Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)
- Laldanmawia
- Laldanmawia
Introduction
Sadhu Sundar Singh, one of the most well known Christians in India may not be qualified to be known as one of the systematic and academic theologians that India had produced. However, he is one of the most famous Indian Christians, who expressed Christianity in an Indian way. Sadhu Sundar Singh’s way of expressing and propagating Christianity was different from those of his contemporary. He gave Christianity an Indian meaning.
1. His life;
Sundar Singh was born on 3rd September, 1889[1] and brought up in a devout Sikh wealthy family at Rampur in Punjab.[2] Singh received an excellent religious instruction from his mother. Even though they are Sikh by faith, his mother trained him in the Bhakti-tradition of Hinduism as well as of the Sikh religion. He was taught Gita, the Upanishads, and even the Koran. At the age of seven he learned by heart the Bhagavadgita.[3] During his adolescent period Singh was very much against Christianity which was thought in his days as a foreign religion, he even burned the Bible. His mother wanted him to be a Sadhu.
Sundar Singh, though, well trained in the Bhakti-tradition as well as in the Sikh religion, find no real peace in his heart. He, therefore, decided to commit suicide if God did not did not show him the way of salvation. Early in the morning on 18th December, 1904, he lay down on the railway line in his attempt to commit suicide. However, Jesus Christ met him there and he began to embrace Christianity. He was baptized in September 1905 and became a Sadhu not as a Sikh, but as a Christian. In 1910 he left his preacher’s license for Lahore Diocese under the Anglican Church and started pursuing his preaching ministry to all the churches who welcome him. He followed his master till death at the age of 39. In 1929, he died a martyr’s death on his journey to Tibet. His famous work includes At the Master’s Feet, Reality and Religion, and The Spiritual World etc.
2. The Nature of His Spiritual Experience;
Sundar Singh based his theology on his personal experience of Christ through constant communion with Christ through prayer. Like many Hindu mystics his ecstatic experiences played a vital role in his spiritual life besides God’s revelation through scriptures. However, one must keep in mind that all his ecstatic experiences were in harmony with the Bible. In fact, the Bible was his primary standard. Sadhu mostly uses the New Testament[4] and his first preference was the Gospel of John, for him John seems to have loved Christ more than other Apostles.[5]
Suffering was the hallmark of his spiritual experiences. He bears witness to the love, grace and mercy of his master Jesus Christ through sufferings, hardships and pains. He often speaks of the joy of sufferings and marked a life union with Christ as ‘Heaven upon Earth’.[6]
3. Method of Teaching;
The method of teaching that Sadhu applied was that of Parables, short stories and analogies just as Jesus Christ applied during his earthly ministry. For Sadhu, systematized and academic theology does not find taste, he was more interested in simple and clear analogies and stories which being backed by a continuous communion with Christ carries a definite and clear theology in it and are having a stable articles of faith. It is worthy to point out that though he does not attempt any theological treatises, his teachings carries a profound streams of stability and accountability in Christian theological formulation and deals with a number of subjects.
4. His Theology;
Sundar Singh is always Christocentric in his thought, and his theology begins from his experience of Christ rather than from any theistic considerations.[7] Jesus Christ was the central theme of his life and teachings. Here we quote his testimony;
Christ is my Savior. He is my life. He is everything to me in heaven and earth… His presence gives me a Peace which passed all understanding, no matter in what circumstances I am placed… Nothing can take away the joy I have found in my Saviour.[8]
Christ for him is a fully God and that knowing Christ is to know his divinity. The Sadhu considers Christ as God becoming flesh and he does not differentiate between incarnation and avatara, he used the term interchangeably.[9]
5. Sin and Karma;
Sadhu Sundar Singh retained the doctrine of Karma as was in Hindu teachings, however, the originality of his teachings on sin lies in the fact that he does not believes in Samsara, the cycle of birth in order to work out one’s sin. Thus, he gave more emphasize on the love of God as was written in the Gospel According to John, for this very reason he prefers John’s Gospel and favored most among the New Testament’s books. He believed that loving God will not give punishment to his loving creatures eternally. However, he opined that God judges us in our everyday life. For him, sin does not have its independent existence and is predominantly within human being. He holds that we human beings are sinful by nature and only through Jesus, we can obtain the love of God, because our sin judges us to be punished and God’s love through Jesus however saves us from hell.
