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THE SPIRITUAL WISDOM OF SADHU

SUNDAR SINGH

WHO WAS SUNDAR SINGH?

Sundar Singh was born at Rampur, Punjab, in 1889, the son of wealthy high cast Sikh Sher Singh. As he grew up, the young Sundar became increasingly restless spiritually and unable to find peace within his Sikh heritage. By his mid teens he had studied all of the major religions, read the sacred books of the major faiths and had become proficient in the discipline of yoga … but still peace eluded him.

Of all the religions, he disliked Christianity the most and of all the sacred books, he was most repelled by the Bible. In fact, he and a group of other youths even took copies of the New Testament and burned them!

Part of this dislike of Christianity was due to Sundar’s perception of it as a religion fit only for the lowest cast. Although his father had enrolled him in a school set up by Christian missionaries, the only Christians that Sundar knew in these early years were low caste and he, proud of his high caste heritage, despised them.

Shortly after pouring kerosene on a copy of the New Testament and setting fire to it, a deep unrest took hold of him and he was unable to eat or sleep for three days. So deep did this unrest become that the teenage boy began to seriously contemplate suicide.

Thus, on the third night he got up at 2 AM and took an hour-long bath in cold water before retiring to meditate and pray. He prayed that God, if indeed there was a god, would answer him by revealing His true form before 5 AM that morning. At that time, the Ludhiana Mail train passed by the Singh’s house and if God had not answered by then, Sundar swore that he would lie on the railway tracks and let the train run over him.

At 4.30 AM, the room filled with light, from which materialized a glorious Figure shining with a light greater than the noonday sun, yet without the eyes being dazzled by the sight. Sundar knew that his prayer was being answered, and expected that the Figure would soon take the form of one of the Hindu deities. Instead, it took the form of Jesus!

Jesus spoke to him in his own language saying “How long will you persecute me? I have come to save you; you were praying to know the right way. Why do you not take it?”

The thought then came to Sundar that Jesus Christ is not dead but living and that this must be He Himself. Immediately, Sundar fell at His feet, accepted Him as Lord and was inwardly flooded by the profound peace that he had long sought.

Becoming a Christian meant that Sundar was thrown out of his family, who thereafter treated him as an untouchable and even attempted to poison him.

In 1905, Sundar Singh was baptised into the Church of India and shortly afterwards took the vow of a Sadhu, giving away his possessions and, owning only a saffron robe, a shawl and a copy of the New Testament, adopted the life of a wandering preacher.

From then until his disappearance in the Himalayas in 1929, Sundar travelled widely in India and beyond. Several times he visited what was then the closed land of Tibet in order to bring the gospel of Jesus to its people. There he suffered many hardships and persecutions, but he gladly bore them all for the love of Christ.

Happily, in answer to his many prayers, his father also became a Christian and later supported Sundar’s work for Jesus.

Sundar Singh saw Christianity, not so much as a creed to be accepted, but as a relationship with Jesus Christ, the human incarnation of the One God who showed his unbounded love for Sundar by appearing to him while he still rejected Christ, saving him from suicide and from a lost eternity.

Once, a Hindu professor asked him what he had found in Christianity that he did not find in his former religion.

“I have found Christ”, Sundar replied.

“Yes, I know that” the professor retorted, “but what new doctrine or practice have you found?”

“I new thing that I have found, is Christ”, Sundar answered. Christianity, for Sundar, was not a religion, doctrine or practice. It was personally knowing Christ.

Sundar became a Christian the moment he accepted Jesus as his Lord, God and Saviour; the very moment that he turned from his plan for suicide and gave his life to Jesus. At that very moment, he experienced the santi, the deep peace that he had long sought but which had always eluded him. At that moment, his sins were forgiven by God and he was saved from a God-less life and a lost eternity. It was over a year later that he made an official public declaration of Christianity by being baptised into the Church of India, but God accepted him from the very moment that he said “Yes” to Jesus.

