A sadhu in Haridwar, India, during Kumbha Mela.

A sadhu in Kathmandu, Nepal.

In Hinduism, sādhu (skt साधु sādhu, “good; good man, holy man”) denotes an ascetic, wandering monk. Although the vast majority of sādhus are yogīs, not all yogīs are sādhus. The sādhu is solely dedicated to achieving mokṣa (liberation), the fourth and final aśrama (stage of life), through meditation and contemplation of brahman. Sādhus often wear ochre-colored clothing, symbolizing their sanyāsa (renunciation).

This way of life is open to women; the female form of the word is sādhvī साध्वी.

Etymology[link]

The Sanskrit terms sādhu ("good man") and sādhvī ("good woman") refer to renouncers who have chosen to live a life apart from or on the edges of society in order to focus on their own spiritual practice. ^[1]

The words come from the Sanskrit root sādh, which means "reach one's goal", "make straight", or "gain power over".^[2] The same root is used in the word sādhana, which means "spiritual practice".

Sadhu rituals[link]

Sadhu smoking charas, a common practice amongst Sadhus (mostly Shaivite).

Sadhus are sanyasi, or renunciates, who have left behind all material and sexual attachments and live in caves, forests and temples all over India and Nepal.

A Sadhu is usually referred to as Baba by common people. The word baba also means father, grandfather, or uncle in many Indian languages. Sometimes the respectful suffix -ji may also be added after baba, to give greater respect to the renunciate. It is also a term of endearment for small boys.

There are 4–5 million sadhus in India today and they are widely respected for their holiness,^[3] and sometimes feared for their curses. It is also thought that the austere practices of the sadhus help to burn off their karma and that of the community at large. Thus seen as benefiting society, sadhus are supported by donations from many people. However, reverence of sadhus is by no means universal in India. Historically and contemporarily, sadhus have often been viewed with a certain degree of suspicion, particularly amongst the urban populations of India. Today, especially in popular pilgrimage cities, posing as a sadhu can be a means of acquiring income for non-devout beggars.

There are naked Naga (Digambara, or "sky-clad") Sadhus which are non-shaven and wear their hair in thick dreadlocks, and Jata, who carry swords^{[citation needed]}. Aghora sadhus may claim to keep company with ghosts, or live in cemeteries as part of their holy path. Indian culture tends to emphasize an infinite number of paths to God, such that sadhus, and the varieties that sadhus come in have their place.

Sadhu sects[link]

A sadhu and his disciple in Assam, India

Sadhus engage in a wide variety of religious practices. Some practice extreme asceticism while others focus on praying, chanting or meditating.

There are two primary sectarian divisions within the sadhu community: Shaiva sadhus, ascetics devoted to Shiva, and Vaishnava sadhus, renouncers devoted to Vishnu and/or his incarnations, which include Rama and Krishna. Less numerous are Shakta sadhus, who are devoted to Shakti. Within these general divisions are numerous sects and subsects, reflecting different lineages and philosophical schools and traditions (often referred to as "sampradayas").

The Dashanami Sampradaya are Smartists; sadhus in the sect take one of the ten names as an appellation upon initiation. The sect is said to have been formed by the philosopher and renunciant Adi Shankara, believed to have lived in the 8th century CE, though the full history of the sect's formation is not clear.

Shaiva sadhus are known as "sannyasins", those who have renounced or laid down, while Vaishnavas call themselves "vairagis," or dispassionate ones. The terms reflect the different worldviews of the two groups: the philosophy of Shaiva asceticism and renunciation is, in many ways, more austere and radical than that of the Vaishnavas. The Shaiva ascetic worldview emphasizes a radical separation from the mainstream social world and complete commitment to liberation from saṃsāra, the cycle of birth and death.

