Introduction

Between the Mystics of any past age and ourselves there is, quite apart from the problem of the mystic consciousness itself, a barrier of time and circumstance which no effort of the historic imagination can completely penetrate. In this book we attempt a study of a Mystic, with the unique advantage that he is a contemporary of our own.

He is also one of those Mystics who appeals to the present age because it is precisely his consciousness of communion with the Divine that impels him to a life of unselfish activity and the practical service of mankind.

Sadhu Sundar Singh — " the Sadhu " as he is popularly called — lives in this twentieth century a life which, so far as external conditions are concerned, resembles that of St. Francis of Assisi. His inward experience recalls rather, in some ways, St. Paul, in others Mother Juliana, while in others it is individual to himself. If, however, we venture thus to speak of him and them together, it is not by way of asserting a comparison of greatness; it is merely to indicate an identity of type. Whether Sundar Singh is a great man in the sense in which History employs that term, History alone can decide. In that sense no man can be pronounced great till his career is ended, nor even then by his own contemporaries. But while we do not suggest that the Sadhu is on the same plane with St. Francis or St. Paul, we feel that, from having known him, we understand them better.

The Sadhu is no metaphysician, no scientist, no higher critic. Indeed his intellectual horizon is in many respects nearer that of the New Testament writers than that

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of the modem world — but so also is his intuitive insight into moral and religious values. It is this directness and simplicity of spiritual perception which impresses upon all who have been in close contact with him the conviction that he has a message — not only to his own countrymen, but also to the West.

The manner of his teaching, even more than its substance, has a peculiar freshness for a Western hearer, with its picturesque abundance of illustration and parable, often quaint but always apt, its unstudied spontaneity, its gleams of kindly humor. It is rendered doubly effective by an arresting appearance — the impression of the turbaned head and saffron robe harmonizing in some subtle way with the deep tranquillity of a countenance lighted up by loving kindness, and with a vivacity of expression, and occasionally of gesture, which somehow seems not to conflict with, but to express, the Peace of God within.

For the cold printed page to reproduce the atmosphere diffused by such a personality, or even to transmit to others the creative impression of his speech is impossible. It is the more so, since we have his utterances, not in his native tongue in which he is a master of expression, but in English, a language of whose subtleties he has but small command, so that he has at times to express in the phraseology of conventional religion thoughts which to him are fresh and living. Face to face with him in private this hardly counts, hearing him on a platform it matters more, but where there is nothing but the bare written word it does materially impair the rich impression of the message and the man. Nevertheless, though the printed page cannot do full justice to the Sadhu, it can do something. The many who have seen him once,

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and have felt that there was much more beyond which they would gladly apprehend, will read into it the memory of his manner and his presence; and even those to whom he is only known by hearsay may yet, we hope, find something of solid value. At any rate the attempt ought to be made to secure that the Sadhu's visit to the West should leave behind it something more definite, and perhaps more permanent, than the personal impressions of a fortunate minority and the passing interest of the crowd.

The Sadhu 's mind is an overflowing reservoir of anecdote, illustration, epigram and parable, but he never makes the slightest effort to avoid repetition; in fact he appears to delight in it. " ' We do not, ' " he says, " refuse to give bread to hungry people because we have already given bread to others." Hence we have constantly found the same material occurring in more than one of the written or printed authorities we have used. "My mouth," he says, "has no copyright"; and many sayings that we had noted down from his own lips we afterwards discovered to be already in print. In most cases the versions differ extraordinarily little, but we have always felt free to correct or supplement one version by another at our discretion; and, seeing that English is not the Sadhu's native tongue, we have not infrequently ventured on emendations of a purely verbal character.

It was only when we had begun to collect together scattered sayings on the same topics, that we ourselves realized the extent to which his teaching is a complete theology in picture form, making with his way of life and his mystic experience an organic whole. And if

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this book has any merit beyond fidelity to fact, it largely consists in the attempt to seize and bring out this inner unity and coherence. This has necessarily involved much rearrangement of materials and the bringing together into the same context, occasionally even into the same paragraph, of sayings originally spoken on different occasions or derived by us from different sources. "We have thought it necessary to indicate in the text the exact source of our information only in the case of important or disputable facts. But wherever phrases like "we asked " or "he told us " occur they imply that at least one of the authors was present when the Sadhu made the particular statement; assertions are, however, often made on this same evidence in contexts where the insertion of the personal pronoun would have seemed intrusive.

