THE  STORY  OF  SUNDAR  SINGH

We tell the story of a young man from a proud Sikh family, belonging to the culture of India and its ancient religious traditions.

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Born in 1889 at Rampur in the Punjab of N. India, Sundar Singh was the third son of wealthy noble parents. As a young child, and then a teenager, he was very much influenced by his mother to seek the peace of oneness with the Supreme Spirit.

This he did. And by the age of seven he had already learned by heart much of the Bhavagad Gita. By 16 he had read the Granth, and the Quran of the Moslems, and about fifty of the Upanishads. In this manner, reading the scriptures and meditating on them, he was following the traditional Path of Knowledge (Jnana-Marga) for achieving salvation. He even spent some time under instruction by a holy man, and ‘stayed in seclusion’ (mtshams-la sdod) in concentrated meditation.                        Lastly, he read the Bible – it was at the Christian school in his village – but he found its message repulsive and opposed to the traditions of his Sikh fathers. So, one day he burnt a bible in the presence of his father.

But he did not find the peace that he sought. And the thought of committing suicide on the railway line came to him.

So, three days after burning the bible, waking at 3am, he took a cold bath and prayed,

 

‘O God, if there is a God, please show me the right way or I will kill myself.’

 

The train would pass at 5am, and he was thinking that if, he got no answer, maybe he would get it in the next life.

He went on praying until 4.30, hoping for peace. Then he saw a great light. He looked around; was the room on fire? No! Had God answered? He prayed while looking into the light. It was then he saw the glorious and loving form of the Lord Jesus.

How could he prostrate himself before the One whom he had insulted? But a voice spoke in the Hindi language,

 

‘How long will you persecute me? I have come to save you; you were praying to know the right way. Why do you not take it?’

 

And the thought came to him,

 

‘Jesus Christ is not dead but living and it must be He Himself.’

 

Then falling at His feet, a wonderful Peace came, such as he had been unable to find anywhere else.

It was a Peace and Joy that remained with him all his life.

He went at once to tell his father,

 

‘I have become a Christian. I have discovered that Jesus Christ is alive and have determined to be His follower. Today I am his disciple and I am going to serve Him.’

 

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And that is what he did.

Family and relatives urged him to turn back. They told him of the shame and dishonour that would come to him; and of the wealth that he would lose. But he would not turn back.

Then persecution followed. They spoke against him.

Finally, he was given some poisoned food and thrown out. Although cast out without warm clothing, and having no belongings, except his bible in his hand, he had the peace of his Saviour in his heart. That first night felt like the joy of heaven.

He went on to be baptized in 1905. And then, wearing the yellow robe of a sadhu (holy man), and carrying no money, just his blanket and a bible, he preached Jesus Christ wherever he went – in the Punjab, Kashmir, Baluchistan, Afghanistan. From 1908 he spent the summer months for about 15 years in going up into Tibet, making the plateau his main field of work. He suffered in the cold, and was beaten, even tortured, for preaching Jesus. Then in 1929 he set off for the last time, but did not return.

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John’s Gospel was Sundar’s favourite book in the Bible.  In it we read that Jesus promised to give His Peace to his followers:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).

ངས་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་ཞི་བདེ་གནས་པར་བྱེད། ངའི་ཞི་བདེ་ཁྱེད་ཚོར་སྦྱིན། ངས་ཞི་བདེ་སྦྱིན་ཚུལ་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱིས་ཞི་བདེ་སྟེར་ཚུལ་དང་མི་འདྲ་བས། ཁྱེད་ཚོའི་སེམས་མ་འཁྲུགས་ཤིང་མ་འཇིགས་ཤིག

 

Jesus also promised full understanding of the truth of his words to any person who would be willing to obey:

“If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority” (John 7:17).

སུ་ཡང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ཐུགས་དགོངས་བཞིན་དུ་སྒྲུབ་པར་ཆོད་སེམས་བཙུགས་ན། བསྟན་པ་འདི་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ནས་བྱུང་ངམ། ཡང་ན་ངས་རང་ཐོག་ནས་བཤད་པ་ཡིན་ཤེས་པར་འགྱུར།

 

Details of Sundar’s life may be found in many books. The above information is taken from B.H.Streeter and A.J.Appasamy, The Message of Sadhu Sundar Singh, 1921 Macmillan.

THE  STORY  OF  CLEOPAS

In our recent series of posts we read how Peter was converted and became a changed person when he received the Holy Spirit. Now, in this new series, we shall read stories of how other people since then have had a life-changing experience through receiving Jesus as Saviour.