While sadhus ostensibly leave behind traditional caste at initiation, the caste backgrounds of initiates does influence the sects into which they are admitted; certain ascetic groups, such as the Dandis within the Dashnami sampradaya, are composed only of men of brahmin birth, while other groups admit people from a wide variety of caste backgrounds.^{[citation needed]}

Female sadhus (sadhvis) exist in many sects. In many cases, the women that take to the life of renunciation are widows, and these types of sadhvis often live secluded lives in ascetic compounds. Sadhvis are sometimes regarded by some as manifestations or forms of the Goddess, or Devi, and are honored as such. There have been a number of charismatic sadhvis that have risen to fame as religious teachers in contemporary India (e.g.- Anandamayi Ma, Sarada Devi, Mata Amritanandamayi, and Karunamayi).^[4]

Becoming a sadhu[link]

Naga sadhu in Pashupatinath temple, Nepal

Becoming a sadhu is a path followed by millions. It is supposed to be the fourth phase in a Hindu’s life, after studies, being a father and a pilgrim, but for most it is not a practical option. For a person to become sadhu needs vairagya. Vairagya means desire to achieve something by leaving (cutting the attachments with family and society) the world (earthly attachments).

A person who wants to become sadhu must first seek a guru. There, he must perform 'guruseva' which means service. The guru decides whether the person is eligible to take sannyasa by observing the sisya (the person who wants to become a sadhu or sanyasi). If the person is eligible, guru upadesa is done which means teachings. Then only the person transforms into sanyasi or sadhu. There are different types of sanyasis in India who follow different sampradya. But, all sadhus have a common goal i.e., moksha (liberation).

Living as a sadhu is a difficult lifestyle. Sadhus are considered to be dead unto themselves, and legally dead to the country of India. They may be required ritually to attend their own funeral before following a guru for many years, serving him by doing menial tasks until acquiring the necessary experience to leave his leadership.

While the life of renunciation is described as the fourth stage of life in the classical Sanskrit literature of the Hindu tradition, and the members of certain sects—particularly those dominated by initiates of brahman background—have typically lived as householders and raised families before becoming sadhus, many sects are composed of men that have renounced early in life, often in their late teens or early 20s. In a few cases, those who choose the sadhu life are fleeing from family or financial situations which they have found to be untenable,^{[citation needed]} if there is some worldly debt that remains to be repaid, would-be renunciates are encouraged by their gurus to pay off those debts before they become sadhus.^[5]

The processes and rituals of becoming a sadhu vary with sect; in almost all sects, a sadhu is initiated by a guru, who bestows upon the initiate a new name, as well as a mantra, or sacred sound or phrase, which is generally known only to the sadhu and the guru and may be repeated by the initiate as part of meditative practice.

Lifestyle[link]

A sadhu in Madurai, India.

The ruggedness of the sadhu life deters many from following the sadhu path. Such practices as the obligatory early morning bath in the cold mountains require a detachment from common luxuries. After the bath, sadhus gather around the dhuni, or holy fireplace, and begin with their prayers and meditation for the day.

Some sadhus dispense cures to the local community, remove evil eyes or bless a marriage. They are a walking reminder to the average Hindu of Divinity. They are generally allowed free passage on the trains and are a close-knit organization.

Kumbh Mela, a mass-gathering of sadhus from all parts of India, takes place every three years at one of four points along sacred rivers in India, including the holy River Ganges. In 2007 it was held in Nasik, Maharashtra. Peter Owen-Jones filmed one episode of "Extreme Pilgrim" there during this event. It took place again in Haridwar in 2010.^[6] Sadhus of all sects join in this reunion. Millions of non-sadhu pilgrims also attend the festivals, and the Kumbh Mela is the largest gathering of human beings for a single religious purpose on the planet.^[7]

The lives of sadhus in contemporary India vary tremendously. Sadhus live in ashrams and temples in the midst of major urban centers, in huts on the edges of villages, in caves in the remote mountains. Others live lives of perpetual pilgrimage, moving without ceasing from one town, one holy place, to another. Some gurus live with one or two disciples; some ascetics are solitary, while others live in large, communal institutions. For some sadhus the brotherhood or sisterhood of ascetics is very important.

