(sitar music)
- Alms.
- No, no, no!
- Mercy.
Have mercy.
- Go, go on.
Get out of here.
- Shouldn't we have given something, Ram?
(dramatic music)
(sitar music)
(chuckling)
- Do you look forward to
the trip to Bombay tomorrow?
I understand how you feel, Ram.
I'm so sorry about the
death of your father.
He was a wonderful man.
It put so much responsibility
upon your shoulders.
I wish you didn't need to leave school.
- I wish many things.
(light music)
- [Woman] Ram?
- [Ram] Yes, Mother?
- [Woman] A parcel came for
you, it came from Shanti.
- I just saw Shanti.
She said nothing about it.
- [Woman] You know how Shanti is.
- Shanti.
- [Shanti] My literature teacher
gave me a copy of this book
and though I still don't
quite understand it, the book
has made a great impression
upon my thinking.
Perhaps it will help you find answers
to some of the questions raised
by your great sorrow and
disappointment, Shanti.
- [Woman] Ram?
- Yes, Mother?
- [Woman] Shall I help
you pack your things?
- I can manage.
(guitar music)
♪ I'm dreaming of a white Christmas ♪
♪ I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. ♪
- I'll tell you what, mate,
you play and I'll sing.
- You're half drunk already.
(doorbell ringing)
Oh, not yet.
Go to the door, Bippen.
- Oh, don't worry, dear, we've
got another eight bottles
of Christmas cheer.
- Who is it?
- I haven't a clue.
- Hello, mate.
Do you remember me?
- Vaguely.
- We met last summer at Utsimla.
You gave me your father's card.
You said if I ever needed employment--
- Bring me that card.
- My father just died
and I need work, sir.
I was in college but
with my father dying--
- Boy, do you know what day this is?
- It's Thursday, sir.
- It's Christmas and if
you haven't any more sense
than to come asking for
a job on Christmas--
- What job?
(dramatic music)
- Turn off that light, boy!
- [Ram Voiceover] Great joy
came to young Sundar's heart
for there were new songs to
sing, new truths to discover.
It was a time to show love
and kindness to others.
It was Christmas.
- Come on now, turn out the light.
(upbeat music)
(light music)
- I'm sorry, there's no work here.
- [Ram] Please let me stay.
As soon as I get a job, I'll pay you.
- No money, no bed.
(light music)
- May I help you?
- If you're looking for a
country boy to cheat some way,
don't waste your time, I
just spent my last pais.
- Wait, please let me help you.
(sitar music)
I think I know a job I can get you.
- [Ram] Why do you do this for me?
- What is life if we
can't help one another?
My name is Shushil.
- My name is Ram, Ram Singh.
- Singh, that is a good name.
You know about Sadhu Sundar Singh?
- No.
- [Shusil] That man's
story changed my life.
I've read everything I can
get my hands on about him.
- How did this book change your life?
- Don't get me started.
I'll talk all night.
If you're interested, I'll tell you
while we go get something to eat.
(upbeat music)
From the time he was a small boy,
Sundar Singh's mother taught
him to be very religious.
Sundar's father, Shasingh,
was a wealthy land owner.
He couldn't understand
his son's serious ways
but he was proud of him.
The boy attended a Christian
school near his home.
Mostly because it was so much closer
than the government school.
He was a good student.
Obedient, courteous to his teachers
but rebellion against the Christian faith
smoldered in his heart.
He loved nature,
the animals of the farm and
the animals of the forest
and many of them loved him.
Just before the boy's 14th
birthday, his mother died.
As he stood at the burning ghat,
watching the fire reduce
her body to ashes,
the awe and wonder of life,
of life and death
seemed completely beyond
hope of understanding.
As the years passed, he gave himself
more and more to meditation, to the search
for meaning in life, to the
search for peace in his heart
and then, quickly, and without
any apparent explanation,
he became a different person.
- Boys!
(singing in foreign language)
- [Shusil] He and a couple
of his friends threw fresh
cow dung into a little
church where some Christians
gathered for worship.
- Sandhu, I just bought the New Testament.
- Why?
- I'll show you.
You should have seen McDonald's eyes.
He said, "God bless you, Sundar."
Is the burning ghat ready?
(dramatic music)
A very dead book into a very live fire.
- [Shusil] Was this what he wanted?
Why had he, the gentleman,
stooped to such acts of rebellion?
- God, if there is a God,
show me yourself tonight.
- [Shusil] The last train
of the night passed by.
The next train would pass at dawn.
If God did not speak to him by morning,
Sundar considered throwing himself under
the wheels of that train.
- Show me yourself tonight, God, or I die.