This is how anyone becomes a true Christian. Most do not see Jesus in a vision (although this is not as rare as many may think!). Often, it happens when God impresses upon the mind a verse in the Bible or something said by another person. Perhaps God gave Sundar a vision because the boy was too stubborn to be reached any other way. He had just torn up and burnt a Bible, so he couldn’t be reached through reading about Jesus. Great indeed is God’s love for us, that He goes to such extremes to save us!

Sundar was convinced that God loves everyone equally, irrespective of their caste or nationality, their poverty or wealth, whether they are strong in body or crippled and ill. Sundar demonstrated this himself by using the Leprosy Hospital as one of his early ‘bases’ and by befriending people of all races and castes.

What follows are some short passages from Sundar’s writings, with a little commentary where needed. This is just a tiny sample of what he wrote and taught, but it is my prayer that in reading this, you will come to share Sundar’s understanding of what it means to truly follow Jesus.

A RELIGION OR A SAVIOUR?

Some may ask “If sin has broken our relationship with God, can’t we restore it with religious practice or by leading a good and moral life?”

The Sadhu answers “No”.

“A cobra remains a cobra, no matter how many times it sheds its skin.

There was once a village girl who daily dusted the cobwebs from her house. Once as she was doing this, she also prayed, ‘O God, as I am cleaning this room, please also cleanse my heart.’ Then she heard a voice saying: ‘Daughter, you will have to cleanse the room again and again as long as the spiders remain. It is better that you drive the spiders from your house.’ But she was not able to drive them out because they were hidden from her and too clever to be caught. Likewise, we see the signs of sin in our lives and struggle against them, but only God can remove the roots of sin from our souls.

Some moral teachers and many religious leaders say, ‘Do good works and you will become good people’. It is absurd to suggest that a bitter tree will become sweet by constantly bringing forth fruit. A bitter tree can only become sweet by being grafted onto a sweet tree. The life and qualities of the sweet tree can then flow with its sap into the bitter tree, driving out all its inherent bitterness. In this way the tree becomes a new creation, capable of bearing sweet fruit.

We may well have the longing to do what is right, but everything we do is corrupted, tainted by our own selfishness and sin. Only if we recognize our sinfulness, as well as our inability to do what is right, and turn to [Jesus] who grafts us onto Himself, do we become new creations. Only then are we capable of doing good works.”

This we do by confessing to God that we are sinners, that we cannot do what is right in our own power, and then ask Jesus to come into our lives and transform us more and more into the people God wants us to be.

“Once a young man fell over a cliff. By the time he was rescued he had lost so much blood that he was almost dead. His father rushed him to a doctor, but the doctor said: ‘He will certainly die, unless someone can be found who is willing to provide enough blood for a massive transfusion.’ Now the father’s heart overflowed with such love for his son that he offered his own blood, though he knew it would cost him his own life. So by the sacrificial love of his father, the young man was given new life. We too have fallen headlong from the mountain of righteousness and lie broken and wounded by sin, with our life fast ebbing away. But if we turn to the Master [Jesus], He freely gives us his spiritual blood so that we might be saved from death and regain life. Indeed, He came to us for this very purpose”.

THE INCARNATION

“There was once a king. His Grand Vizier was a learned and saintly man. When travelling in Palestine the Vizier was deeply moved as he heard about Christ, and became a Christian. When he returned home he told the people that he was a Christian, and that he believed in the Saviour who came to this world to save sinners. The King said to him: ‘If I want anything to be done, I tell my servant and it is done. Then why should the King of Kings who is able to save men by a word come into this world Himself and become incarnate?’ The Vizier asked for a day of grace before giving his answer to the question. He sent for a skilled carpenter and asked him to make a doll and dress it up exactly like the one-year-old son of the King, and to bring it to him the next day. The next day the King and his Minister were in a boat together, and the King asked him for an answer to his question. At the same time the carpenter came and stood on the shore with his doll. The King stretched out his arm to receive the child, who, he thought, was his own child. According to instructions previously given by the Vizier, the carpenter let the doll fall into the water. The King at once jumped into the water to rescue the drowning child. After a while the Vizier said: ‘O King, you needed not to leap into the water. Was it not enough to bid me do it? Why should you yourself jump in?’ The King reflected: ‘It was a father’s love.’ The Vizier said: ‘Love was also the reason why, in order to save the world, the all-powerful God became incarnate instead of doing it by His mere word.” ’

JESUS AND BUDDHA

The Sadhu was once asked to comment on those who say that Christ is the Supreme Mystic.