The rigor of the spiritual practices in which contemporary sadhus engage also varies a great deal. Apart from the very few that engage in the most dramatic, striking austerities—for example, standing on one leg for years on end or remaining silent for a dozen years—most sadhus engage in some form of religious practice: devotional worship, hatha yoga, fasting, etc. For many sadhus, the consumption of hashish or other forms of cannabis^[8] is accorded a religious significance.^[9] In fact, the highest quality hashish to be found in some Indian districts is often made by local Sadhus.^[10]

Sadhus occupy a unique and important place in Hindu society, particularly in villages and small towns more closely tied to tradition. In addition to bestowing religious instruction and blessings to lay people, sadhus are often called upon to adjudicate disputes between individuals or to intervene in conflicts within families. Sadhus are also living embodiments of the divine, images of what human life, in the Hindu view, is truly about — religious illumination and liberation from the cycle of birth and death.

Though some ascetic sects possess properties that generate revenue to sustain members, most sadhus rely on the donations of lay people; poverty and hunger are ever-present realities for many sadhus.

Images[link]

See also[link]

Religion portal

• Hermit
• Nath
• Shramana

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sadhus

• Sadhus.org
• Ascetics with Cameras
• Hindu Asceticism and the Sadhu (Holy Man)
• aghori.it
• Vikrant Baba

Sadhu Sundar Singh
Born	(1889-09-03)September 3, 1889 Ludhiana, India
Died	unknown unknown
Education	Anglican College, Lahore
Title	Sadhu

Sadhu Sundar Singh (Punjabi: ਸਾਧੂ ਸੁੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ, Urdu: سادھُو سُندر سنگھ; Hindi: साधु सुन्दर सिंह) (September 3, 1889, Patiala State, India) was an Indian Christian missionary. He is believed to have died in the foothills of the Himalayas in 1929.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Sundar Singh was born into a Sikh family in the village of Rampur (Punjab state) in northern India. Sikhism, founded about 1500 AD, is a religion that teaches belief in one God and rejects the caste system; it had become one of the established religions in the area, standing apart from both Hinduism and Islam. Sundar Singh's mother took him to sit at the feet of a sadhu, an ascetic holy man, who lived in the jungle some miles away, while also sending him to Ewing Christian High School, Ludhiana, in order to learn English.

The death of Sundar Singh's mother, when he was fourteen, pitched him into violence and despair. He took out his anger on the missionaries, persecuted Christian converts, and ridiculed their faith. In final defiance of their religion, he bought a Bible and burned it page by page in his home while his friends watched.

Conversion to Christianity[link]

Sundar announced to his father, Sher Singh, that henceforth he would follow Christ. His father denounced him, and his brother Rajender Singh attempted to poison him. Sundar's life was saved by the help of a nearby Christian community.^[1]

On his sixteenth birthday, he was publicly baptised as a Christian in the parish church in Simla, in the Himalayan foothills. Prior to this he had been staying at the Christian Leprosy Home at Sabathu, near Simla, serving the leprosy patients there.

Life of servitude[link]

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 not penetrate India unless it was 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."

After returning to his home village, where he was given an unexpectedly warm welcome, Sundar Singh travelled northward through the Punjab, over the Bannihal Pass into Kashmir, and then back through Muslim Afghanistan and into the brigand-infested North-West Frontier and Baluchistan. He was referred to as "the apostle with the bleeding feet" by the Christian communities of the north. He suffered arrest and stoning for his beliefs, and experienced mystical encounters.

In 1908, he crossed the frontier of Tibet, where he was appalled by the living conditions. He was stoned as he bathed in cold water because it was believed that "holy men never washed."

In 1908 he went to Bombay, hoping to board a ship to visit Palestine but was refused a permit, and had to return to the north. On this trip he recognised a basic dilemma of the Christian mission to India. A brahmin had collapsed in a hot, crowded railway carriage and was offered water by the Anglo-Indian stationmaster. The brahmin could only accept it in his own drinking vessel. Sundar Singh realised that India would not readily convert to Western-style Christianity, although people had responded to his sadhu's robe.

Formal Christian training[link]

In December 1909 Singh began training for the Christian ministry at the Anglican college in Lahore. According to his biographers, he did not form close relationships with fellow students, meeting them only at meal times and designated prayer sessions. He was ostracised for being "different".

