Introduction

Biography

Singh ac­cept­ed Christ af­ter re­ceiving a vi­sion of Je­sus just be­fore at­tempt­ing sui­cide around age 15. Af­ter an­noun­cing his de­ci­sion, his fa­mi­ly re­ject­ed him, and nu­mer­ous at­tempts were made on his life, in­clud­ing poi­son and snakes.

On his 16th birth­day, he was pub­lic­ly bap­tized in the par­ish church in Sim­la, Him­a­chal Pra­desh. Be­fore this, he had been stay­ing at the Chris­tian Le­pro­sy Home at Sa­bat­hu, near Sim­la, ser­ving the le­pers there.

In Oc­to­ber 1906, he set out on his jour­ney as a new Chris­tian, wearing a tur­ban and the yel­low robe of a Hin­du sad­hu, an as­ce­tic de­vot­ed to spi­rit­ual prac­tice. Singh viewed him­self as a sad­hu, al­be­it one with­in Chris­ti­an­ity ra­ther than Hin­du­ism, be­cause he real­ized Chris­ti­an­ity could on­ly pen­e­trate In­dia in an In­di­an way.

I am not wor­thy to fol­low in the steps of my Lord, he said, but, like Him, I want no home, no pos­ses­sions. Like Him I will be­long to the road, shar­ing the suf­fer­ing of my peo­ple, eat­ing with those who will give me shel­ter, and tell­ing all men of the love of God.

Singh had a wide and var­ied ca­reer as a mis­sion­ary in In­dia and sur­round­ing ar­e­as.