(light music)
- [God] I am the way,
the truth
and the life.
No one comes to the father except by me.
I am the light of the world.
- Father, Father?
- What is it?
- [Sundar] I have seen Jesus.
- Have you gone mad?
- [Shusil] The news spread quickly.
Could it be possible, the son of Shasingh,
a believer in Jesus?
Sundar's father, a good
man of wise judgment
was the most surprised of all.
His brothers openly persecuted him.
(light music)
From the time he was a little boy,
he was born in 1889,
Sundar's mother often
brought him to the temple.
As together they sought
to know more about God.
Following his vision of Jesus,
he's becoming a Christian.
He missed her more than at
any time since her death.
He wished he could talk to her.
He knew she would understand.
His father, in his heart,
a man of much goodness
and understanding, tried to be patient.
The boy had come upon a
temporary madness, he reasoned.
There must be some way to
bring him back to sanity.
Then, one day, he got an idea.
"My dear son, the light of my
eyes, the comfort of my heart,
"may you live long," Shasingh wrote.
"I order you to return
from school immediately
"as I have plans for your marriage.
"Come quickly, I am not well."
The father's joy was short lived.
Sundar loved his father,
was concerned about
his father's health but could entertain
no thought of abandoning his new faith.
The young man spent
hours in careful thought.
In thought and in prayer.
He didn't want to dishonor his father.
He didn't want to embarrass him.
Yet he knew obedience
to God must stand above
everything else, fully
realizing his father's patience
would inevitably come to an end.
(dramatic music)
- [Shasingh] Sundar, you fool!
In the name of Singh,
I declare you no longer
worthy to be called my son.
We reject you forever!
- [Shusil] Sundar set
out into the darkness.
It was a walk into the unknown
yet never had such peace
reigned in his heart.
Never had God seemed more near.
He made his way to the home of a friend.
One of the pastors of the church.
(knocking on door)
- I have prayed for you all day.
- Thank you.
- How are things going for you?
- Quite well, thank you.
- What's wrong?
(stammering)
(dramatic music)
- [Ram] What had happened?
- One of his brothers
secretly poisoned his food.
It was a deadly poison and the doctor said
Sundar could not possibly live.
- He died?
- He lived, it was a miracle, Ram.
The doctor was so amazed, he
himself became a Christian.
- It's quite a story, Shusil.
- [Shusil] Next to the bible itself,
the story of Sadhu Sundar Singh
has been the greatest
single influence on my life.
(light music)
- [Customer] And what about these combs?
- [Ram] They are the finest made.
They will last the customer forever.
Even though they are cheap in price,
they are absolutely unbreakable.
- [Customer] Unbreakable, you say?
No.
- [Shusingh] Of course,
the combs are breakable
but for the price asked,
they are really quite good.
They will take a lot of use.
- I will buy a gross.
- I don't understand it,
you sell but I can't.
Why is it?
I suppose it is because
you are a Christian.
If I believed like you, would
it help me to sell better?
You are honest, I am
dishonest, I admit it.
I've seen holy men do things
that didn't seem right.
- Honesty is a gift from God.
I was once a very dishonest person
but my heart has been changed.
- You should become a sadhu.
(dramatic music)
This boy that you speak
about, Sundar Singh.
Why do you call him Sadhu Sundar Singh?
- It's a wonderful story.
- Go ahead, tell it.
- [Shusil] As a boy, Sundar
Singh often came with his mother
to the banks of the Ganges
River but now he wanted
to be alone in the sanctuary of nature
and he often spent many
days in the forest,
praying, fasting, thinking
about the holy scriptures,
seeking to know the will
of God for his life.
On one of his visits to the
forest, he had been especially
praying for the Christians in India.
It troubled him to see the
church becoming so westernized.
He believed Christ had a
message to India itself,
to its people, to its culture.
- [God] I am your shepherd.
I will lead you.
Though you walk through the
valley of the shadow of death,
you need fear no evil.
(light music)
- [Shusil] He set out immediately
upon what was to become
one of the most humble but
most wonderfully effective
ministries the church of
Jesus Christ has experienced
since the days of the New Testament.
Across the country roads of
India from village to village,
the young man made his way
telling people of his great
spiritual discovery, inviting
them to share this discovery.
- [Sundar] For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten son.
That whosoever believes
in him should not perish
but have ever lasting life.
- [Shusil] Many of the people
listened gladly to the young
man's witness and soon they
were calling him a Sadhu.
Sadhu Sundar Singh.
Yes, the people loved him.
The children, everyone, wherever he went.
His life was a life of joy
but there was also to be
disappointment and suffering.
