Dear readers, has any one of you
heard of what a sadhu (Sanskrit: साधु) is?
A sadhu in India
In Hinduism, a sadhu is broadly defined
as a religious ascetic or holy person who has renounced all forms of worldly
pleasures, and whose sole objective in life is to achieve liberation of the
soul via meditation and deep prayer. The term itself is derived from a Sanskrit
word which means ‘good man,’ ‘to reach one’s goal’ or ‘spiritual practice.’
Frequently living in total seclusion in caves, forests or temples, sadhus
command much respect for their holiness and perceived mystical prowess
especially among Hindu populations in rural India and Nepal. It is in fact
estimated that there are about five million sadhus living in India today.
Having said that, perhaps one of the most famous sadhus to have ever
lived is none other than Sadhu Sundar Singh (Punjabi: ਸਾਧੂ ਸੁੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ) (1889 – presumably 1929). Sadhus are conventionally Hindu by definition,
and Sundar Singh was himself a sadhu, albeit with a very big difference – he
was a Christian one.
Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889 - presumably 1929)
Sundar Singh was born in 1889 into a
wealthy Sikh family in Ludhiana (Punjabi:
ਲੁਧਿਆਣਾ), then a
part of the princely state of Patiala (Punjabi:
ਪਟਿਆਲਾ)
during the era of the British Raj in India. Since childhood, his mother would
frequently bring him to a sadhu who lived in a jungle several miles away in
order to deepen his knowledge of religion, besides sending him to a nearby American
missionary school where he could learn English. He was always encouraged from
young by his mother to seek not personal enjoyment but rather peace and
goodness in life, which then became one of his main principles that drove him
through later life.
At the young age of fourteen, the
teenage Sundar experienced an overwhelming loss when his dear mother passed
away, plunging him into much despair that at times led to violent outbursts of
rage. Amongst others, he took out much of his anger on the missionaries and
other Christians in the missionary school and vicinity where he was in,
ridiculing their faith and displaying clear defiance against the compulsory
Bible classes in his school. He also once carried out a public burning of the
Bible, whereby he tore the Bible and burnt it page by page while his friends
stood around and watched.
Amidst the grief and uncertainty that he
experienced, Sundar was actively seeking for the truth. He meticulously studied
the Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Christian holy scriptures, besides hearing the
teachings of learned men in these religions, but none could satisfy his
spiritual emptiness or offer him the solace he much sought. At last, he made a
very bold decision to end his life and thus the immense misery that he was
experiencing, but not without an earnest plea.
Sundar knew that a train would pass by
near his house at about 5 a.m. every morning, and he decided that he would
abruptly end his life by throwing himself onto its tracks to be run over by it.
He went to bed early the night before, and woke up in the wee hours of the
morning to make an earnest plea. He cried out in desperation, “If there is a
God, let Him show me the way of salvation, and I will serve Him all of my life.
Otherwise, I shall kill myself.” These words he repeated over and over again
before his self-appointed time of death.
Nonetheless, just about half an hour
before the train passed by his house, Sundar became conscious of a bright cloud
that started filling his room, and amidst that cloud he saw a radiant figure of
one whom he least expected – Jesus Christ. In an undated account that Sundar
himself penned in Urdu, he wrote:
“A
bright radiance entered my room and flooded it. In that radiance the Messiah’s
beloved and luminous face was visible, and showing me the wounded palms where
scars were clearly visible, he said, “Why do you torment me? Behold, for your
sake I gave my life on the cross, so that you and the world might win
salvation.”
The vision of Jesus that he saw became
the turning point of his life, and from then on he found the peace and
spiritual fulfilment that he had longed for. He did not commit suicide as he
had originally planned to, but instead turned to follow the faith that he had
hated and persecuted so much before this. It was, however, not easy for him to
follow his newfound faith in Christ, even more so because his family was
devoutly Sikh.
Time and again, Sundar was asked to
renounce his faith in Christ, lest he should bring disgrace unto his family. He
was tempted in many ways to renounce his faith by being offered wealth and many
other worldly promises. But when his family saw that nothing they offered could
sway him from his strong foundation in Christ, they gave him a farewell feast
before disowning him and throwing him out of the house. It wasn’t until shortly
after leaving his house when he realized that his food during the feast had
been poisoned, and he nearly died from it if not for the help of a nearby
Christian community that saved him.