He answered that this belief is “the tendency of those who are not inclined to accept the divinity of Christ. Christ is not the supreme mystic; He is the Master of mystics, the Saviour of mystics. Christ is not only an historical Figure but one who lives and works today. He lives not merely in the Bible but in our hearts.

The Church is called ‘the body of Christ’ because the relation between Christ and Christians is not that between a master and his servants. It is more than that. Christians are Christ’s own parts. They are not only friends of Christ; they become like Christ Himself. He breathes through them.

Christ is always present in the Church, but unseen. Wherever people feel in their hearts a feeling of reverence, this is a dim recognition of His presence. But Christ never interferes with our freedom so as to compel us to feel His presence. He allows us to do so according to our capacity. Indeed He never interferes with us here in any way by compulsion, only by attraction”.

Asked what he thought of the Buddha and his teaching, the Sadhu replied: “He is not a mystic, but only a moral teacher. For there is nothing in his teaching about God. In such a man this is rather surprising. He preached Nirvana or the extinction of desire. But salvation is not the extinction of desire. It is the satisfaction of desire. The proper way to deal with thirst is not to kill it – which would mean death – but to satisfy it”.

In saying this, Sundar was not talking about satisfying carnal desires, but about satisfying the deepest desire of all; the desire for true spiritual peace. This was the desire that led him to look at all the main religions, but which he only found after he had given his life to Jesus Christ.

BEING ONE WITH GOD

“Some say that salvation consists in being absorbed in God. We Christians say that to live in Christ is already heaven. We are to live in Him and He in us. How can this be? When a ball of iron is thrown into the fire it becomes red-hot. The iron is in the fire and the fire is in the iron, and yet the iron is not the fire and the fire is not the iron. In the same way we live in Christ and He lives in us and yet we do not become gods.

Consider the air we breathe. The air is our life, yet man is not the air, nor air the man. In like manner we breathe God’s Spirit, but we are not God. Just as we draw in the air by breathing, we can inhale the Blessed Spirit by prayer. Not only do we draw near to God, but we are united with Him. This is not only union but also life, and when we have this life we see the marvellous love of God.

The planets have no light in themselves. They shine with light, which they have borrowed from the sun. Christians are like them. In themselves they have no light, but they shine with light borrowed from the Sun of Righteousness”.

SUFFERING

“Many regard misfortune as nothing but punishment for sin. And yet suffering and the way we suffer is a splendid way of serving God, an effective way of glorifying Him.

Sorrow and misfortune draw us near to God and fit us for His service.

Once while coming down a mountain I sat down in the porch of a house. A strong wind began to blow. A little bird came along helplessly driven by the wind. From another direction a hawk swooped down on the little bird to make a prey of it. The little bird, faced by danger from two directions, fell into my lap. The bird never likes to come to men and yet it sought refuge with me in the day of trouble. So the strong wind of suffering drives us into the lap of God.”

THE CASTE SYSTEM

When he was a young wealthy Sikh boy, Sundar accepted the caste system. One of the reasons that he rejected Christianity at that time was because the only Christians he had seen belonged to the lower castes!

However, after he became a Christian, he saw that the caste system could not be pleasing to the God of love who appeared to him as Jesus Christ. He best expressed his later, Christian, views on caste through a character in one of his parables;

“The caste system is a curse that the proud and selfish use to separate people from one another. We are all children of the one God”.

SIN AND EVIL

Apart from God nothing can be created, for God is the author of all that is. God is good and has created nothing harmful or detrimental, for that would be against His nature. Evil does not create, but only corrupts and perverts what God has created. Sin is not a part of God’s creation. It has no independent existence. Sin is the delusive and destructive state of those who abandon truth and who, in irreverence, seek to satisfy their own selfish desires. We may think that we can obtain happiness by abandoning God’s will and following our own whims and passions, but the result is not true happiness.