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It was the same day that Jesus Christ revived and rose from the dead. Two of the disciples were walking back home late in the day from Jerusalem to their village, and they were talking with each other about all that had happened. One of them, was Cleopas.

As they talked a stranger appeared and joined them. What are you talking about? he asked.

Cleopas, “Are you the only one who doesn’t know?”

The stranger, “What is it I don’t know?”

Then they spoke in a rush, first one then the other “About Jesus of Nazareth of course … how the chief priests got him crucified … we had hoped he was the Messiah Christ … and this morning some of my women friends told us the tomb was empty … and some angels told them that Jesus was alive … we didn’t believe, but two of our men went to check, and – well – the tomb was empty … “

But the stranger interrupted, “Why so slow to believe! The prophets did tell how the Messiah Christ had to suffer – be killed like a lamb – and then return to heaven.” And he went on to explain how the whole Hebrew shastra spoke of Jesus (because that is who the stranger was).

At their home they asked him in. Then at supper he thanked God for the meal in the manner in which he had always done, and they realized he was Jesus!

At once he vanished, and they were left looking at each other open-mouthed, “Didn’t great feelings of joy warm us inside as he explained the shastra?” they said.

Instead of Jesus’ death being the end of all their hopes for salvation, it was actually the final fulfilment of God’s plan which had existed from the very beginning. And they rushed back by night, and found the others too had no thought of sleeping, because Jesus had risen!

(Read the whole story as it is told in Luke 24:13-35. It is posted separately for you)

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It was by meeting the risen Jesus in person that the first believers became converted. But it could not always be like that, and it became necessary for one person to tell another as those women did; that is, whether other people will believe you and me or not (The apostles did not believe the women at first). And only rarely, as in some of the stories that we shall be reading, did Jesus show himself again to people on future occasions.

Next time : A god-fearing African meets a disciple of Jesus in the desert.

 

 

THE  STORY  OF  NIMA  TSHERING

This story of his life is told in a booklet ‘Nima Tshering of Shang, Tibet’ (Maranatha Revival Crusade, Secunderabad).

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Tshering was born in 1917. His parents were serfs (tshe g.yog) who put him into Shang Gadan Chokhor Monastery to become a monk; they did this lest their owner took their only son to be a servant, just as they themselves had been taken when only children.

Tshering tells how it happened: ‘When we came to the monastery my teacher told me that when the head lama talked with me, he would ask how old I was. This teacher said that I must answer that I was seven years old, as that was the youngest age that a boy could be admitted to that monastery. Sure enough, when I went to the lama, he asked that question. I answered, “I am six years old, but my teacher told me to say that I was seven years old, otherwise I will not be admitted.” The principal laughed and laughed and said, “Pooh! You will be a truthful man when you grow up. Although you are only six years old you may become a monk today.”’

Tshering made very good progress as a monk, and after some years, went on to study in the great monasteries of Lhasa. While living at Drepung he had good food and could also earn money. He writes: ‘When people died, I went to their homes to read from the prayer-book called Bardo Thoydol (bardo thos grol, The Tibetan Book of the Dead). This book shows the way of hell. Buddhism says that everyone must go to hell once. If they do good work and worship the idols, then they can be reborn into this world as a human being. There are many kinds of gods in hell. They have animal heads, and when the dead person’s spirit sees them it shakes with fear. This is what I as a lama explained to the relatives of the dead person.’

In 1952 he was in Bhutan during the great festival of The Illumination of the Buddha, the day when he began his teaching (drugpa tshes bzhi, The 4^th of the 6^TH Month Festival). He writes, ‘All we lamas gathered together to worship. We had good food and wine, and we all became intoxicated. Also, I became sexually involved with a girl. All these things are against the lamas’ teachings. From that day on I was no longer a lama. I felt very sorry about this and no longer wanted to stay in Bhutan.                ‘I was now 35 years old, and had learned Buddhist teachings for 29 years. I left Bhutan and went to India, and visited many holy places – Buddh Gaya, Varanasi, Kushinagar and many others. My money then ran out, and I was left with no peace and no possessions.’

In Calcutta he found work, but while there fell very ill with malaria. A Finnish lady gave him food and medicine at a Christian dispensary. She also gave him the Holy Bible, in which he read that God made the world, and how idols are not worthy to be worshipped. And he thought, “This is not my religion.”

He went from there to Darjeeling, where an English couple, who were Christians, asked him to teach them Tibetan. Again he read in the Bible about idols, how people prayed to wooden idols, saying, “You are my God, save me” (Isaiah 44:9-17). But Isaiah also wrote that the idol can’t move from its place, it does not answer or save us.

