went to a place called Mandwa. There, an old, well-known sitar player was playing. He played so wonderfully, the effect was so great on all, that a Muslim boy who was with us got so overpowered that he began to jump — first slowly, then higher and higher with such force that his whole body was twisting. I told the sitar player to continue playing, not to stop, or it would be fatal for the boy. He played on, and gradually the boy stopped.

The mandali all know about it. It was not a trance. This was the force of vibration. Trances are common, but in the case of the boy, he had to jump. It is a gift, very rare, to create such vibrations. The voice has to be just right to create this kind of vibration. It can kill or revive ...

Even the best and most exquisite voice of the gross plane is only the seventh shadow of that voice which is God's, and which Christ, Zoroaster, and Kabir have called the "Word of God." The voice of the best singer, which makes the rain fall, lights play, and people weep, is only the seventh shadow of that voice which is God's.

God is Infinite Voice, Infinite Light, and Infinite Love. But the Voice of God is not sound. Sufis call it "dumbfounding."