Although Singh had been baptized by an Anglican priest, he was ignorant of the ecclesiastical culture and conventions of Anglicanism. His inability to adapt hindered him from fitting in with the routines of academic study. Much in the college course seemed irrelevant to the gospel as India needed to hear it. After eight months in the college, Singh left in July 1910.

It has been claimed by his biographers that Singh's withdrawal was due to stipulations laid down by Bishop Lefroy. As an ordained Anglican priest, Singh was told to discard his sadhu's robe and wear "respectable" European clerical dress, use formal Anglican worship, sing English hymns; and not preach outside his parish without permission. To not visit Tibet, however, seemed to him an unthinkable rejection of God's call.

Helping others[link]

Stories from those years are astonishing and sometimes incredible. Indeed there were those, who insisted that they were mystical rather than real happenings. That first year, 1912, he returned with an extraordinary account of finding a three-hundred-year old Christian hermit in a mountain cave—the Maharishi of Kailas, with whom he spent some weeks in deep fellowship.

According to Singh, in a town called Rasar he had been thrown into a dry well full of bones and rotting flesh and left to die, but three days later he was rescued.^[2]

At these and at other times Singh was said to have been rescued by members of the "Sannyasi Mission"—secret disciples of Jesus wearing Hindu markings, whom he claimed to have found all over India.

The secret Sannyasi Mission is reputed to have numbered around 24,000 members across India.^[3] The origins of this brotherhood were reputed to be linked to one of the Magi at Christ's nativity and then the second century AD disciples of the apostle Thomas circulating in India. Nothing was heard of this evangelistic fellowship until William Carey began his missionary work in Serampore. The Maharishi of Kailas experienced ecstatic visions about the secret fellowship that he retold to Sundar Singh, and Singh himself built his spiritual life around visions.^[4]

Whether he won many continuing disciples on these hazardous Tibetan treks is not known. Singh did not keep written records and he was unaccompanied by any other Christian disciples who might have witnessed the events.

Travels abroad[link]

During his twenties, Sundar Singh's ministry widened greatly, and long before he was thirty, his name and picture were familiar all over the Christian world. He described a struggle with Satan to retain his humility, but people described him as always human, approachable and humble, with a sense of fun and a love of nature. This character, with his illustrations from ordinary life, gave his addresses great impact. Many people said, "He not only looks like Jesus, he talks like Jesus must have talked." His talks and his personal speech were informed by his habitual early morning meditation, especially on the gospels. In 1918 he made a long tour of South India and Ceylon, and the following year he was invited to Burma, Malaya, China and Japan.

Some of the stories from these tours were as strange as any of his Tibetan adventures. He claimed power over wild things. He claimed even to have power over disease and illness, though he never allowed his presumed healing gifts to be publicized.

For a long time Sundar Singh had wanted to visit Britain, and the opportunity came when his father, Sher Singh, came to tell him that he too had become a Christian and wished to give him the money for his fare to Britain. He visited the West twice, travelling to Britain, the United States and Australia in 1920, and to Europe again in 1922. He was welcomed by Christians of many traditions, and his words searched the hearts of people who now faced the aftermath of World War I and who seemed to evidence a shallow attitude to life. Singh was appalled by what he saw as the materialism, emptiness and irreligion he found everywhere, contrasting it with Asia's awareness of God, no matter how limited that might be. Once back in India he continued his ministry, though it was clear that he was getting more physically frail.

Final trip[link]

In 1923 Sundar Singh made the last of his regular summer visits to Tibet and came back exhausted. His preaching days were obviously over and, in the next years, in his own home or those of his friends in the Simla hills he gave himself to meditation, fellowship, and writing some of the things he had lived to preach.

In 1929, against all his friends' advice, Singh determined to make one last journey to Tibet. He was last seen on the 18th of April 1929 setting off on this journey. In April he reached Kalka, a small town below Simla, a prematurely aged figure in his yellow robe among pilgrims and holy men who were beginning their own trek to one of Hinduism's holy places some miles away. Where he went after that is unknown. Whether he died of exhaustion or reached the mountains remains a mystery. Some said that Singh was murdered and his body thrown into the river; another account says he was caught up into heaven with the angels.

