Sundar Singh

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Sundar Singh around 1922

Sundar Singh (* 1888 in Rampur , Patiala ; † unknown, last seen alive before his journey to the Himalayas, which began in 1929 ) was an Indian Christian who moved around in the manner of a sadhu .

Life

Sundar Singh came from a wealthy family. His father was a Sikh , his mother a Hindu . After encountering Christianity in a mission school, he first turned away in enmity. However, according to a vision he described, he became a Christian and broke with his family, who rejected him. From then on he lived ascetic, without possessions, and had numerous visions. He saw his main task in going through the villages and preaching Jesus Christ. He made many Indians Christians and fascinated compatriots as well as Western Christians. He only barely survived several murder attempts. Again and again he traveled to the Himalayas to do missionary work as far as Tibet. After a lecture tour in South India, he was invited abroad. He traveled to Singapore via Burma, from there to major Chinese cities and on to Japan. From there he returned to India. His fame rose sharply. Invitations to Europe followed. On two trips that took him to England, the USA and Australia, and Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Norway, he got to know western civilization. He criticized Western materialism and its lack of spirituality. In 1929 he went on another trip to Tibet, but did not get there. Various search expeditions were unsuccessful. It is believed that he either fell victim to a violent crime or died of cholera.

theology

Sundar Singh is the first modern Indian theologian who developed his preaching entirely within the Indian culture. This also meant that he renounced western philosophy and used his own Indian traditions. Through this he reached the common people. He countered the objection from Hindu circles that he was proclaiming a foreign religion with decidedly Indian argumentation models.

meaning

Even more than 70 years after his disappearance, Sadhu Sundar Singh remains one of the most influential Indian Christians of the 20th century, as he proved with his life that Christianity is not a purely Western religion that is incompatible with Indian culture.

Through his writings, Sadhu Sundar Singh exerted a strong influence u. a. on the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina (from 1927).

Works by Sadhu Sundar Singh

  • At the Master's feet. Stuttgart 1923 ( At the master's feet. Madras 1922) (Indian first edition: Maktib i Masih. Lucknow 1921)
  • God's Reality. Thoughts about God, man and nature. Hamburg 1925 ( Reality and Religion. Meditations on God, Men and Nature. London 1924) (Indian first edition: Mazhab our Haqiqat. Lahore 1924)
  • Searching for God. Thoughts on Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. Basel 1925 ( The Search after Reality. Thoughts on Hinduism, Buddhism, Muhammadanism, and Christianity. London 1924)
  • Secrets of Inner Life. Reflections on Growing in Spiritual Life. Basel 1930 ( Meditations on various Aspects of the Spiritual Life. London 1926)
  • Stories from the other world. Aarau 1930 ( Visions of the Spiritual World. A Brief Description of the Spiritual Life, its different states of existence, and the destiny of good and evil men as seen in visions. London 1926)
  • With and without Christ. Examples from the lives of Christians and non-Christians, which illuminate the difference between a life with Christ and a life without him. Basel 1930 ( With and without Christ. Being incidents taken from the lives of Christians and of Non-Christians which illustrate the difference in lives lived with Christ and without Christ. London 1929)
  • Friso Melzer (Ed.): Sadhu Sundar Singh. Collected Writings. Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 978-3-7675-2300-5

Remembrance day

literature

Web links

Commons : Sundar Singh  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The information on the date and place of birth comes from the dissertation of the missionary Paul Gäbler on Sadhu Sundar Singh from 1937: [1] , [2] (for the full text see under web links)
  2. ↑ Wilhelmina: Lonely and yet not alone . Evangelisches Verlagswerk, Stuttgart 1961, pp. 203–207.
  3. ↑ April 16 in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
  4. ↑ June 19 in the ecumenical dictionary of saints
personal data
SURNAME Singh, Sundar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Singh, Sadhu Sundar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian Christian mystic and itinerant preacher
DATE OF BIRTH 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Rampur , Patiala
DATE OF DEATH after 1929
Place of death Himalayas