= Sundar_Singh

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= Sundar_Singh_ =
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Introduction
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St. Sundar Singh (3 September 1889 - 1929, believed), who is commonly
referred as Sadhu Sundar Sing, was an Indian Christian missionary and
'sadhu'. He is believed to have died in the foothills of the Himalayas
in 1929.

Early years
=============
Sundar Singh was birthed into a Sikh family in the village of Rampur
(near Doraha), Ludhiana district (Punjab state), in northern India.
Singh's mother took him to sit at the feet of a Hindu sadhu, an
ascetic holy man, who lived in the jungle some miles away, while also
sending him to Ewing Christian High School, Ludhiana, to learn
English. Singh's mother died when he was fourteen. In anger, he burned
a Bible page by page while his friends watched. He was also taught the
'Bhagavad Gita' at his home.

Conversion to Anglican Christianity
=====================================
Singh believed that his religious pursuits and the questioning of
Christian priests left him without ultimate meaning. He resolved to
kill himself by throwing himself on a railroad track. He asked that
whoever is the "true god" would appear before him or else he would
kill himself; that very night he had a vision of Jesus. He announced
to his father, Sher Singh, that he would be converted into the
missionary work of Jesus Christ.
His father officially rejected him, and his brother Rajender Singh
attempted to poison him. He was poisoned not just once but a number of
times. People of that area threw snakes into his house, but he was
rescued from mistreatment with the help of a nearby British Christian.

On his sixteenth birthday, he was publicly baptised as a Christian at
the parish church in Simla, in the Himalayan foothills. Prior to this,
he had been staying at the Christian Missionary Home at Sabathu, near
Simla, serving the leprosy patients there.

Life of conversions
=====================
In October 1906, he set out on his journey as a new Christian, wearing
a saffron turban and the saffron robe of a sadhu, an ascetic devoted
to spiritual practice. Singh propagated himself as a sadhu, albeit one
within Christianity, because he realised Indians could not be
converted unless it was in an Indian way.

"I am not worthy to follow in the steps of my Lord", he said, "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."

After returning to his home village, where he was given an
unexpectedly warm welcome, Sundar Singh traveled northward for his
mission of converting through the Punjab, over the Bannihal Pass into
Kashmir, and then back through Muslim Afghanistan and into the
brigand-infested North-West Frontier and Baluchistan. He was referred
to as "the apostle with the bleeding feet" by the Christian
communities of the north. He suffered arrest and stoning for his
beliefs, and experienced mystical encounters.

In 1908, he crossed the frontier of Tibet, where he was appalled by
the living conditions. He was stoned as he bathed in cold water
because it was believed that "holy men never washed."

In 1908 he went to Bombay, hoping to board a ship to visit Palestine,
but was refused a permit, and had to return to the north.

He concluded during his stay in missions that Western civilisation had
become the antithesis of original Christian values. He was
disillusioned with the materialism and colonialism of Western society
and tried to forge an Indian identity for the Indian church. He
lamented that Indian Christians adopted British customs, literature
and dress that had nothing to do with Christianity and Christ.

Formal Christian training
===========================
In December 1909, Singh began training for Christian ministry at the
Anglican college in Lahore. According to his biographers, he did not
form close relationships with fellow students, meeting them only at
meal times and designated prayer sessions. He was ostracised for being
"different".

Although Singh had been baptised by an Anglican priest, he was
ignorant of the ecclesiastical culture and conventions of Anglicanism.
His inability to adapt hindered him from fitting in with the routines
of academic study. Much in the college course seemed irrelevant to the
gospel as India needed to hear it. After eight months in the college,
Singh left in July 1910.

It has been claimed by his biographers that Singh's withdrawal was due
to stipulations laid down by Bishop Lefroy. As an Anglican priest,
Singh was told to discard his sadhu's robe and wear "respectable"
European clerical dress, use formal Anglican worship, sing English
hymns and not preach outside his parish without permission. As an
ardent devotee of Christ who was interested only in spreading his
message, he rejected the mixing of Jesus Christ and British culture.

Converting others
===================
Stories from those years are astonishing and sometimes incredible and
full of miracles which helped in conversion. Indeed, there were those
who insisted that they were mystical rather than real happenings. That
first year, 1912, he returned with an extraordinary account of finding
a three-hundred-year-old hermit in a mountain cave--the Maharishi of
Kailas, with whom he spent some weeks in deep fellowship.

According to Singh, in a town called Rasar he had been thrown into a
dry well full of bones and rotting flesh and left to die, but three
days later he was rescued.

The secret missionaries group is alleged to have numbered around
24,000 members across India. The origins of this brotherhood were
reputed to be linked to one of the Magi at Christ's nativity and then
the second-century AD disciples of the apostle Thomas circulating in
India. Nothing was heard of this evangelistic fellowship until William
Carey began his missionary work in Serampore. The Maharishi of Kailas
experienced ecstatic visions about the secret fellowship that he
retold to Sundar Singh, and Singh himself built his spiritual life
around visions.

