Sadhu Sundar Singh A Biography

indifference and antipathy to Christ in certain regions of the Western hemisphere than anything which he has seen in
India.
Now, this was the backdrop against which Sundar Singh began his missionary labours. The tradition of a
young man clad in yellow robes who had renounced marriage and was therefore given the honorific 'sadhu', gave a
person freedom of travel, as a prerequisite of his calling. Moreover, a sadhu would be accepted in circles where a
white-robed or black-robed Christian priest or pastor would be turned away. The people had been taught by long
tradition to reverence a person who had made the requisite sacrifices to become a sadhu. Sundar Singh, in donning a
yellow robe, immediately made himself accessible to many common people. They felt they could communicate with
a man in a yellow robe. There was much which they shared with him in common. There were occasions too when
people were moved to the nth degree of rage and violent vituperation and disgust when they discovered that this
sadhu was preaching Christ, and not the gods or the ancient epics and Vedas, whom alone they venerated. Thus he
was thrust out of villages when it was discovered that he was a Christian. But without question, after all has been
said, the sadhu's robe was a great help just to communicate and enter communities where no ordinary Christian
preacher could commonly go.
Those eccentric preachers who travel to Western lands and appear on platforms in attire which belongs to
their native lands, merely seek to play upon the minds of shallow listeners, who love to see something novel and are
drawn to any clownish person who claims to be a 'guru' from the East. Sundar Singh, of course, is not to be classed
with any of these clowns. His heart's desire was to communicate Christ, and this he did in a way which few have
equalled in history.
Sundar Singh's serene and glowing countenance with its beautifully chiselled features made many people
think that he closely resembled the Lord Jesus, even in his external appearance.
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