(suspenseful music)
(light music)
He loved the cities and he
loved the villages of India
but a deep restlessness
troubled his heart.
He wanted to carry the
gospel, where few, if any,
ever brought its tidings
and so he headed north
toward Kashmir and the foreboding
borders of Afghanistan.
He wanted someday to bring
the message of Christ
high into the towering Himalayas
into forbidden Tibet.
Year after year, he continued his journey.
Coming to be known as the
apostle of the bleeding feet.
The apostle of the bleeding
feet and the burning heart.
- [Sundar Voiceover] Grant
me this one mercy in life,
oh, God.
That I may walk in the
path you have laid for me.
(light music)
- [Shusil] The Sadhu had many adventures.
Some of them almost beyond belief.
There was, for example, the
night he came upon a camp
of shepherds, shepherds and
thieves high in the Himalayas.
(dramatic music)
- [Sundar] May God bless you, my brother.
- [Shusil] Many times like
this, often unexplainably,
the Sadhu's life was spared.
Men who hated him and planned to kill him
found themselves listening to his witness.
After each journey into the mountains,
he returned to his beloved India.
"We have been offering
Christianity in a western cup,"
he told his friends, "And
India rejects it but when we
"offer the water of life in
an eastern bowl, our people
"will take it gladly."
- He who believeth in me
shall not walk in darkness
but shall have the light of life.
- [Shusil] But while many
listened to his message,
others protested, sometimes violently.
He did not seek for persecution
but he always thanked God for it.
"We have but this one life
in which to bear the cross
"for Christ," he often said.
- Lord, I am to one of the
least of your children,
I am the least.
I am the least, my lord.
- [Shusil] Though many times
persecuted by his fellow men,
he enjoyed incredible rapport
with the creatures of nature.
- How, lord, how beautiful
are the animals, magnificent.
(light music)
(chuckling)
- [Shusil] The Sadhu's
fame spread across India.
Everywhere he went, people
thronged to hear him speak.
In the humble places, in
the larger towns and cities.
His ministry and his exploits
mushroomed into a living
legend across the world.
- There are many who know about Christ
but they do not know him.
Just as a man blind from birth
knows nothing about color,
so a man without Christ cannot expect
to have spiritual understanding.
Christ himself first must
open our eyes then we can see.
Beware of the small things because
they are the most dangerous.
Like the germs that cause disease.
I'm glad he called me
in the days of my youth.
Leading me to use the flower
of my strength in his service.
(light music)
- [Shusil] In 1920, he made
his first visit to England.
Going on from there to America.
The largest churches and
halls were filled to capacity
wherever he went.
- There is no secret to
the search for truth.
In my own searching, my prayer
to God was to reveal the
truth to me, this he did
in the one who is the way,
the truth and the life.
Unless you shut your eyes
to the tumult and glamor
of the world and desire
imaginatively to meet our lord
and have fellowship with
him, you cannot expect
to hear his wonderful voice.
I want no followers.
I'm myself but a follower of Christ.
It disturbs me to find such
a fragmentation of the church
in the western world.
Peace and quiet should
follow knowing Christ
and not tumult and dissension.
- [Shusil] Everywhere
people asked questions.
The western world had never had a visitor
quite like this before.
- We have a saying in my country that
men are flowers in God's garden.
(chuckling)
I like that.
And just as the flower receives
its strength and beauty
from communion with the sun,
so too Christ is the son of righteousness.
And my communion with God
is directly through him.
I do not worship nature.
Though I marvel at God's handiwork.
Nature is a physical realm
where you might say,
we see the work of his hands.
One might see the work of a great artist
and call it wonderful but
to know the artist himself
is a different matter.
(chuckling)
These are the only clothes I have.
And my dress and beard are contemporary.
I live the life of a
normal Sadhu in my country.
I prefer to be there
in my beloved India
among the people so near to my heart.
I'm here by invitation.
My dear friend,
there are multitudes of very
wonderful people in my country
and I've met many who I must frankly say
show more grace and
goodness in their lives
then I've found in some people
here in the western world.
In whatever culture you find them,
man is capable of great goodness
but all our righteousness is filthy rags,
the bible tells us.
My father, I thank you for
sending me to Europe and America.
It has been a great joy
but it has also brought pain to my heart.
So many of your children
do not understand.
They do not realize what poverty
can bring to the life of a man.
Oh, my father.
- [Shusil] Though he received much acclaim
in his many travels, the
Sadhu reserved the warmest
corner of his heart for the
people beyond the towering
Himalayas, the people of Tibet.
- I thank you for getting me so far, lord
but that is where my work lies.
Get me there, lord, get me there.
- [Shusil] Up into the snows
he went, again and again
toward the forbidden kingdom.
