Valarie Kaur on Revolutionary Love
"May you find the wisdom you need to be brave with your life."
Hey Soul Boom Generation!
This week on the Soul Boom podcast, we’re honored to welcome the incredible civil rights activist, filmmaker, and author, Valarie Kaur. Valarie is a fierce advocate for love as a force for social change and for her vision of a world transformed by compassion and courage.
Today, we're sharing some powerful excerpts from her book Sage Warrior, where she invites us to see ourselves not as victims of a world in crisis, but as pioneers of a new way of being. Valarie introduces us to the concept of the "sage warrior"—those who love deeply, and fight fiercely.
As you dive into these words, you’ll find a reflection of the same spirit we champion at Soul Boom: a call to embrace love as a revolutionary act, to build resilience, and to become the change our world so desperately needs.
Until next time,
The Soul Boom Team
We Can Become Sage Warriors
Excerpts from Sage Warrior: Wake to Oneness, Practice Pleasure, Choose Courage, Become Victory (The Revolutionary Love Project)
By Valarie Kaur
‘The world we have known is ending.
A new world is wanting to be born.
What is needed now is for
survivors of trauma
and witnesses of crisis
to see ourselves not as victims
but as pioneers of
a new way of being human.
We can become
sant sipahi:
sage warriors.
The warrior fights. The sage loves.
It’s a path of
Revolutionary Love.
WHO IS THE SAGE WARRIOR?
The sage is someone who loves deeply. You cultivate wonder for others and the earth and wake to Oneness. You befriend the body—parts of the world, and parts of yourself. You practice pleasure through music, meditation, movement, and more as channels for awakening. You build sovereign space where you can find refuge and rest in wisdom within you.
The warrior is someone who fights for humanity, including your own. You access your agency and activate power. In the face of injustice, you harness rage and refuse to surrender your humanity. You join others to grieve together and alchemize pain into energy and action. You choose courage in the face of crisis. In doing so, you become victory. You embrace rebirth.
The warrior fights; the sage loves. It’s a path of Revolutionary Love.
I believe Revolutionary Love is the call of our times.*
My grandfather was the first sage warrior I knew. I grew up in a big family of Punjabi Sikh farmers in California’s heartland, where we have lived and farmed for more than a century. My grandfather’s room was next to mine. Papa Ji tied his turban every day, clasped his hands behind his back, and surveyed the world through the eyes of wonder. When he listened to kirtan, sacred music, he closed his eyes and let the music resound wondrously within him; he wrote poetry in his garden. As I curled up beside him, his silvery beard rubbing my cheek, he told me his warrior stories—surviving air raids as a soldier in World War II, ushering people onto trains to safety during the massacres of the 1947 Partition of India-Pakistan, keeping guard on a rooftop during the anti-Sikh genocidal violence in Delhi in 1984. He was proud never to have fired a bullet. His was a militant ethic of nonviolence.
As I fell asleep each night, Papa Ji would sing the Mool Mantr, the foundational verse that opens the Guru Granth Sahib, our sacred canon of musical wisdom. It begins with the utterance “Ik Onkar,” which means Oneness, ever-unfolding. “All of Sikh wisdom flows from here,” Papa Ji would say. All of us are part of the One. Separateness is an illusion: There is no essential separateness between you and me, you and other people, you and other species, or you and the trees. You can look at anyone or anything and say: You are a part of me I do not yet know. And that means no one is outside our circle of care. There are no monsters in this world, only people who are wounded. To pursue a life of Revolutionary Love is to walk boldly into the hot winds of the world with the eyes of a sage and a heart of a warrior.
When I say that Revolutionary Love is the call of our times, some believe that I’m naïve or unserious about power. The word “love” is abused in our culture—love as a placebo, a rush to reconciliation that leaves injustice unaddressed. Yet the greatest social reformers in history—King, Gandhi, Mandela, Chavez, Day—demonstrated the power of love-based justice movements. We must reclaim love as a force for justice now. The love I was taught in the Sikh tradition is deep, mystical, muscular, holistic, and ultimately, revolutionary. It was practiced by a lineage of warriors who survived near-apocalypse. To understand it, you have to know what it feels like in your body. A superficial definition won’t do. You have to take time, become still, immerse yourself. You have to enter the story.
