Called to Seek

It has often been remarked that great men owe much to the early training given by their mothers, and in the case of Sadhu Sundar Singh this is especially true. From his earliest days the child not only accompanied his mother on her visits to the temples but was carefully taught by her to regard religion as the supreme thing in life. He saw her reverence for the holy men she often went to consult, and very early in life his impressionable mind seized upon the idea that of all lives that of a holy saédhu was the best worth living.

Sundar learnt from his devout mother that there was a peace of heart which needed earnest seeking, and which, when found, would be the greatest treasure on earth. So frequently did she speak of this to him that as he grew in understanding the desire to gain this precious gift grew in intensity. The little child who had “ rubbed his forchead on the temple door ” and sat at the feet of Hindu holy men, now began to seck for the inestimable treasure he had learnt to regard as the one thing worth obtaining in the world.

The Granth of the Sikhs, the sacred books of the

Hindu religion, and even the Qur’aén of the Muhammadans, were all ceaselessly read and searched. Often when his family lay asleep Sundar would sit poring over the pages of one or other of these books. Many passages and verses he learnt by heart, and yet with all his increasing knowledge there only came to him a deeper unrest of soul.

The priests of the temple, the sadhus he so often saw, and even his pious mother, failed to bring him rest of heart, although they quoted many passages from their sacred books in the hope of helping him. Thus built up in, but unsatisfied with, the faith of his fathers, and without knowledge of Christ and Christianity, Sundar was sent to learn at the mission school carried on by the American Presbytcrians in his own village. Here every day the Bible was taught, and Sundar heard things that aroused in his mind feclings of the deepest antagonism.

His Sikh blood was roused on the very first day by his being told to read the Bible. “‘ Why should I? We are Sikhs and the Granth is our sacred book.” But Sundar, with a friend of his own age and standing, were persuaded to obey the rule of the school, and then he bought for himself a copy of the New Testament and began to read it. But his horror was only increased when he found its teaching utterly subversive of all he had learnt and treasured from his childhood. A deep inbred reverence for his own religion, almost amounting to fanaticism, roused him beyond endurance. Soon he became the ringleader of the boys in the school who hated Christianity. Openly he tore up the hated pages of his New Testament and burnt them in the fire. Hearing of this his father expostulated with him, declaring the Bible to be a good book, and telling him that he should have returned it to the missionary rather than have treated it thus.

Again Sundar turned to his own sacred books, this time with an abhorrence for Christ and a greater determination to find the peace of which his mother had taught him. He not only arduously studied the Indian religious systems and holy books, but also practised ‘“Yoga” under a Hindu sadhu, and learnt how to throw himself into mystic trances, which brought temporary relief, although when he came out of the trance he was more miserable than before. He was taken away from the mission school and sent to a government school three miles away from his home. The daily long walk in the fierce Indian sun soon began to tell on his health, and before long it became. apparent that he must return to the mission school if he was to finish his education.

All this time he had been diligent in his search for peace, and the constant cry of his heart was for shanti —that comprehensive Hindi term that means not only peace but a full satisfaction of soul. But the more he longed the greater was his disappointment when he found himself growingly filled with a deep soul-hunger that nothing would satisfy.

Back in the mission school Sundar once more found the Gospel in his hand, and again listened to the daily teaching of the Bible. Then returned upon him his old hatred of Christianity, and the very name of Christ filled his mind with angry resentment. So strong were his feelings-at that time that on one occasion, when the shadow of a Christian missionary fell across him, he spent a whole hour in washing away the pollution. Sundar speaks of this period as one of the most trying of his life, for he had come to the end of his own religion without discovering the shanti he was in search of, and his deep-rooted hatred of Christianity prevented him from even looking into the Christian sacred book for this “pearl of great price.”

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