Think of light and darkness. Darkness is the absence of light. It is the same with sin: sin is the absence of what is good and true. Evil is terrible because people drive themselves to utter destruction – ship-wrecked on the rocks for lack of a guiding light. [But] all who see [the guiding Light of Jesus, God incarnate] and follow the way it leads will safely pass through to the blessed haven where darkness is no more.”

“Sin arises because people deliberately violate God’s order. Of course, God could prevent this by creating human beings differently. But then we would be like obedient puppets or machines, incapable of experiencing the bliss that can only be reached by freely choosing the good.”

VARIOUS TEACHINGS, PARABLES AND MEDITATIONS

“Let us look at the three crosses on Calvary. He who hung in the centre died for sin. One of the thieves was penitent and anxiously pleaded with the Lord. He heard his prayer and promised him that he would be with Him that day in Paradise. He went with Christ to paradise, not after many days, but that very day. He died to sin and lived to Christ. The other thief sought to save his body without being penitent. ‘If you are the Son of God, save yourself and us,’ he said. He lived for his body and died in sin. Though near the Lord of Life, he died in sin without being saved.

Friend, what is your condition? Are you dead in sin or have you died to sin?”

“If we continue to sin our conscience, which is the eye of the soul, becomes blind.

I once saw a Tibetan monk who had spent many years meditating in a dark cave. When he came out he could not see anything. On my way back to India from Japan I met a scientist. He had some blind fish in a jar. They were beautiful but had no eyes. Because they had lived in the dark and did not use their eyes, they lost them.”

“Once in the Himalayas I ate a poisonous plant and for three days my tongue was numbed, I could not taste anything. Just so is it possible to lose one’s taste for the Divine – that is, to lose one’s conscience by tasting the poisonous fruit of sin.”

“I once saw a sweeper carrying a pan of ordure in one hand, the stench of which made me almost vomit. But the sweeper was so used to it that with his spare hand he was holding food to his mouth and eating it. Just so, we are so habituated to the sin and evil of the world that we live in it quite unconcerned. But Christ would have felt in the midst of it as I felt when the sweeper passed me. Accordingly, it is a mistake to think of the suffering of Christ as being confined to the Crucifixion. Christ was thirty-three years upon the Cross.”

“It is a healthy sign to feel that we are sinners. It is dangerous when we do not feel it. Once while bathing in the river Sutlej I sank deep into the water. Above my head were tons of water and yet I did not feel the burden at all. When I came back to the bank, I lifted a pot filled with water and found it very heavy. As long as I was in the water I did not feel the weight. Similarly a sinner does not feel that he is a sinner as long as he lives in sin.”

“A sinner is a traitor against God. A man who is a traitor against one country can escape by taking refuge in another. But is there any kingdom where one may take refuge after being a traitor to God’s kingdom? Sin will catch him who runs away from God on account of sin. Death will overtake him who runs away from God to escape death.”

“Not only is an evil act sin, but an evil thought, and an evil look is also sin. This sin is not confined only to trafficking with strange women, but excess and animalism in relation to one’s wife is also sin. A man and his wife are truly joined together not for sensualism but for mutual help and support, that they with their children may spend their lives in the service of mankind and for the glory of God.

But he who departs from this aim in life is guilty of the adulterer’s sin.”

“Many comfort themselves by saying, ‘God is love. In some way or another He will save and redeem us in the end’. In the end those will be disillusioned.

In the Himalayas there is a native Prince, forgiving and generous-hearted. One evening, while out for a drive, a man who had stolen some things from a clothes store and run away was caught and brought before him. The Rajah warned him and said: ‘This time I forgive you because I am not in court. But you must not do it again.’ But the man did not give up his habits as a thief. Another day when the Rajah was out driving they brought the man to him again. This time also he forgave him. Gaining boldness he went from bad to worse until he killed a man and was charged with murder. They brought him to the court. He came into the court with great fear, but as soon as he saw the face of the judge he became bold and happy. ‘This is the generous Rajah who forgave me twice. This time also he will forgive me,’ he thought. When the Rajah saw him he was sorry for him and said, ‘Friend, you ought to have given up your evil ways long ago. I forgave you several times. This time also I wish to forgive you. But what can I do? Here not I, but this law book is the judge, and by it you are condemned to be hanged.’ The same will happen on that Great Day too. God is Love, but listen to what the Saviour says: ‘And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day’ (John Xii. 47-48).”