In the early 1940s Bishop Dr. Augustine Peters, a native missionary of South India, sought out Sundar's brother Rajender Singh, led him to the Christian faith and baptized him in Punjab. Rajender referred to many miracles performed by Sundar Singh and people converted to Christ under his ministry. ^[5]

Sadhu Sundar Singh is treasured by many as a formative figure in the development of the Christian church in India.

Biographical controversy[link]

Through the 1920s controversies raged about many of the fantastic claims that we made by and/or about Sundar Singh. Particularly the Roman Catholic scholar Henry Hosten, S.J., exposed inconsistencies and impossibilities in the accounts. Singh's Protestant friends rallied to his side without careful examination of rather damning evidence. Several Protestant biographies have since been written about Sundar Singh, generally emphasizing his piety, humility and Christian witness without examination of evidence that tells against the traditional account presented above. The late Eric J. Sharpe surveyed the various biographical studies of Sundar Singh and pointed out many of the same problems that had been highlighted earlier, but without the questionable zeal evident in Hosten. Among these problems are significant discrepancies in chronological details, varied accounts of his Christian conversion, and the dubious nature of accounts of his travels to Tibet and of the secret sannyasi mission.

Sharpe points out that different portraits of Sundar Singh were constructed by writers in continental Europe, England and the United States of America. He argues that the different portraits disclose much about the way Westerners thought about India in the 1920s and 1930s. Sharpe remarks:

"When in the spring of 1920 an Oxford don and his young Indian tutee conceived the idea of writing a book about Sadhu Sundar Singh, it was in their minds to interpret him to the West in terms that the West could grasp and according to a scale of values that the West could affirm."^[6]

Sharpe also points to significant omissions of detail between the biographies of A.J. Appasamy, B.H. Streeter, Janet Lynch-Watson, Cyril J. Davey and Phyllis Thompson. Perhaps the most glaring differences concerns the influence of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) and Swedenborgian writers on Sadhu Sundar Singh. Sharpe refers to correspondence between Singh and A. E. Penn who was the secretary of the Indian Swedenborgian society where Singh stated that he had contact with Swedenborg in the spirit world:

"I saw him several times some years ago, but I did not know his earthly name. His name in the spiritual world is quite different just according to his high position or office and most beautiful character."^[7]

Sharpe also refers back to Singh's endorsement of Swedenborg as recorded by Appasamy:

"Swedenborg was a great man, philosopher, scientist and, above all seer of clear visions. I often speak with him in my visions. He occupies a high place in the spiritual world ... Having read his books and having come into contact with him in the spiritual world, I can thoroughly recommend him as a great seer."^[8]

Sundar Singh's correspondence with the Swedish Lutheran bishop Nathan Söderblom in November 1928 further confirms that he claimed visionary contact with Swedenborg.

For Western evangelical Christians, Swedenborg has long been regarded as an unorthodox teacher. Some, such as the Christian apologist Walter Martin, have classified Swedenborg and his followers among the cults.^[9] In light of the evangelical rejection of Swedenborg's theology, the omission of Sundar Singh's endorsement of Swedenborg's teachings from evangelical biographies is very significant. The difficulty for evangelicals is compounded by Singh's confirmation of contact with Swedenborg in the spirit world. This visionary form of contact with an unorthodox deceased teacher clashes with the portraits of piety drawn by later evangelical biographers such as Cyril Davey and Phyllis Thompson.