From then on, Sundar spent his time living in the Christian Leprosy Home
in Sabathu, a small town near the Himalayan foothills. He committed much of his
energy into serving the leprosy patients there. On his sixteenth birthday,
Sundar was baptized in a church in Simla (Hindi:
शिमला), and within the next five
weeks he gave away the few possessions he had. He then donned a turban and the
saffron robe of a Hindu sadhu, and indeed took the ‘vow’ of a sadhu.
Nonetheless, he was a sadhu with a striking difference – a sadhu not of
Hinduism, but rather Christianity – for he realized without a shadow of doubt
that Christianity could never penetrate deeply into India unless it came in an
Indian way.
The town of Simla as seen today
The ‘vow’ he took in 1906, and
thereafter he set out as a missionary who tirelessly gave his life to see the
gospel spread and shine in India and its northern frontiers. He once said:
“I
am not worthy to follow in the steps of my Lord, but like Him, I want no home,
no possessions. Like Him I will belong to the road, sharing the suffering of my
people, eating with those who will give me shelter, and telling all men of the
love of God.”
Sundar Singh, now officially christened Sadhu Sundar Singh, began his
journey on the missionary path by going back to his home village, in which he
received an unexpectedly warm welcome. From there, he made his way northward through
Punjab (Punjabi: ਪੰਜਾਬ), over the Banihal Pass (Hindi: बनिहाल दर्रा, Banihāla Darrā) into Kashmir (Kashmiri:
کٔشِیر ), and then back through Afghanistan (Pashto: افغانستان ) and into
Baluchistan (Balochi: نبلوچستا ), crossing through
numerous territories that were almost universally Hindu or Muslim. In 1908, the
sadhu even crossed the frontier into predominantly Buddhist Tibet for the first
time, pressing through the harsh weather and the mountainous Himalayan terrain
for the cause of the gospel. Through all these territories he travelled
barefooted and without any protection against the harsh cold, and in all these
territories he knew no bounds when it came to spreading the gospel and telling
others of Christ.
Sundar Singh's missionary grounds in north India, Tibet and their surrounding regions
Suffering became his common companion,
and hostility became his constant adversary, but nothing could waver the sadhu
from pressing on for the gospel. From his personal handwritten accounts, the
sadhu reported a variety of experiences, both supernatural and material, as
well as an array of meetings with both friendly and hostile individuals.
Frequently he was stoned or jailed, and frequently he suffered hunger or
loneliness, with scarcely any food or safe shelter at his disposal. In spite of
all these, he made it a point to maintain his personal hygiene as much as was
possible under his circumstances, even to the point of being stoned for it.
During his journeys in Tibet, he reported being stoned frequently while bathing
in cold water because the people believed that a truly holy man would never
need to wash himself.
In one of his accounts of his mission
trips, Sundar recounted an experience in which he was imprisoned for his faith
in a Hindu village. While he was preaching in the village, a Hindu man began to
openly interrupt him with vile words, to which the sadhu responded by giving
him a copy of the Gospel of Mark. The man, however, tore it up and lodged a
complaint with the local police, which resulted in the sadhu’s arrest and
imprisonment for six months. He was thrown into a common jail where thieves and
murderers were held, but he did not despair, instead he took that opportunity
to preach the gospel to the other prisoners. The prisoners were very receptive
to the gospel, and when the warden ordered Sundar to stop preaching, the
prisoners defended him by saying that they had been sent to jail to repent of their
evil doings, and Sundar’s preaching was convicting them to do just that. They
added that the government should instead be happy about his preaching rather
than punishing him for it.
The warden found himself unable to
answer the prisoners’ argument, and was then ordered by the governor to isolate
the sadhu from the other prisoners. So Sundar was thrown into a filthy cowhouse
that was so cramped and had no windows, making the stench within it all the
more unbearable. And to make matters worse, Sundar was stripped, tied to a post
and had leeches thrown all over his body. Nevertheless, he prayed to God, and
was granted such great peace that he burst into hymns of praise to God. The
crowd heard about this and gathered at the cowhouse to see what was happening,
after which Sundar used that opportunity to tell the crowd about the peace he
felt in Christ. Among those in the crowd was the man who first lodged a
complaint that resulted in Sundar’s imprisonment. He was astonished to see such
joy and peace in Sundar’s face despite his suffering. He asked the warden about
this, to which the latter replied that Sundar must be mad. The man then
responded, “If by becoming mad one could get such a wonderful peace as this, I
would like to become mad too. In fact, I would like to see the whole world
become mad.” Sundar was soon after released, and he started preaching in the
village again. And this time, the man who first lodged a complaint against
Sundar approached him to ask for another copy of the Gospel of Mark to replace
the one he had previously torn.
