Independent Christian sadhu
Sundar Singh was born in 1889 into a wealthy Sikh family at Rampur in Patiala, and grew up surrounded by comfort that left him inwardly restless. As a young man he came to Christ, and was baptized at Simla in 1905. Then he did something almost no one had tried: he kept the saffron robe of a Hindu holy man, but wore it as a Christian — a sadhu who owned nothing, beholden to no mission, walking the roads of North India and the high passes into Tibet to tell people about Jesus. In time his journeys widened far past India, and crowds came to hear the man many called an apostle and a saint.
He carried the gospel the way a barefoot traveller carries water in a familiar clay pot — the vessel was the one his people already trusted, so they would take what it held.
- Born in 1889 to a wealthy Sikh family at Rampur in Patiala, North India
- Came to Christ as a youth and was baptized at Simla in 1905
- Wore the saffron robe of a sadhu as a Christian — owning nothing, given wholly to preaching
- Walked North India and the Himalayas into Tibet, and later journeyed as far as Europe, America and the Far East
Sources: streeter-appasamy-sadhu p.17 · streeter-appasamy-sadhu p.26