Whether he won many continuing disciples on these hazardous Tibetan
treks is not known. One reason why no one believed his version of this
story was because Singh did not keep written records and he was
unaccompanied by any other Christian disciples who might have
witnessed the events.

Travels abroad
================
During his twenties, Sundar Singh's gospel work widened greatly, and
long before he was thirty, his name and picture were familiar all over
the Christian world. He described a struggle with Satan to retain his
humility, but people described him as always human, approachable and
humble, with a sense of fun and a love of nature. This character, with
his illustrations from ordinary life, gave his addresses great impact.
Many people said, "He not only looks like Jesus, he talks like Jesus
must have talked." His talks and his personal speech were informed by
his habitual early-morning meditation, especially on the gospels. In
1918 he made a long tour of South India and Ceylon, and the following
year he was invited to Burma, Malaya, China and Japan.

Some of the stories from these tours were as strange as any of his
Tibetan adventures. He claimed power over wild things. He claimed even
to have power over disease and illness, though he never allowed his
presumed healing gifts to be publicised.

For a long time Sundar Singh had wanted to visit Britain, and the
opportunity came when his father, Sher Singh, who was converted too,
gave him the money for his fare to Britain. He visited the West twice,
travelling to Britain, the United States and Australia in 1920, and to
Europe again in 1922. He was welcomed by Christians of many
traditions, and his words searched the hearts of people who now faced
the aftermath of World War I and who seemed to evidence a shallow
attitude to life. Singh was appalled by what he saw as the
materialism, emptiness and irreligion he found throughout the West,
contrasting it with Asia's awareness of God, no matter how limited
that might be. Once back in India he continued his gospel-proclamation
work, though it was clear that he was getting more physically frail.

Final trip
============
In 1923, Singh made the last of his regular summer visits to Tibet and
came back exhausted. His preaching days were apparently over and, in
the following years, in his own home or those of his friends in the
Simla hills, he gave himself to meditation, fellowship and writing
some of the things he had lived to preach.

In 1929, against all his friends' advice, Singh wished to make one
last journey to Tibet. He was last seen on 18 April 1929 setting off
on this journey. In April he reached Kalka, a small town below Simla,
a prematurely aged figure in his yellow robe among pilgrims and holy
men who were beginning their own trek to one of Hinduism's holy places
some miles away. Where he went after that is unknown. Whether he died
of exhaustion or reached the mountains remains a mystery.

In the early 1940s, Bishop Augustine Peters, another converted
missionary from South India, sought out Singh's brother Rajender, led
him to the Christian faith and baptised him in Punjab. Rajender Singh
referred to many reputed miracles performed by Singh and people
converted to Christ under his ministry.

Singh is revered by many as a formative, towering figure in the
missionary conversions of the Christian church in India.

Postmortem prophecies
=======================
Singh's apocalyptic prophecies about the fate of Romania are famous in
that country, but are apocryphal, being written by a medium who said
he was channeling Singh's spirit.

Recognition by other Christians
=================================
Singh is respected in the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the
Coptic Church, although neither officially recognises him as a saint.
He was invited to address the Mateer Memorial Congregation (now the
Mateer Memorial CSI Church) when he arrived in Travancore on 12
February 1918.

Sadhu is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on
19 June.

In 2022, Singh's story was dramatised as a two-part broadcast through
Pacific Garden Mission's 'Unshackled!' radio ministry, airing as
programs 3725 and 3726.

Tendency toward Universalist beliefs
======================================
In 1925 Sundar wrote, "If the Divine spark in the soul cannot be
destroyed, then we need despair of no sinner... Since God created men
to have fellowship with Himself, they cannot for ever be separated
from Him... After long wandering, and by devious paths, sinful man
will at last return to Him in whose Image he was created; for this is
his final destiny." In February 1929, in response to questions from
Theology students in Calcutta, India, he elaborated: "There was
punishment, but it was not eternal...Everyone after this life would be
given a fair chance of making good, and attaining to the measure of
fullness the soul was capable of. This might sometimes take ages."

In popular culture
======================================================================
Ken Anderson made 'Journey to the Sky', a 1967 Christian drama film
which starred Indian actor Manhar Desai (Malcolm Alfredo Desai) in the
lead role of Sadhu Sundar Singh.

Aldous Huxley mentions Singh in his book 'The Perennial Philosophy',
quoting him: "The children of god are very dear but very queer, very
nice but very narrow."

In C.S. Lewis' science fiction novel 'That Hideous Strength', there is
a mention of an Indian Christian mystic who is known as the "Sura,"
who, like Singh, mysteriously disappears.