Sundar’s journey in Tibet was like a dream come true for the young
sadhu. Having spent some time in the leprosy home in Sabathu, a small town near
the Himalayan foothills, he had a longing to one day travel into the Himalayas
for the cause of the gospel. This he did in 1908, but it was no easy feat for a
Christian missionary to succeed in any way in a land so heavily influenced by
Buddhism. With the help of two other Christian missionaries in Tibet in the
initial part of his journey, Sundar was able to overcome the language barrier
to a certain extent, but as expected he soon found much bitter opposition to
his preaching, especially from the Lamas. This, however, did not mean that he
did not find some who were at least willing to hear his message even if they
did not accept it or agree with it. In the town of Tashigang, for instance, the
chief Lama received the sadhu with kindness, provided him with necessities and
even called for a gathering of the Lamas under him to hear the sadhu’s message.
View of mountainous Tibet (with Potala Palace in this picture)
Sundar once recounted a miraculous
experience of how he was saved from a death sentence in the town of Rasar in
Tibet. He was arrested and capital punishment was meted out to him by the chief
Lama of the town for preaching the gospel. He was immediately led away,
stripped of his clothes and cast into a deep, dry well, while the top of the
well was tightly shut. Many criminals have been cast into the same well to be
left to die, and indeed when the sadhu was cast into it, he landed on a mass of
human bones and rotting flesh. For days he cried out in desperate prayer, until
one night he suddenly heard someone trying to open the tightly sealed cover of
the well. He heard the sound of a key turning and the lock being unlocked, and
a rope was lowered for him to be rescued. Obeying the soft voice that told him
to grasp the rope, he did so, and was slowly pulled out of the well.
When he got out of the well, the cover
was fastened in place again and locked. Sundar looked around, but could see no
one at all around him or the well. He returned to the town and continued
preaching the next morning, and this caused a huge commotion that alerted even
the chief Lama. Sundar was arrested and brought before the chief Lama again,
and was greatly angered when he heard how the sadhu escaped the death sentence.
The chief Lama proclaimed that someone must have secured the key to rescue him,
but when he found the key fastened on his own girdle, he was struck by
astonishment and fear. He released Sundar and ordered him to leave the town,
lest his powerful God should bring disaster upon the town and its inhabitants.
The sadhu returned to Lahore (Punjabi:
ਲਹੌਰ) in 1909, in which he was
persuaded by other missionaries to begin formal theological training at an
Anglican college in the city. This he did willingly at first, but he soon found
himself being ostracized by many of his fellow students for being ‘different.’ He
also found that the way the gospel was being presented in his course seemed
irrelevant as far as his missionary work in India was concerned, as it was
heavily tinged with a Western flavour that took little consideration of India’s
cultural and spiritual outlook. But what made him leave the following year were
the stipulations that came with his ordainment as an Anglican priest, in which,
amongst others, he was told to discard his sadhu’s robe and don ‘respectable’
European clerical attire, sing English hymns, and was ordered not to preach
outside his parish without permission, which included an implied ban on going
to Tibet. To the sadhu, not visiting Tibet would be akin to rejecting God’s
call for him in his life.
Sundar’s missionary work brought him not
only to India and its northern frontier territories, but also to the outside
world from 1918 onwards. His first overseas tour from 1918 to 1919 brought him
to south India and Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), as well as other Asian
countries such as Burma, Malaya (present-day Malaysia), China and Japan.
Longing to visit the Western world as well after that, his wish was fulfilled
in 1920 with some financial assistance from the most unexpected of persons –
his father, Sher Singh. Sundar’s father, who had previously spearheaded the
sadhu’s rejection from his family after his decision to follow Christ, was now
a Christian himself and wished to support his son’s missionary efforts
overseas. With that, Sundar made two trips to the West; once in 1920 to the
United States, Australia and Britain, and another time in 1922 to Europe.
