[deja-vu]

1889 - Born at Rampur, 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 - Attempts to reach Tibet and disappears

Bitter over the death of his mother, Sundar Singh blamed God. The fourteen-year-old boy became vicious toward his Christian teachers. He threw filth on them, mocked their Scriptures, and interrupted classes. Then he made the ultimate gesture of scorn. He bought a Bible from the Christians. Outside his house he built a fire and page by page tore up the Scripture and burnt it. "Although I believed that I had done a very good deed by burning the Bible, I felt unhappy," he said. Within three days Sundar Singh could bear his misery no longer.

(late one night in Dec.1903) After bathing in cold water in preparation for pooja he asked God to appear to him as an avatar. He wanted a divine revelation that would once and for all destroy his doubts and end his despair. For seven hours Sundar Singh prayed. "O God, if there is a God, reveal thyself to me tonight. Otherwise, "I planned to throw myself in front of the train which passed by our house." The next train was due at five o'clock in the morning. This vow was not empty words! Shaped by the disciplined life of a devout Sikh, this strong willed youth meant to do exactly that.

That night as he prayed he became conscious of a light shining in the room. He looked outside to make sure it was not someone shining a light. Gradually the light took the form of a globe of fire and in it he saw the face of Yesu.

Yesu was the last person Sundar was looking for. After all, Yesu was the 'foreign god' of the Christian teachers at his school. A zealous Sikh, Sundar had publicly torn up a portion of the Bible to protest its claims. Amazed that his vision had taken the unexpected form of Yesu, Sundar was convinced in his heart that Yesu was the avatar in whom God reveals Himself.

Did Yesu speak to him? No one knows for sure; however, regardless of the nature of the 'conversation', Sundar threw himself on the ground and surrendered his life to Yesu. A month after he accepted the water diksha of Christ in the year 1905, he took the vow of a sadhu. He gave away his meager possessions, put on a saffron robe and became a barefooted wandering man of God. Among Christians the world over, this barefoot Sadhu was later called the `apostle of the bleeding feet' because the soles of his feet were often covered in bloody blisters.

Sundar Singh, un simplu evanghelist dominat de mandrie?

Gamaliel ne-a avertizat sa fim atenti ca nu cumva sa ne aflam impotrivitori ai lui Dumnezeu atunci cand acuzam pe cineva care e sincer si inocent in ravna sa. Cati oameni au avut parte de asa o celebritate si atatea invitatii sa tina conferinte, iar ei sa aleaga martirajul? Ai mai multa smerenie daca te inghesui sa apari la tot felul de conferinte, emisiuni tv sau la radio, ti se fac osanale in loc sa fii mustrat pt. abateri grave de la dreapta-credinta si canoane, te preocupi doar sa urci in ierarhia bisericeasca sau sa placi oamenilor (de ex. Papei) decat sa placi lui Hristos? Ce folos ca ai primit si studiat dreapta-credinta daca o calci in picioare? Mai bine n-ai fi primit-o si scapai de osanda. Sundar Singh a plecat in graba de acolo unde era adulat si a urcat inca o data Golgota ca sa fie scuipat si ucis in Tibet de dusmanii lui Hristos (care pozeaza in apostoli ai non-violentei)

La Ierusalim a fost invitat de un episcop sa vorbeasca oamenilor in catedrala, iar replica lui a fost: "Am venit la Ierusalim ca sa primesc invatatura, nu ca eu sa invat pe altii" ("I had come to Jerusalem to learn and not to teach")

Prof.Heiler: "Though I had not previously heard of him ... I was convinced of his sincerity, and in the many intimate contacts that I have had with him during the next 17 years I never had cause to change that first impression of his sincerity, truth and humbleness. As the years went by, he grew in world experience and spiritual power, but it was always a wonder to him why God had given him that high calling of witnessing before kings and nations... More than all was he humbly thankful to God for those visions of the unseen world, which were so indelibly imprinted on his memory that he was ever after able to tell in clearcut words the things he had seen and the messages he had heard."

Rev.G.Y.Martyn: "We met about fifty times and had long talks with him. His sermons were inspiring and his parables from nature and from experience were illuminating. He was quite original in his interpretations of the Bible. We found him very humble and shy in recounting his experiences and his visions. His whole attitude was not one of boasting and he never made dogmatic statements.

His book dedication: "With great respect and humility I present this poor offering to my gracious, kind patron and helper, the Most Reverend the Lord Bishop of Calcutta, Dr.J.J.Lefroy, Metropolitan of India and Ceylon." Bishop Lefroy had allowed him to carry on his evangelistic work in his own way though he had not completed his course in the Divinity School in Lahore.

All unknown to him a photographer was called to take his photograph before he left Poona, and he was most unwilling to have it done. He is reported to have said: "Why do you do this? The dust will return to the dust."

A Minister from Berlin came with his two children and requested me that I might ask Sadhu that he would bless both the children. When I spoke about this to Sadhu, he answered: "The hand that once tore the New Testament is not worthy to bless, but I will ask the Lord God that He may bless the children, and then he continued in the German language: God bless you, dear children "

(27.5.1922) "At Copenhagen, the Dowager Empress of Russia, whose son Alexander III and family were killed cruelly in Russia in 1917, asked the Sadhu to come to her castle. He asked why he should specially go to her and was told thar no woman had suffered like her. So he went and she asked him to bless her. As his wont was, he answered that his hand which had once torn up Bible could not bless her; only the pierced hand of Christ could."

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 of Hartford Theological Seminary, who had traveled for some weeks with the Sadhu wrote: “I agree with the newspaper reporters of America who interviewed him, “Nearer the 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. Disturbed that as a Christian she had never seen a vision of Christ or performed miracles, Corrie Ten Boom asked the Sadhu why. Sundar responded that she was the real miracle. He believed in Christ only after seeing Him. She, on the other hand, had merely heard and believed. He quoted to her Christ's words, "Blessed are those who have not seen but believed."

1924: "In a year some five to six hundred invitations to different countries and places all over the world reach the Sadhu; and sometimes forty to fifty of these happen to be for the same day. So he occasionally teasingly tells his friends to boil down and make soup of him and let everybody have an oportunity of having a spoonful!"

He gave no impression in any way of being sick or exceptional. It was also totally foreign to him to strive after any effect. As he constantly lived in and for his God, he counted men and their judgment unimportant, without wishing to disregard them in any way as brothers and sisters. It may be that many people were attracted (at his preachings in Germany) by the foreign personality in the yellow robe, wearing sandals on bare feet in spite of the winter cold.

(10.6.1926) He said in a letter: "Well, my dearest friend, I don't bother much about this criticism, because God knows that, in spite of my unworthiness and weakness, I have by His grace tried my best to do my part and now let the world and Satan do their part; the result in the end will be quite satisfactory for the glory of God; that is why He permits such things to happen. I know my shortcomings and unworthiness, but it is not hidden, nor will the Heavenly Father allow it to remain unknown, that my whole desire and aim has been to spend the days of my youth for Him and in His name for my fellow beings. I leave the rest in His hands. Now my prayer is that He may allow me to go to Tibet once more, before my departure from this world into His glory."