Timeline
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* 1889 - Born at Rampur Kataania, Ludhiana, Punjab
* 1903 - Conversion
* 1904 - Cast out from home
* 1905 - Baptised in Simla; begins life as a sadhu
* 1907 - Works in leprosy hospital at Sabathu
* 1908 - First visit to Tibet
* 1909 - Enters Divinity College, Lahore, to train for the ministry
* 1911 - Hands back his preacher's license; returns to the sadhu's
life
* 1912 - Tours through north India and the Buddhist states of the
Himalayas
* 1918 to 1922 - Travels worldwide
* 1923 - Turned back from Tibet
* 1925 to 1927 - Quietly spends time writing
* 1927 - Sets out for Tibet but returns due to illness
* 1929 - Final attempt to reach Tibet
* 1972 - Sadhu Sundar Singh Evangelical Association formed

Writings
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Sundar Singh wrote eight books between 1922 and 1929. His manuscripts
were written in Urdu and later translated into English and other
languages.
* 'At the Master's Feet' (London: Fleming H. Revell, 1922)
* 'Reality and Religion: Meditations on God, Man and Nature' (London:
Macmillan, 1924)
* 'The Search after Reality: Thoughts on Hinduism, Buddhism,
Muhammadanism and Christianity' (London: Macmillan, 1925)
* 'Meditations on Various Aspects of the Spiritual Life' (London:
Macmillan, 1926)
* 'Visions of the Spiritual World' (London: Macmillan, 1926)
* 'With and Without Christ' (London: Cassell; New York: Harper &
Brothers, 1929)
* 'The Real Life' (published posthumously; Madras: CLS, 1965)
* 'The Real Pearl' (published posthumously; Madras: CLS, 1966)

A number of his works were compiled and edited by others:
* 'The Cross Is Heaven: The Life and Writings of Sadhu Sundar Singh',
edited by A. J. Appasamy (London: Lutterworth Press, 1956). - A
collection of short articles by Sundar Singh.
* 'Life in Abundance', edited by A. F. Thyagaraju (Madras: CLS, 1980).
- This is a collection of transcripts of his sermons, preached in
Switzerland in March 1922, as recorded by Alys Goodwin.
* 'The Christian Witness of Sadhu Sundar Singh: A Collection of His
Writings', edited by T. Dayanandan Francis (Madras, India: The
Christian Literature Society, 1989)

Further reading
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* Gaebler, Paul. [http://gaebler.info/ahnen/gaebler/sss.htm 'Sadhu
Sundar Singh'], Leipzig: 1937 (German).
* Surya Prakash, Perumalla. 'The Preaching of Sadhu Sundar Singh: A
Homiletic Analysis of Independent Preaching and Personal
Christianity', Bengaluru (Bangalore): Wordmakers, 1991.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=XigSHAAACAAJ&dq=perumalla+surya+prakash
Google Books. Internet], accessed 30 November 2008.
* Surya Prakash, Perumalla. 'Sadhu Sundar Singh's Contribution', in
Hedlund, Roger E. (Edited), 'Christianity is Indian: The Emergence of
an Indigenous Community', Revised edition (New Delhi: ISPCK, 2004),
pp. 113-128.
* Appasamy, A. J. 'Sundar Singh' (Cambridge: Lutterworth, 1958).
* Davey, Cyril J. 'The Story of Sadhu Sundar Singh' (Chicago: Moody
Press, 1963); reprinted as 'Sadhu Sundar Singh' (Bromley: STL Books,
1980).
* Francis, Dayanandan, ed. 'The Christian Witness of Sadhu Sundar
Singh' (Alresford: Christian Literature Society, 1989).
* Stevens, Alec. 'Sadhu Sundar Singh' (Dover, NJ: Calvary Comics,
2006).
* Streeter, Burnett; and Appasamy, A. J. 'The Sadhu: a Study in
Mysticism and Practical Religion' (London: Macmillan, 1921).
* Thompson, Phyllis. 'Sadhu Sundar Singh' (Carlisle: Operation
Mobilisation, 1992).
* Watson, Janet Lynn. 'The Saffron Robe' (London: Hodder and
Stoughton, 1975).
* Woodbridge, John. 'More Than Conquerors' (Australia: 1992).
* Benge, Geoff and Janet. 'Sundar Singh: Footprints Over the
Mountains' ('Christian Heroes: Then and Now' Series).
** Much of the above detail was provided by this book.
* Andrews, C. F. 'Sadhu Sundar Singh: A Personal Memoir' (New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1934).
* Reasons, Joyce. 'The man who disappeared: Sundar Singh of India'
(London: Edinburgh House Press, 1937).
* Daniel, Joshua. 'Sadhu Sundar Singh: He Walked with God' (Laymens
Evangelical Fellowship, 1988). https://lefi.org/library/singh.txt

External links
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* [http://www.plough.com/ebooks/wisdomofthesadhu.html The Wisdom of
the Sadhu free ebook from Plough Publishing in English, Spanish and
Russian.]
*
[https://archive.org/search.php?query=Sadhu%20Sundar%20Singh%20AND%20collection%3Aopensource
Free Ebooks by the Sadhu (Epub, Mobi and txt files) at archive.org]
*
[https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0VNo1LgWPpsa2lPMlVqTFZhTUE/view?pref=2&pli=1
The prophecies of Sundar Singh about New Jerusalem]
* [https://archive.org/search.php?query=sadhu%20sundar%20singh Books
by and about Sadhu Sundar Singh at Internet Archive for free to read]
* [https://lefi.org/library/singh.txt Sadhu Sundar Singh - He Walked
with God - Biography]

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