Throughout his tours in the Western
world, the sadhu was engaged in many cities, churches, seminaries and Christian
conferences as a guest speaker. Christians of various denominations came
together in those meetings to hear what they thought was ‘a rare Christian
voice from India.’ Even until today, it is somewhat difficult to say if the
large crowds that the sadhu’s sermons attracted were the effect of a great
spiritual accomplishment or merely the fulfilment of immense public curiosity
for this ‘rare Christian voice from India.’ Indeed, some even went to the
extent of labelling him a ‘mystic’ in view of not only his unorthodox
appearance and dressing for a Christian missionary of those times, but also the
supernatural experiences and visions that he often shared from his own life.
But perhaps some of the excerpts from news reports and church bulletins of
those times bear testimony to the impact that the sadhu must have had on the
Western Christian world:
“This
tall strong young man has come from India to tell the world of Christianity
again. He has an entirely ageless look of both youth and age in one; joy,
energy, wisdom…He has a high glad way about him. He is said to look like the
pictures of Christ, and he does; but there is a greater vitality and joy about
him than is ever represented in the pictures of Christ. Perhaps the pictures
are wrong.” – The New
York Evening News
“The
atmosphere is instinct with expectancy. Slightly before the time announced
there enters the strange figure of Sadhu Sundar Singh. He is as a man from
another world. His sermon went to the heart of things. To men was given the
inestimable privilege of witnessing to Jesus Christ. The angels could reveal
truth, could make plain hidden mysteries, but they could not witness; man alone
out of his own experience of God’s love and mercy could do that. So the angel
spoke to Cornelius, but sinful Peter witnesses. Nothing I can say here can
convey the impression I could wish – that of a man apart, renouncing great
possessions, exulting in the saving grace of his Master and speaking with the
utmost simplicity. His complete freedom from any self-consciousness made even
the bishops’ gaiters seem a bit ridiculous.” – The Church Times (March 12, 1920)
“I
agree with the newspaper reporters of America who interviewed him, “Nearer to
Christ than any living man we have seen.” The leading papers gave him ample
space. His pictures appeared in the movies, and he was able to reach
influential and lay circles in the various cities. He is Spirit-taught and has
almost a medium-like gift of sensing people and situations. He brings the
message of the Supernatural, which this age needs. Men simply flocked to hear
him that he had scarcely time for his meals. I have just received a letter from
the Headmistress of a leading preparatory school. She said there was a veil of
light on every boy’s face as he left the Sadhu’s meeting. He said a true word
when he predicted that America would have no spiritual leaders fifty years
hence if she kept up her present pace. He has a practical message for America.” – Mr. Frank Buchman, Hartford
Theological Seminary
Sundar’s return to India after his tours to the West drained much of his
energy, and his physical health was starting to fail him despite his young age.
Nonetheless, his spirit was never dampened, and he was determined to make
another missionary trip to Tibet in 1923, returning shortly after to his home
in Sabathu. For several years after that, he spent most of his time in his own
home, committing himself to prayer, fellowship and writing books.
His deteriorating health at that time
clearly meant that he could no longer make regular missionary trips to Tibet
and other parts of India as he had done in his earlier days. In spite of that,
he decided that he wanted to make one last journey to Tibet in 1929 against the
advice of his friends and missionary colleagues. He remained adamant on this,
and was able to make his way to Kalka (Hindi:
कालका) at the
Himalayan foothills before setting off for the mountains beyond. That was April
18, 1929, and that was the last anyone saw of him in recorded history.
Until today, Sadhu
Sundar Singh is revered as one of the most influential and revolutional figures
in the growth of Christianity in India. Being the very embodiment of Christ in
India, Sundar preached the gospel as how India needed to hear it, and it was
through him that many Indians saw how Christianity could in fact be universal
and native to India rather than being the ‘Western and foreign religion’ in
which it was hitherto portrayed and perceived. Dubbed ‘the apostle with the
bleeding feet’ due to the fact that he walked barefooted whenever he travelled
on his missionary trips, Sadhu Sundar Singh’s humble life and preaching has
undoubtedly changed the landscape of Christian missions in India and Asia as a
whole.
Drama entitled Journey to the Sky depicting the life and missionary work of Sundar Singh
