Reverend Tony Zekveld

I was asked to write some thoughts about Sadhu Sundar Singh’s love for Christ. What I want to do, first of all, is reflect on Christ’s love for Sadhu Sundar Singh and then, in that light, reflect on his love for Christ. But before I do that, I wish to make some preliminary observations about his life.

Some Preliminary Observations on the Sadhu’s Life

Though the Sadhu and his writings are respected and loved by many people around the world, this does not mean that there is no room for critical reflection of this man’s life and writings. After all, there is no perfect Christian in this life. As Christians, we confess that even the best have their shortcomings. I think of two areas in his life: 1) his asceticism, 2) his mysticism.

1. His asceticism: Sundar Singh was known as a sadhu, namely, “a traveling holy man or ascetic.” He took quite literally Jesus’ command to leave all; that is, home, family, and possessions, and to follow Him. At the age of sixteen, he took nothing with him except his New Testament Bible and a small parcel of provisions. At this young age, he began to tread the pravrayjya, the “Way of Homelessness.” He donned himself with the yellow robe and he resolved “to become a Christian sadhu, an evangelist in the garment of an Indian ascetic. He never begged; he depended upon alms given by kindhearted people. It is true that his father disinherited him and drove him away from home and yet Christians must acknowledge that God does not command the “sadhu” style of life. Examples in the Bible are to the contrary. Christ’s command to leave all does not meant that we literally leave our family, our possessions and our home. It means that we must love Him first of all; not our family, not our possessions, not our home. He wants Christians to enjoy these good gifts from God (1 Timothy 4:4), so long as these things do not take first place in our hearts. Christ never intended anyone to live the “sadhu” style of life, not even Christian preachers and evangelists. It is not necessarily a more holy thing to do.

2. His mysticism: Sadhu Sundar Singh has also been known by many as a “Christian mystic.” Though mysticism may be difficult to define and has many different streams, one of its focuses is on the contemplation of the Divine and the experiencing of direct, unmediated love and knowledge of God. The sadhu claimed to have many mystical experiences, dreams, visions and revelations from God. Though I will not argue against his experiences, the Bible tells us that we have no more need of extra revelations; that is, dreams and visions as the means for God to speak to us. We now have God’s complete revelation of Himself in the Holy Bible. His Word is sufficient. We don’t need more.

As Christians we confess that by means of His Word, the Holy Bible, and by the working of His Holy Spirit, God does His supernatural work in our hearts, and gives us faith in Christ so that we may truly experience the wonder and the awe of God’s forgiveness of our sins and receive everlasting peace. This is far better than a vision or a dream and even more sure than a dream or vision! Visions are fallible but His Word is infallible. Certainly God is able to use dreams or visions today. But the Bible is clear that dreams and visions are not normative for today as a means by which God reveals Himself (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Hebrews 2:4). We have to remember that the sadhu’s life is not more special just because of his claim to have received visions from the Almighty. He is not any more holy or saintly than all others who believe on Christ alone. They are also called “saints’ in the Bible because of their standing in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:2).

Having said this, I do enjoy reading his writings and I love his parables, his illustrations which communicate so clearly many truths of the Gospel. His writings resonate a deep love for Christ but the reason for this is because of Christ’s love for him.

Christ’s Love For the Sadhu

Christ’s love for Sundar is evident as we see in the brief sketch of his life.

Sadhu Sundar Singh was born on 3 September, 1889 in the village of Rampur in the state of Patiala. He was raised in the luxury of his father’s wealth. As a Sikh, Sundar learned the sacred writings of the Sikh religion as well as Hinduism. At seven years old, he knew the whole Bhagavadgita by heart and his mother had a great desire that he would become a sadhu. “You must not be superficial and worldly like your brothers. You must seek peace of soul and love religion, and one day you will become a holy Sadhu,” she would say.

However, in all his meditations he never had shanti or peace. But he continued to immerse himself in the sacred writings passed down through his parents. At the young age of fourteen, Sundar’s mother died. His heart was drowned with tears and sorrow, and with even greater zeal he poured over the study of the Granth, the Upanishads, and the Koran. His search for peace of heart and mind continued. The sadhu writes,

I tried to find rest through the means offered by the religions of India: Hinduism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism; but I could not find it there. I wanted to save myself. How I studied all our sacred books! How I strove for peace and rest of soul! I did good works! I did all that could lead to peace, but I did not find it, for I could not achieve it for myself.