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ 46:7

དེ་ཚོས་དེ་ནི་གཉའ་བར་བཏེགས་ནས་འཁུར། དེ་ནི་གང་དུ་བཞག་ཀྱང་དེར་གནས་སོ།

འགུལ་མི་ཐུབ་པ་དེ་རུ་གནས་པར་འགྱུར། སུ་ཞིག་དེ་ལ་སྨོན་ལམ་འདེབས་རྩ་ན་།

དེ་ཡིས་ལན་འདེབས་བྱས་མི་ཐུབ་པ་དང། ཡང་ན་རྐྱེན་ངན་སོགས་ནས་སྐྱོབ་མི་ཐུབ།

 

After this Tshering became sick again, and was treated for 11 months in a TB hospital. Then a Christian man came and prayed for his sickness. He was cured and believed in the Lord Jesus. In the Bible he found it would be for a blessing if he obeyed the Lord God, but for a curse if he followed dead idol gods (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).

 

བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་སྐྱར་བཤད་ 11:26-28

དེ་རིང་ངས་ཁྱོད་ཚོར་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་དམོད་པ་གཉིས་ལས་གཅིག་འདམས་ཀ་བྱེད་པའི་གོ་སྐབས་སྤྲད་ཀྱི་ཡོད། དེ་རིང་ངས་ཁྱོད་ཚོར་སློབ་སྟོན་བྱེད་བཞིན་ཡོད་པའི་གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཁྱོད་ཚོའི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་རྒྱ་རྣམས་ལ་སྲུང་པ་ཡིན་ན་ཁྱོ་ཚོ་ལ་བྱིན་རླབས་ཐོབ་རྒྱུ་དང་། འོན་ཀྱང་བཀའ་རྒྱ་འདི་དག་མ་ཉན་པར་དེ་སྔ་ནམ་ཡང་མ་མཆོད་པའི་ལྷ་རྟེན་གཞན་ལ་མཆོད་པ་ཡིན་ན་ཁྱོད་ཚོར་དམོད་པ་འཕོག་ངེས་སོ།

 

And in Isaiah again, he read how God was offering a new way of liberation from samsara (‘khor ba).

 

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ 43:18-19

འོན་ཀྱང་གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཁོང་གིས་བཀའ་གནང་བ།

ཁྱོད་ཚོ་འདས་པའི་བྱ་བར་མ་དྲན་ཞིག། ཡང་ན་ཡུན་རིང་སྔོན་དུ་བྱུང་བར་མ་ཆགས་ཤིག།

ང་ཡིས་བྱ་རྒྱུའི་བྱ་བ་གསར་པར་ལྟོས། བྱུང་བཞིན་པ་དེ་ད་ལྟ་ཁྱོད་ཚོས་མཐོང་ཐུབ།

མི་མེད་ལུང་སྟོང་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ལམ་བཟོས་ཏེ། ཁྱོད་ལ་དེ་རུ་རྒྱུགས་ཆུ་བྱིན་པར་བྱ།

 

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ 43:25

དེ་བས་ན་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་སྡིག་སེལ་བྱ་མཁན་གྱི། གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་དེ་ནི་ང་ཡིན་ནོ།

ང་ནི་རང་གི་ཆེད་དུ་འདི་ལྟར་བྱས། ང་ཡིས་ཁྱོད་ཆོའི་སྡིག་པར་སླར་མི་དྲན།

 

After that, Tshering opened his heart to the Lord, and invited him to stay in his heart, as the Saviour Jesus whose promise of forgiveness and cleansing he trusted.

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་༡ 1:9

 གལ་ཏེ་ང་ཚོས་རང་གི་སྡིག་ཉེས་ཁས་བླངས་ན། དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་བློ་གཏད་ཆོག་པ་དང་ཡང་དག་པ་ཡིན་པས་སྡིག་ཉེས་སེལ་ཞིང་དྲང་པོ་མེད་པའི་དྲི་མ་ལས་ཡོངས་སུ་འདག་པར་མཛད།

 

So Tshering was baptized in 1955, and spent the rest of his life in this new way of trusting and obeying, and enjoying Jesus’ blessing. He wrote and distributed gospel booklets, and taught in a school for Tibetan boys, and became a leader in Christian churches.

This is how he finishes his life story, ‘Recently the Lord led me to Kathmandu, Nepal, where I now serve Him. Here there is a great number of Tibetans, whom I seek to tell of the true and living God; and of the Saviour who saves from sin and from its penalty, so that we don’t need to go to hell – not even once  …. Pray that many will be delivered from the chains of darkness, and brought into the light of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.’