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“When thou prayest ... pray to thy Father which is in secret.”’—Matthew vi. 6.
‘“When thou fastest . . . appear not unto men to fast, but to thy Father, which is in secret.”"—Matthew vi. 17, 18.
Towards the end of 1912 a letter was received by the Rev. Canon Sandys of Caleutta, from Canada, asking for
“A Christian Sikh to be sent as a preacher to work amongst 4000 Sikh lumbermen in British Columbia. The request was laid before Sundar Singh, who at once agreed to go... . Everything was ready for him, when the shipping agents declined to send him, on the yround that the Canadian Government had passed immigration laws which made it impossible for them to book him through.’ Sundar Singh felt the disappointment keenly, but simply said, ‘‘ Perhaps it is not God's will I should ever go to Canada.”
Later Canon Sandys wrote, “I failed to get a pass- | port for him, as the Government no doubt was at that time receiving private information about the Columbian Sikhs.” And so to the Sadhu’s sorrow the idea had to. be abandoned.
He then worked his way across the country from Calcutta to Bombay, and eventually north again. After his baptism he had two strong desires, one being to visit Palestine, the scene of our Saviour’s life and work, and the other to imitate Jesus in fasting forty days and forty nights. By these means he hoped to obtain fresh spirituaF enlightenment. To achieve the first in 1908 he made his way to Bombay, but found that for various reasons the journey at that time was impracticable. Some four years later, when the proposed visit to Canada fell through, the Sadhu’s mind turned to the idea of retirement for prayer and fasting, in the belief that these things would minister to the great need for a closer communion with God and inrreased power for service.
It was about this time that he came in contact with a Roman Catholic medical man, a Franciscan, calling himself Dr. Swift, and travelling with him up north they discussed the idea of a fast, the latter striving to dissuade the Sadhu from attempting it, and declaring that death would surely result if he did. Seeing, however, that he still desired to accomplish it, the Doctor begged him to give him the addresses of his chief friends, that in case of necessity he might communicate with. them.
This was done and the two men parted, the Doctor with the intention of joining a Catholic fraternity, and the Sadhu with the determination to seek retirement that he might give himself to fasting and prayer. The Doctor wrote to a friend of his near Dehra Dun telling him of what was happening, while away in the jungly country between Hardwar and Dehra Dun, Sundar Singh went alone to meet his God.
The days passed without any news of him filtering through to the outside world, and meanwhile he remained in the jungle without food, and growing weaker every day. Having been warned as to what might happen to him the Sadhu made provision for increasing weakness by collecting forty stones, one of which he dropped each day in order to keep the count, but at length he was unable even to do this. His hearing and sight left him and he lay as one in a trance, conscious of what was going on about him but unable to make any outward sign of life. As physical powers declined and extreme exhaustion set in he felt within himself a great quickening of the spirit, and in this state his complete dependence upon God, and other matters of intense spiritual importance, were revealed to him, so that since that time none of the doubts that once assailed him have had any power over him. In this condition he was found by some bamboo-cutters who, seeing his saffron robe, lifted him into his blanket,.and conveyed him to Rishi: Kesh and then to Dehra Dun. From thence he was sent in a carriage to Annfield. So altered was he in appearance by what he had passed through that he was not recognized by his Christian friends at Annfield. But they knew who he was by the name in his Testament, and carefully nursed him back to life.
Meanwhile Dr. Swift received news from his friend that a man corresponding to his description of the Sadhu had been discovered in the jungle at the point of death. Surmising that his predictions had come true the Doctor (possibly through a friend) wired to the Sadhu’s friends that ‘‘ Sundar Singh slept in Jesus.”” The Metropolitan and Canon Sandys were two of the six who received these telegrams. The latter wrote to the station master from whence the telegrams had been sent, making enquiries as to who the sender was, and the reply came that they had been handed in “ by a black-coated gentleman.”
Whilst Sundar was lyi::2 weak and ill at Annfield, unconscious of the reports being circulated about him, obituaries appeared in the papers, and a memorial service was held in the church at Simla, money also being contributed for a tablet to be placed there in his memory. By March he was well enough to resume his travels, and went up to Simla, when he heard the story of his reported death.
This fearful experience did bring the spiritual enlightenment the Sadhu had believed it would, and although count of time was lost, and the fast could not have lasted for forty days, this enlightenment was gained almost at the loss of his life.