“Once I lifted a big stone. Under it were countless insects. As soon as they saw the light they were terrified and ran to and fro in trepidation. I put the stone back in its place and they became quiet. When the Sun of Righteousness appears on that day this scene will be reproduced. Those who live in darkness and lead sinful lives will see the sins which they committed in the dark revealed. For ‘there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known’ (Matt. 10:26). In His light the sins hidden in their hearts and lives will be made plain. They will be filled with terror and trepidation.”

“I was travelling with some others in the Himalayas. One of our party began to be very thirsty. When we reached a high spot we noticed that there was a little water in the midst of a morass. This young man wanted to go and drink the water. His brother who knew that spot well reiterated: ‘It is impossible to go there and return. All who ever went there perished in the mud. If you will only wait for a little while there is a village five miles away and you can drink water there.’ We too implored him in the same way. But he was determined to go and walked toward the water, saying ‘There is no mud here. As it is morning, the water is frozen here.’ He got to the water and also drank it. But when he sought to return his feet began to sink in the mud … In trying to get out he sank still deeper and deeper. There was no means of getting him out. We had no rope long enough to help him. And he wailed at the thought of perishing thus, though he had known beforehand of the danger. But what avail was that? He died.

Many love the things of this world, though they know that they cannot satisfy their souls’ thirst with them, and though they know that they will prove dangerous. Such will surely perish. Let us turn our hearts, not toward the world, but toward Him who is able to satisfy this thirst, and live.”

“In Tibet there was a village where there was no water. The people of the village had to bring the water in from a fresh spring about two miles away. Some of them did not like this and so dug a tank. They thought that the tank would be filled with rain water which they would use, and that it would be unnecessary to go to the trouble of bringing water from a spot two miles away. When the rains came the tank which they dug was filled with water. As usual some went to the clear and fresh spring two miles away and brought in the water. Others laughed at them and mocked them, calling them madmen. Without much trouble they drank the water in the tank, but all those who drank the water died, as there was poisonous matter in it. Though those who brought the water from the spring two miles away had worked hard, they lived. In the same way it is hard to love the Lord and hate the world, but it is the way of life.”

“This saying, that a man can by his own effort and good works acquire salvation, is foolish and absurd so long as the man is not born again. World-rulers and teachers of morality say ‘Become good by doing good’, but this is what I say, ‘Become good yourself before doing good works.’ When the new and good life has been entered upon, good deeds will be the natural result.”

“The miracle of the new birth is the greatest of all miracles. He who believes in that miracle believes in all miracles.

Now in very cold countries a bridge of water is a common sight, because when the surface of a river is frozen hard the water beneath still flows freely on, but men cross over the icy bridge with ease and safety. But if one were to speak of a bridge of water spanning a flowing river to people who are constantly perspiring in the heat of a tropical clime, they would at once say that such a thing was impossible and against the laws of nature. There is the same great difference between those who have been born again and by prayer maintain their spiritual life, and those who live worldly lives and value only material things, and so are utterly ignorant of the life of the soul.”

“A certain Saint before his conversion had committed many crimes. But after his conversion he served the Lord with his whole mind and led a holy life. When on his death-bed Satan brought him a catalogue of his previous sins and said, ‘You have done all these things. You are not fit to enter Heaven. Hell is your place.’ Thus did Satan frighten him. But the Saint said, ‘My Saviour will in no wise cast out him that cometh to Him. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ In spite of this, Satan continued to trouble him, but the Saint was not discouraged but continued steadily in prayer. Then a finger appeared and cancelled the catalogue of sins. The Saint, rejoicing at this, began praising God. But Satan said, ‘Do not rejoice at this. You may reach Heaven, but your sin will always stand in the sight of all; so you will be ashamed before all.’ The Saint prayed again. Then a drop of Christ’s blood fell on the catalogue. Spreading all over, it washed away all the letters and made the paper white. Seeing this the saint was filled with divine joy and peacefully entered God’s presence.”