The results of Sharpe's survey of the various biographies, articles published in Indian and European periodicals, and the extant correspondence of Sundar Singh's, discloses a complex web of Western images that portray Singh in contradictory ways: evangelical missionary, ecstatic visionary, and ascetic pilgrim. Sharpe pleaded:

"It is time to rescue his memory from oblivion on the one hand and romantic adulation on the other, to protect him from a few of his patrons, and give him his rightful place among those of whom he himself wrote."^[10]

Timeline[link]

• 1889 – Born at Rampur, Punjab
• 1903 – Conversion
• 1904 – Cast out from home
• 1905 – Baptised in Simla; begins life as a sadhu
• 1907 – Works in leprosy hospital at Sabathu
• 1908 – First visit to Tibet
• 1909 – Enters Divinity College, Lahore, to train for the ministry
• 1911 – Hands back his preacher's license; returns to the sadhu's life
• 1912 – Tours through north India and the Buddhist states of the Himalayas
• 1918 to 1922 – Travels worldwide
• 1923 – Turned back from Tibet
• 1925 to 1927 – Quietly spends time writing
• 1927 – Sets out for Tibet but returns due to illness
• 1929 – Final attempt to reach Tibet
• 1972 – Sadhu Sundar Singh Evangelical Association formed

Works by Sundar Singh[link]

Sundar Singh wrote eight books between 1922 and 1929. His manuscripts were written in Urdu, and later translated into English and other languages.

• At the Master's Feet (London: Fleming H. Revell, 1922). -- Electronic versions:Google Books and CCEL.
• With and Without Christ (London: Cassell; New York: Harper & Brothers, 1929).
• The Real Life (published posthumously; Madras: CLS, 1965).
• The Real Pearl (published posthumously; Madras: CLS, 1966).
• Reality and Religion: Meditations on God, Man and Nature (London: Macmillan, 1924).
• The Search after Reality: Thoughts on Hinduism, Buddhism, Muhammadanism and Christianity (London: Macmillan, 1925).
• Meditations on Various Aspects of the Spiritual Life (London: Macmillan, 1926).
• Visions of the Spiritual World (London: Macmillan, 1926).

A number of his works were compiled and edited by others:

• The Cross Is Heaven: The Life and Writings of Sadhu Sundar Singh, edited by A. J. Appasamy (London: Lutterworth Press, 1956). -- A collection of short articles by Sundar Singh.
• Life in Abundance, edited by A. F. Thyagaraju (Madras: CLS, 1980). -- This is a collection of transcripts of his sermons, preached in Switzerland in March 1922, as recorded by Alys Goodwin.
• The Christian Witness of Sadhu Sundar Singh: A Collection of His Writings, edited by T. Dayanandan Francis (Madras, India: The Christian Literature Society, 1989).

Footnotes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Paul Gaebler: Sadhu Sundar Singh, Leipzig 1937 (German).
• Appasamy, A. J. Sundar Singh. Cambridge: Lutterworth, 1958.
• Benge, Janet & Geoff Sundar Singh: Footprints Over the Mountains
• Davey, Cyril J. The Story of Sadhu Sundar Singh (Chicago: Moody Press, 1963); reprinted as Sadhu Sundar Singh (Bromley: STL Books, 1980).
• Francis, Dayanandan, ed. The Christian Witness of Sadhu Sundar Singh. Alresford: Christian Literature Crusade, 1989.
• Stevens, Alec, Sadhu Sundar Singh (Dover, NJ: Calvary Comics, 2006).
• Streeter, Burnett and A. J. Appasamy. The Sadhu: a Study in Mysticism and Practical Religion. London: Macmillan, 1923.
• Thompson, Phyllis, Sadhu Sundar Singh (Carlisle: Operation Mobilisation, 1992).
• Watson, Janet Lynn. The Saffron Robe. London: Hodder and Stoughton,1975.
• Woodbridge, John. More Than Conquerors. Australia, 1992.
• Benge, Geoff and Janet. "Sundar Singh: Footprints Over the Mountains" (Christian Heroes: Then and Now Series)
  • Much of the above detail was provided by this book.
• Andrews, C. F. Sadhu Sundar Singh: A Personal Memoir. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1934.
• Joyce Reason. The man who disappeared: Sundar Singh of India. London: Edinburgh House Press, 1937

External links[link]

• http://www.plough.com/ebooks/wisdomofthesadhu.html – "The Wisdom of the Sadhu" free ebook from Plough Publishing in English, Spanish and Russian.

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