Mr. A. J. Appasamy, who collaborates with me in this study, is a member of my own College, who after graduating in India and spending four years in postgraduate study in the United States of America is now engaged in research upon the relation of the Mysticism of St. John to that of the Hindu Bhakti Poets. During the week which the Sadhu spent in Oxford last February, he was in continual contact with him. Subsequently, when we had conceived and had commended to the Sadhu the idea that a permanent record of his teaching might be of real value towards following up and consolidating the results of his visit to England, Mr. Appasamy livedJ with the Sadhu for about a fortnight in London and Paris, asking questions and making notes, and was present at the interviews which he had with various distinguished persons. One such interview was of particular value for our purpose. Baron von Hügel, who had read

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Mrs. Parker's account of the Sadhu, put to him a number of carefully prepared questions suggested by his unrivaled knowledge of the literature of Mysticism; and he was so good as to write us a memorandum on certain aspects of the Sadhu 's philosophy and religion, and subsequently to discuss them with us by word of mouth.

I myself had personal talks with the Sadhu and heard him address meetings both in Oxford and in London; and last May, just before leaving for America, he came again to Oxford and stayed with me in College for the express purpose of discussing the book. For the greater part of a couple of days he answered our questions and poured out his ideas, providing us with much material, including an account of his mystical experiences, which, to the best of our belief, has never been made public before.

In order to secure unity of style and presentation, it was arranged that the final rewriting of the book should be in my hands. But at every stage, including even the final revision of the proofs, my collaborator and I have worked in the closest harmony and co-operation, and it is impossible to say of the book as a whole that it is any more the work of the one than of the other; it is in every sense a joint production.

It was the Sadhu 's desire that any net profit that might accrue to the authors from this book should be devoted to some religious purpose. I asked him to name one, but he preferred to leave the choice to me. My collaborator and I have agreed that it would be most appropriately assigned to the National Missionary Society of India.

The most considerable account of the Sadhu that has so far appeared is sadhu Sundar Singh, by Mrs. Parker,

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of the London Mission, Trivandram, Travancore, published by the Christian Literature Society of India, who have earned high commendation for thus extending his fame among Western Christians. By the author's kind permission we have to some extent drawn upon this valuable source of information. But, partly because her book has been already so widely circulated both in England and America, and partly because our purpose is not primarily biographical, we have, so far as possible, deliberately avoided covering the same ground.

Next to the notes taken of what we heard from the Sadhu's own lips, our main authorities for his teaching have been three. First, the full shorthand reports of six of his addresses in this country, generously put at our disposal by the National Council of the Y. M. C. A., through the kind intervention of Mr. W. Hindle — not the only service for which we owe him gratitude. Secondly, a collection of the Sadhu's discourses published by the National Missionary Society of India, Madras, in the Tamil language — the native tongue of Mr. Appasamy. The Sadhu informed us that these were dictated by him in Hindustani, during a period of comparative leisure, to a friend whom he relied on as expert in the interpretation of his thought. Thirdly, Seven Addresses, delivered in Ceylon and published under that title by the Kandy United Christian Mission. We have also incorporated some valuable matter which appeared in The Bible in the World and in The Foreign Field, June, 1920. Some occasional quotations from writings by Mr. A. Zahir, of St. John's College, Agra, a friend and devoted admirer of the Sadhu, and by Mr. A. E. Stokes, at one time his fellow-worker, are acknowledged where they occur in the text. We desire here to express our hearty thanks to

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those editors and publishers who have most generously allowed us an unrestricted liberty in making use of copyright material.

It has been our good fortune that several of our Indian friends now in England happen to have come into close personal contact with the Sadhu at different periods of his life from school-days onward. These, as well as various English friends who had known him in India and elsewhere, have given us the greatest assistance in the way of answering questions, suggesting points of view, or in reading the whole or portions of the book in manuscript or in proof. But when it is impossible to name all it would be invidious to mention any. Finally, we gratefully record our obligation to Mrs. White, of Sherborne, for the immense labor which she has bestowed upon the correction of the proofs, and to Mr. R. D. Richardson, of Hertford College, Oxford, who has compiled the Index.

That this book should be a true interpretation of his message has, we know from his letters, been the Sadhu 's constant prayer. The book is finished; but we are filled with a sense of its inadequacy to portray the man. Coming from the presence of Sundar Singh, men forget themselves, they forget him — but they think of Christ.

B. H. S.

Queen's College, Oxford,