He was first exposed to the Holy Bible when his mother sent him to a mission school in Rajpur. He learned to know the New Testament, which was read daily in the school as a “textbook.” At first he refused to have anything to do with the Holy Bible. He said, “Why should we read the Bible? We are Sikhs, and the Granth is our sacred book. There may possibly be good things in this book, but it is against our religion.” Sundar’s hatred for the Bible and Christianity grew so strong that he with other students became known as the “enemies of Christianity.” He would tear up and burn portions of the Bible. He would throw stones and dung at the Christian missionaries. But in spite of his hatred, he felt the “Divine attractiveness and the wonderful power of the Bible.” Moreover, the following words of Jesus began to speak to his restless soul, “Come unto Me, all you that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). These words also came to his mind, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The conflict between Hinduism and Christianity began to rage within him. This rage led him to an outbreak of his anger: he burned the whole Bible. That was December 16 1904. His restlessness finally came to a head on December 17, 1904. He resolved to commit suicide. He gave up trying to find the shanty he had so tirelessly been looking for. That evening, he said “good-bye” to his father, saying to him that by the morning, his father would find him dead. His father told him that he was out of his mind. Sundar then woke up at 3:00 a.m. and cried out, “Oh God, if you do exist, show me the right way, or I will kill myself.” He prayed earnestly that God would deliver him from his uncertainty and unrest. But there was no answer. He had planned to throw himself in front of the train that usually passed behind their house at 5:00 a.m. every morning. His hope was that he would find peace in his future reincarnation.

All of a sudden, at 4:30 a.m., a brilliant light shone in his small room. While watching the light, he suddenly saw the figure of Jesus, radiant with love. And then he heard these words in Hindi, “Why do you persecute Me? Remember that I gave My life for you on the cross.” Although, Sundar had burned the Holy Bible, Jesus was all gentleness and love. Sundar realized that Jesus was not dead, but He is alive! He fell on his knees before Him and a peace “that passes all understanding” flooded his soul. And that peace never left him. He said, “That which other religions could not do for many years, Jesus did in a few seconds. He filled my heart with infinite peace. . .” Thereafter, his life was transformed. Even though his family tried to prevent him, Sundar was baptized in 1905 on his birthday. He decided, from that time on, that he would become a Sadhu Christian, so that he could dedicate himself to the Lord.

Sundar’s vision of Christ confirms the truth of the Bible; that is, the reality of the living Christ. Certainly Christ brought to bear on Sundar’s life the words of the Holy Bible he had read earlier. God used His powerful Word in Sundar’s life. Moreover, even before Sundar began to love Christ, Christ showed His love for him. The Lord Jesus brought Sundar to the brink of restlessness and despair so that he would turn to Him, the living Saviour, the Prince of Peace! The sadhu writes, “When Christ revealed Himself to me, then I saw that I was a sinner and that He is my Saviour.” Sundar’s experience of Christ’s great love for him confirms these words from the Holy Bible, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). In other words, while Sundar was still hating Christ and persecuting Him by hurting other Christians, Christ was showing His own love for him and eventually Christ flooded Sundar’s soul not only with a lasting peace but also His love.

The Sadhu’s Love For Christ

The sadhu’s love for Christ was shown in concrete ways in his life; at least in the following four areas:

1. He placed Christ above his family: As a 15 year old, he steadfastly witnessed of Christ to his family and friends. His own father, Sirdar Sher Singh, tried to get him to renounce his new faith, but Sundar remained steadfast. “The youthful Christian disciple stood firm; his faith in Christ was more to him than all the treasures of this world.” He even endured scorn, mockery and persecution from his own family and friends. Such was his own love for Christ! By his own admission, Sundar was tempted to renounce his faith, but “he overcame the temptation and said to himself: ‘I am willing to suffer anything for my Lord, but I cannot deny him.” Eventually, his family treated him as an outcast and his own father disinherited him and drove him away from home. His love for Christ was seen in the fact that Christ Himself was priority, His first love, even over his own family whom Sundar loved so dearly.