SAGE WARRIOR LET’S BEGIN. . .
Where does your body touch the earth? Take a deep breath—let it come, let it go. Let your body acknowledge the earth. Imagine the first ancestors of the land where you are. If you know the names of the peoples indigenous to this land, say them now. May we honor their wisdom and memory—past, present, and future.
What is the closest body of water to you? The river in front of me flowed down mountains fed by rains, and now moves unhurried to the sea, where it will touch all other bodies of water on earth, including the one by you. May we honor the earth and air and water that nourish and connect us.
What ancestor represents courage to you? Perhaps someone who inspired you as a child, a beloved grandparent, or a figure from history. All humankind is kin, so all ancestors are available to you when summoned with integrity. Choose one. Imagine this ancestor behind you. Notice what that courage feels like in your body.
What child in your life brings you joy? Perhaps your own child, or any child you have known. Imagine that child in front of you, smiling at you. Notice what joy feels like in your body.
Place your attention on your heart. Take a deep breath—let it come, let it go.
You are the link between past and future.
With the earth under you, and waters around you,
with ancestors behind you, and the children
of the future before you—
May you find the wisdom you need to be
brave with your life.
SAGE WARRIOR, EMBRACE REBIRTH . . .
I hold the wisdom of the ancestors in my hand like a mala. Each wisdom practice is a pearl. One is not higher than another. I can rest my attention on the one I need in this moment. Any one of them can lead to rebirth, here and now, starting within.
The mala of wisdom is on my wrist—and yours.
When you feel isolated and disconnected, wake to Oneness. Drop into the present moment, look around, and let in wonder. Say: “You are a part of me I do not yet know.”
When confronted with pain, befriend the body. Listen to parts of yourself, or parts of the world, that are hurting. Ask what they need.
When numb and defeated, practice pleasure. Turn to music and movement and breath and taste and touch and bring your senses back to life. Make this a sacred practice, without guilt.
When the world feels like it’s closing in, build sovereign space. Use your splendid imagination and go to a place of beauty and wonder and safety. Be with the ancestors and the Beloved, and with yourself.
When you need guidance, rest in wisdom. Get quiet and let your deepest wisdom speak to you with compassion and care. Let it mother you. And do the next right thing.
When you feel helpless, activate power. Remember who benefits from your inaction. Go to the people, places, and stories that revive your sense of agency.
When you are enraged, harness rage as a source of energy and information. Move that energy through your body and decide how to direct it. Refuse to surrender your humanity.
When overwhelmed by grief, remember that we can bear the unbearable when we grieve together. Reach out to people and be with them. Trust the power this holds.
When you witness suffering, choose courage. Go outside and let the beauty of the earth breathe into you, and ask: “Who do I want to be?” Do what love demands.
When you wonder what all your work is for, become victory. Measure success not by outcomes but by your faithfulness to the labor of love.
And when the world feels like it’s ending, embrace rebirth.
* To learn about Revolutionary Love as a movement and guide for action, see revolutionarylove.org. You can find Valarie’s previous book See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love at seenostranger.com.
Excerpts from Sage Warrior: Wake to Oneness, Practice Pleasure, Choose Courage, Become Victory (The Revolutionary Love Project) by Valarie Kaur. Valarie Kaur is a renowned civil rights activist, filmmaker, and author known for her powerful advocacy of revolutionary love as a force for social change. Through her work, she offers readers a bold vision for how love can transform ourselves and the world, providing a roadmap for living with courage and compassion. Find her on Instagram: @valariekaur.
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I’m so excited to read your book Sage Warrior! I ordered it. You are not only a sage warrior but also divine light. I’ve shared the podcast episode with friends and family. 🙏
Love this. I find so much, connection, peace and hope in her words. Thank you Valarie! I look forward to reading your latest work.