The land that had locked its
gates to the outside world.
Here occurred some of
his greatest adventures.
Here too, he often
faced bitter opposition.
In one town, about a day's
journey from the Tibetan border,
he was thrown into prison.
(dramatic music)
(coughing)
- [Sundar] Oh, you poor, old man.
You are really cold, aren't you?
This will keep you warm.
- Why you do this?
- Because my God taught me to do it.
You see, he said, if you
attend to a sick man,
you are doing it to me.
- [Shusil] So many of those
prisoners opened their hearts
to the Sadhu's message and
became Christian believers.
The authorities had him removed.
He was taken to the marketplace
and publicly tortured
but though he suffered
much pain, he accepted
the punishment with such calmness.
The authorities became frightened.
Thinking him to be some sort
of god, they set him free.
Entering Tibet, he
immediately made friends.
- God, peace, love.
And he loves my little Donzinamo.
(chuckling)
Christianity's a way of life
that is full of fun and joy and hope.
Christ said, look at the birds of heaven.
Do they worry for tomorrow?
Who looks after them?
It is your heavenly father.
- [Shusil] Sadhu Sundar Singh loved life.
He loved people.
Perhaps he loved children most of all.
He tried to establish Sunday school
for the children of Tibet.
One prominent lama, impressed
by the Sadhu's teaching,
issued a summons for
the people of his area
to come and listen to
the Christian message.
But there was also opposition.
As with each visit, and the
Sadhu made 15 trips into Tibet,
resistance stiffened against his witness.
The penalty of death threatened
anyone bringing a new
religion into this forbidden country.
But again and again, his new friends
looked after his safety.
(dramatic music)
When persecution came, and it often
did, there were always
those who showed mercy.
But then on one of his
last visits to Tibet,
the Sadhu had an awesome experience.
- Into the pit of death.
(suspenseful music)
- [Shusil] The Sadhu had
no way of knowing how long
he lay unconscious in
that death laden darkness.
Nor did he have any idea
how many days passed.
This was surely the end of his life.
- Lord Jesus.
Lord, I love to suffer for you.
Really, I do but this,
this is much, much more than I can bear.
Forgive me, lord.
Forgive me.
- [Shusil] How like the
natural state of man
this was, the Sadhu thought.
Man lost in darkness, in his sin.
Hopeless to save himself.
The wages of sin is death, the bible says.
We are all as an unclean thing
and all our righteousness
are as filthy rags.
The wages of sin is death.
- But the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ, our lord.
He who knew no sin was made sin for us.
That we might remember the
righteousness of God in him.
Christ died for our sins.
How I thank you, my blessed lord.
He rose again from the dead
and he lives in me.
No matter what I may be.
Whatever my circumstances,
I thank you, my lord.
I thank you.
- [Shusil] Endlessly, the time dragged.
Then when it seemed he could
not draw another breath--
(light music)
The Sadhu was overjoyed at this sudden,
unanticipated deliverance.
But when he looked around
to thank his rescuer,
there was no one to be seen.
He was convinced it was a miracle.
In a short while, guards captured him
and brought him to the lama.
How had he escaped?
(mumbling)
- You cast me into the pit
of death and left me to die.
But my lord is the lord of life.
- [Shusil] There was only one key and
only one key.
When the Sadhu returned
once more to India,
the Tibetan government sent
word to every border post
of the country that this man must
never again be allowed to enter.
So, for several years,
he remained in India.
His work continued.
His deeds of love and kindness.
His tireless ministry of telling people
about God's love and grace.
(speaking foreign language)
But his heart could not rest.
Tibet loomed constantly in his thoughts
and in his prayers and so in 1929,
though urged by his friends not to go,
he made his way back once more.
He never returned.
No one knows what happened.
Perhaps his work for God
finished, he was permitted
to at last, take that
greatest of all journeys.
The journey to the sky.
(light music)
- It is a great story.
- And true, every word.
- [Ram] You or I could not
live such a life, I couldn't.
- You are correct, such
a life can only be lived
when the spirit of Christ is in us.
When it is Christ himself
loving the world through us.
- Must we become Sadhus?
Put on the saffron robe
as Sundar Singh did?
- Perhaps.
- [Ram] But this is a
different age, Shushil.
- It is a different age.
It is always the right
time to seek his grace,
to walk in his way.
- I could not.
I must go.
- Why, Ram?
- I cannot bear to hear more.
- Ram!
Ram, wait a moment.
Please come.
- Where?
- I want to show you something.
- Is this your home?
You were forbidden to stay?
You, like Sadhu Sundar Singh?
Teach me the way of Christ.
(dramatic music)