2. His life of prayer and devotion: As a sadhu, his life reflected that he was a friend of Jesus. This was because Jesus became His friend. Many mornings, he would spend several hours in studying the Bible, meditating on the words in the Bible and prayer. Not only during the morning hours, but during the day in his travels, in hours of temptation, sin or times of trial, in times of joy, he would converse with Christ. He knew His Saviour was a living Saviour and He heard him. He would converse with Christ about the beauty he saw in creation and the animals which he so much loved. His life showed gratitude, thankfulness for all that God had done for him through Christ. For the sadhu, prayer was quite ‘different from mere petition for personal needs` He writes,

The essence of prayer does not consist in asking God for something but in opening our hearts to God, in speaking with Him, and living with Him in perpetual communion . . . Prayer does not mean asking God for all kinds of things we want; it is rather the desire for God Himself, the only Giver of Life … The true spirit of prayer does not consist in asking for blessings, but in receiving Him who is the Giver of all blessings, and in living a life of fellowship with Him.

3. His witness of Christ to the nations: His love for Christ was also seen in his love for his own people, the Indian people first of all. He came to his own people in that garment [the yellow robe) which had been held sacred in India, hoping to find a hearing for the Good News of Jesus Christ among his own people. He went from village to village, talking to families and speaking with the children, telling them of the wonderful love of God in Christ. He traveled all over India and Ceylon. He wandered through the Punjab to Afghanistan and Kashmir --- lands in which the Gospel of Jesus was scarcely known. He then went into Tibet and Nepal in 1914, those “dark closed lands”, strongholds of Buddhism. Between I918 and 1919, he visited Malaysia, Japan and China. Between 1920 and 1922, he went to Western Europe, Australia and Israel. He preached in many cities: Jerusalem, Lima, Berlin and Amsterdam. The sadhu gave witness to Christ until the day of his death. He also had a special love for the people of Tibet. He visited Tibet every summer. In 1929, he visited that country again and was never seen again. He lived out the words of Christ in Mark 8:35, which says, “For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for me and for the Gospel will save it.”

4. His attitude toward his persecutors: The sadhu did not live a life of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” He did not take revenge on his persecutors. There is the story of a man who met Sundar Singh as he was walking down the mountain path to preach the gospel to them. Sundar then sat on a tree, wiped the sweat off his face and sang a song about the love of Jesus to the audience. Most were not impressed with the song. One man from the audience came forward, pulled the sadhu from the tree and knocked him to the ground. How did the sadhu respond? He got up and began praying for these hostile people. He told them about the love of Christ who came to redeem people from their sins. Through this message, his attacker repented and asked for forgiveness.

Another example comes to mind. Once, the sadhu was preaching in a public market. Suddenly a fanatic from another religion punched the sadhu‘s right cheek. The sadhu then turned his left cheek to his assailant. The assailant left. That night the sadhu received a message from his attacker asking for forgiveness. On another occasion, the sadhu told some harvesters about the parable of the weeds in the Bible. They cursed him. One of them threw a stone at the sadhu’s head. The stone thrower then had such a painful headache that he had to lie down on the ground. What was Sundar’s response? He took the man’s place in the field and helped harvest his crops. These are a few of many examples of Christ’s love shown to others through Sadhu Sundar Singh, even to his enemies.

In this article, my purpose was to show that Sadhu Sundar Singh’s love for Christ was a response to Christ’s love for him. Christ loved him first. This is why the sadhu showed his love for Christ in his life. This is true for any believer in Jesus Christ. The believer in Jesus confesses what the Bible says: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another ... we love Him because He first loved us (1John 4:10,11,19)

Note: Quotations and material in the article above have been taken mainly from the following two resources:

Church of South India, “Sadhu Sundar Singh”, www.csichurch.com

Heiler, Friedrich. The Gospel of Sadhu Sundar Singh, Trans. Olive Wyon, Published By ISPCK [Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge], Kashmere Gate, Delhi And the Christian Institute for Sikh Studies, Batala, Punjab; First published in German in 1924 and published in English in 1927.

Other Resources

Journey to the Sky, a 30 minute video on the life of Sadhu Sundar Singh

Singh, Sadhu Sundar, The Christian Witness of Sadhu Sundar Singh: A Collection of His Writings. Edited by T. Dayanandan Francis. The Christian Literature Society, Madras, 1993.