A Sikh Boy Who Burned the Bible
Sundar Singh was born in 1889 in Rampur, Punjab, into a devout Sikh family. His mother took him regularly to a sadhu — a Hindu holy man — for spiritual instruction. When Christian missionaries distributed Bibles in his village, the teenage Sundar tore one apart and burned it page by page in front of his family.
Three days later, at 4:30 in the morning, he planned to throw himself in front of a train. He had reached a point of spiritual despair that nothing seemed to resolve. But first, he prayed one last prayer: "If there is a God, reveal yourself to me."
What happened next changed everything. Sundar described a vision of Jesus appearing in his room, radiating light and speaking to him in Hindustani. By morning, the boy who had burned the Bible was telling his family he had met Jesus.
The Mountains That Shaped Him
Sundar's father disowned him. Poisoned by a relative, he nearly died. But what he did next defined his life: he put on the saffron robes of a sadhu — a wandering holy man — and walked into the Himalayas.
For the next three decades, Sundar Singh walked barefoot through the highest mountain range on earth, preaching the gospel to villages, monasteries, and travellers he met along the trail. The ice, the altitude, the silence — he said these were the places where Jesus felt nearest. He once spent a night trapped in a well in Tibet, thrown there by a lama who opposed his message. He described feeling a hand lift him out in the darkness.
The mountains were not just a route. They were his sanctuary.
A Disappearance That Still Echoes
In 1929, Sundar Singh set out on another journey into the Himalayas. He never returned. No body was ever found. He simply walked into the mountains and was gone.
His legacy endures across India and beyond — a man who encountered Jesus in a bedroom and then spent his life encountering him again and again on the highest trails in the world.
What This Means for You
Sundar Singh did not need a church building or a theological degree. He met Jesus in a moment of raw desperation, and then he walked into the mountains and never stopped. If you are in a season of searching, the outdoors might be the place where the noise finally drops and something real breaks through.