“When we concentrate on spiritual things by fixing our thoughts and hearts towards the Sun of Righteousness, light and heat from that Sun will fall on all the rubbish of life and burn it. Everything against the will of God will thus be destroyed.”

“The new-born child needs no instruction in drinking, but instinctively turns to its mother’s breast for nourishment. For her part, the mother withholds no good gift from her child, but still the child cannot receive the mother’s milk without effort. In the same way, we are carried at God’s breast, but we must turn to God in prayer for the spiritual milk that sustains our souls.”

“Some people live in the midst of evil and misery but still radiate joy and lead fruitful lives. Through prayer, the hidden roots of their faith have reached down to the source of living water. They draw from it energy and life to bear spiritual fruit. If we lead lives of active prayer, we will also gain the spiritual discernment to turn away from illusion and evil and to find the truth we need for life.”

“Often we do not spend enough time in prayer; that is why we lose strength and power. Sometimes it may be necessary to spend more than an hour; early morning is the best time. First we feel His blessing. Afterwards we find that He is not only blessing us, but teaching us how to pray.

Scientists often spend years, sometimes a whole lifetime, in making an important scientific discovery. Then how can we expect to discover spiritual beauties by spending only five minutes every day in quiet and prayer? Some people become tired at the end of ten minutes or half an hour of prayer. What would they do when they have to spend Eternity in the presence of God? We must begin the habit here and become used to being with God.”

“Pain and suffering are bitter as poison, but it is also well known that sometimes the antidote is itself a poison. And thus [Christ] sometimes employs pain and suffering as bitter medicines in order to promote the spiritual health and vigour of [His] believers. As soon as their perfect health is restored there will be an end of all suffering.

Just as after the shock of earthquake springs of sweet water sometimes emerge in desert places, and the arid wastes are irrigated and become fruitful, so in certain cases the shock of suffering opens up within the heart of a man hidden springs of living water, and in place of murmurings and complainings there issue from him streams of gratitude and praise.”

“Once in the course of my travels I saw a shepherd. It was his habit to take his cattle across a river, let them graze till evening and then take them back across the river. That evening all the cattle went across except a cow and a calf which seemed unwilling to go over to the other side of the river. Afraid that if he let them stay there wild beasts might make short work of them in the course of the night, he lashed them and thus sought to make them go across the river. That was of no use. He then held before them some hay and tried to lure them across. That too proved futile. Then I suggested to him: ‘Carry the calf across; the cow will then follow you easily.’ He carried the calf and the cow followed him. In the same way, when we are unwilling to reach our Lord, He separates from our dear ones and takes them away to Himself. We are thus led to desire the heavenly regions where our dear ones have gone and to fit ourselves for them.”

“We praise thee, Lord, for the joys and sufferings which thou hast sent us in the past and which thou sendest us now. By bearing Thy Cross will the bliss of Heaven become very sweet to us. For he who has not endured suffering cannot know the reality of joy.”

“The cross is like a walnut whose outer rind is bitter, but the inner kernel is pleasant and invigorating. So the cross does not offer any charm of outward appearance, but to the cross-bearer its true character is revealed, and he finds in it the choicest sweets of spiritual peace.”

“The greatness of any one does not depend upon his knowledge and position, nor by these alone can anyone be great. A man is as great as he can be useful to others, and the usefulness of his life to others depends on his service to them. Hence, in so far as a man can serve others in love, just so far is he great. As the Lord said, ‘But whosoever will be great among you let him be your servant’ (Matt. 20:26). The joy of all those that dwell in Heaven is found in this that they serve one another in love, and thus, fulfilling the object of their lives, they remain forever in the presence of God.”

“Whenever we open our hearts to God, we receive spiritual nourishment and grow more and more into the likeness of God until we reach spiritual maturity. And once we open our spiritual eyes and see God’s presence, we find indescribable and unending bliss.”

May all who read these words find, in Christ, the indescribable and unending bliss of which the Sadhu spoke! Amen.