6. The Work of Christ:
According to Sadhu, human soul can not be saved by world jewels and other precious ornaments; rather it is saved by the surrender of the soul of Christ.[10] God reveals His love through Christ’s death on the Cross which gives human salvation from sins. Redemption is not obtained from human’s deeds but is fulfilled by the works of Christ. God’s love is suffering love and self sacrificing love and that love has power to convert and to transform the sinners.
He gave an example that a mother works to earn money to pay for releasing her son from prison; toils all days carrying stones even shedding blood. At last she could release him and he will say I was saved by my mother’s hard work, by the wound of her body, by her blood. He will not do commit sin which made his mother to suffer. Likewise, those who realized God’s incarnation and shedding of blood to save from sins will not commit sins but will have life work out by Christ.
7. The Life in Christ:
Sadhu speaks more of the Life in Christ rather than life given at the Cross, more of sanctification than of justification of forgiveness. For him forgiveness of sin is only a part of salvation; full salvation includes freedom from sins.[11] The one who is saved should have new life in Christ or he/she would be a new creation in Christ. If Christ lives in us. Our whole life will become Christ like. Those who live in spiritual communion with God have a share in Christ nature and he becomes transformed into His likeness. Cross bearing life is what his dominating feature; that is according to him the life in Christ, live for the sake of Christ and others.
8. Church and Sadhu:
Eventhough he was baptized through Anglican Church, he later left his preaching license to it and preached wherever he was invited.[12] He was not interested in the church as visible organized institution as he says, “I belong to the Body of Christ, that is, to the true church, which is no material building, but the whole corporate body of true Christians”.[13] When he was asked to which church he belonged; he replied ‘To none’ ‘I belong to Christ. That is enough for me’. He rejects the authority of the church and gives first place to the revelation which he himself receives in a state of ecstacy.[14]
9. His Attitude towards Hinduism:
Sadhu’s attitude towards Hinduism is clear in his saying,
Christianity is the fulfillment of Hinduism. Hinduism has been digging channels. Christ is the water to flow through these channels.[15]
Every man Christian or non Christian received Christ revelation according to his needs, and he breaths in the Holy Spirit even when he knows it or not. He did not totally reject Hinduism as he said it fulfills Christianity. But he rejects all kinds of marga of Hinduism from where they believe to get salvation. Only on the Cross one obtains full salvation.
Conclusion
To conclude, we may say that Sadhu Sundar Singh is the most famous among Indian Christians. He is a man with full commitment to his master Jesus Christ. His preaching and teaching, though devoid of systematic arrangement in terms of academic exercise in theological discourse, can not be overlooked in dealing with Indian Christian Theology. He is the one who best expressed Christianity in an Indian way.
Bibliography:
Boyd, Robin.An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology. Delhi: ISPCK. 1975.
Stephen, M.A Christian Theology in the Indian Context. Delhi: ISPCK, 2001.
Sumithra, Sunand.Christian Theology from an Indian Perspective. Bangalore: Theological Book Trust, 1990
Sugirtharajah, R.S. and Cecil Hargreaves,eds. Readings in Indian Christian Theology. Vol. 1. Delhi: ISPCK, 1993.
Thompson, Phyllis. Sadhu Sundar Singh. Secunderabad: Authentic Media, 1997.
[1] Phyllis Thompson, Sadhu Sundar Singh (Secunderabad: Authentic Media, 1997), Preface.
[2] Sunand Sumithra, Christian Theologies from an Indian Perspective (Bangalore: Theological Book Trust, 2002), 96.
[3] Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology (Delhi: ISPCK, 1969), 92.
[4] Sunand Sumithra, Christian Theologies from an Indian Perspective…, 99.
[5] Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology…, 96.
[6] Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology (Delhi: ISPCK, 1969), 95.
[7] Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology…, 98.
[8] R.S. Sugirtharajah and Cecil Hargreaves, eds., Readings in Indian Christian Theology, vol. 1(Delhi: ISPCK, 1993), 74.
[9] Sunand Sumithra, Christian Theologies from an Indian Perspective (Bangalore: Theological Book Trust, 2002), 100.
[10] Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology (Delhi: ISPCK. 1975), 102.
[11] Sunand Sumithra, Christian Theology from an Indian Perspective (Bangalore:Theological Book Trust, 1990), 100.
[12] M. Stephen, A Christian Theology in the Indian Context (Delhi: ISPCK, 2001), 45.
[13] Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian…, 105.
[14] M. Stephen, A Christian Theology….
[15] M. Stephen, A Christian Theology….
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