{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 143,
  "chapterName": "1904. Conversion Experience of Sadhu Sunder Singh",
  "pageFrom": 289,
  "pageTo": 291,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 289,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n289\npay and status as the circumstances and conditions of the various\nSocieties will admit.\nResolution IX\n1. This Conference considers that no one who belongs or has\nbelonged to a Church, with full rights and privileges of membership,\nshould be received into the fellowship of the Church of a sister\nMission, without reference to the official representative of the former,\nor to the Mission with which the applicant is or has been\nconnected.\n2. This Conference considers it generally desirable, in the\ninterests of Church discipline and harmony, that excommunicated\npersons, or persons under discipline in any Church, shall not be\nreceived into the membership of any other Church until the bar\nhas been removed by the Church which exercised the discipline.\n143. CONVERSION EXPERIENCE OF SADHU\nSUNDER SINGH (1904 A.D.)\nSadhu Sunder Singh became well known throughout the world\nfor his effort to adopt his forms of Christian ministry to the traditional\nreligious patterns of India. This account of his conversion expe-\nrience, on 18th December 1904, was given by Sadhu Sunder Singh\nhimself twenty-five years later. Extracts from Sadhu Sunder Singh,\nWith and Without Christ, pp. 92-102.\nI often used to read the Hindu Scriptures till midnight, that I\nmight in some way quench the thirst of my soul for peace. My\nfather often objected, saying: 'It is bad for your health to read\nso late. Though there was much in my home to make me happy,\nI was not attracted by it. My father often remonstrated with me,\nsaying: 'Boys of your age think of nothing but games and play,\nbut how has this mania possessed you at so early an age? There is\nplenty of time to think of these things later in life. I suppose you\nmust have got this madness from your mother and the Sadhu.'\nI frequently asked the pundit to explain my spiritual difficulties\nfor me. He said: 'Your difficulites seem to be of new and strange\nkind. I can only say that when you grow up and get more expe-\nrience and knowledge about spiritual life, these difficulties will\ndisappear of themselves.\nI spoke to the Sadhu several times about my difficulties, but he\nalso gave me a somewhat similar answer: 'Do not worry about it.\nH.C.I.-19",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 290,
      "ocrText": "290\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nWhen you get knowledge (gyan), all these difficulties will disappear.'\nI replied: No doubt oubt it is true that when I obtain this perfect\nultimate knowledge my difficulties will disappear, but even at this\nstage, the little knowledge that I have should remove some of my\ndifficulties, while I should be able to hope for further enlightenment\nin the future. But I do not see how this increase of knowledge\nwill be able to do much, for it looks as if further knowledge will\nresult in my needs and difficulties being still more clearly seen by\nme, and how will these new needs be met? Here one requires\nnot only knowledge but bread for the hungry, for when this little\nknowledge has shown my needs to me, then more knowledge\nwill show more needs, so the question is: \"How am I to meet\nthese needs?\"\"\nThe Sadhu replied: 'Not with imperfect, finite knowledge,\nbut with perfect and final knowledge will your needs be met; for\nwhen you get perfect knowledge you will realize that this need,\nor want, is only an illusion, and that you yourself are Brahma (God)\nor a part of him, and, when you realize this, then what more will\nyou need?'.\nAgain I was disappointed. I could not find anywhere that\nspiritual food for which I hungered, and in this state of unrest I\nremained until I found the Living Christ...\nSometime after this my mother died, and a few months later\nmy elder brother also died. This brother's nature and turn of mind\nwere very like my own. The loss of these two dear ones was a\ngreat shock to me; especially did the thought that I should never\nsee them hem again cast me into despondency and despair, because I\ncould never know into what form they had been re-born, nor could\nI ever even guess what I was likely to be in my next re-births. In\nthe Hindu religion the only consolation for a broken heart like\nmine was that I should submit to my Fate, and bow down to the\ninexorable law Karma.\nNow another change came into my life. I was sent, for my\nsecular education, to a small primary school that had been opened\nby the American Presbyterian Mission in our village at Rampur.\nAt that time I had so many prejudices about Christianity that I\nrefused to read the Bible at the daily Bible lessons. My teachers\ninsisted that I should attend; but I was so opposed to this that the\nnext year I left that school and went to a Government school at\nSanewal three miles away, and there I studied for some months.\nTo some extent I felt that the teaching of the Gospel on the love of\nGod attracted me, but I still thought it was false and opposed it.\nSo firmly was I set in my opinions, and so great was my unrest,\nthat one day, in the presence esence of my father and others, I tore up a\nGospel and burned it.",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 291,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n291\nThough, according to my ideas at that time, I thought I\nhad done a good deed in burning the Gospel, yet my unrest of heart\nincreased, and two days after that I was very miserable. On the\nthird day, when I felt I could bear it no longer, I got up at three\nin the morning, and after bathing, I prayed that if there was a God\nat all he would reveal Himself to me, and show me the way of salva-\ntion, and end this unrest of my soul. I firmly made up my mind that,\nif this prayer was not answered, I would before day light go down\nto the railway, and place my head on the line before the incoming\ntrain. I remained till about half-past four praying and waiting\nand expecting to see Krishna, or Buddha, or some other Avathar\nof the Hindu religion; they appeared not, but a light was shining\nin the room. I opened the door to see where it came from, but\nall was dark outside. I returned inside and the light increased\nin intensity and took the form of a globe of light above the ground,\nand in this light there appeared, not the form I expected, but the\nLiving Christ whom I had counted as dead. To all eternity I\nshall never forget His glorious and loving face, nor the few words\nwhich he spoke: 'Why do you persecute me? See, I have died\non the Cross for you and for the whole world.' These words\nwere burned into my heart as by lightning, and I fell on the ground\nbefore Him. My heart was filled with inexpressible joy and peace\nand my whole life was entirely changed. Then the old Sunder\nSingh died and a new Sunder Singh, to serve the Living Christ,\nwas born.\nAfter a little while I went to my father, who was still sleeping,\nand told him of the appearance, and that I was now a Christian.\nHe said: What are you talking about? It is only three days\nsince you burned their book. Go away and sleep, you silly boy,'\nand he himself turned over again. Later on I told the whole family\nwhat I had seen, and that I was now a Christian. Some said I\nwas mad, some that I had dreamed; but when they saw that I was\nnot to be turned they began to persecute me. But the persecution\nwas nothing compared with that miserable unrest I had had when\nI was without Christ; and it was not difficult for me to endure the\ntroubles and persecution which now began.",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}