When he received a letter from a Tibetan man explaining that a group of traders were gathering at Kalka on the banks of the Ganges River in preparation for their trek back into Tibet, Sundar decided to set out to meet them as soon as he could. He had spent much of the winter preparing for such a journey. He had even decided what should be done with the royalties from his books if he did not return from Tibet.
Sundar did not often speak to large crowds now. He relied instead on his pen to do his preaching and on personal meetings with people seeking truth. But on April 12, 1929, Sundar agreed to speak at the town of Okara. The service was well attended by Christians and a number of Hindus. After the meeting a young Christian sadhu who had patterned himself after Sundar asked for some advice. Sundar told him, “Read your Bible daily with prayer, do not flee from the Cross, and do not become proud when some good people give you any honor. Remember, the colt had the honor of walking on the garments which were spread by men in the way while Christ was entering Jerusalem and people were saying ‘Hosanna, blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord.’ The colt had this honor because Christ was seated on it.”
On April 18 Sundar sat down at the desk in his room and penned a letter to a New Zealand missionary he knew and trusted well. The words tumbled out onto the paper. “I am leaving today for Tibet, fully aware of the dangers and difficulties of the journey, but I must do my best to do my duty. But then I set no value on my own life as compared with the joy of finishing my course and fulfilling the commission I received from the Lord Jesus to attest to the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24).”
Sundar stopped for a moment and gazed out the window at the majestic mountains beyond Sabathu. Then he wrote on. “I wanted to come to see you before leaving for Tibet, but I have received a letter from a trader to meet him at once on our way to Tibet. The route will be the same as that about which I told you last year. I hope to be back with one or two Tibetan Christians by the end of June. If anything happens I will send down Thapa to meet you, and if you do not hear anything from me, or about me, then please come to Sabathu in July in order to see to all my things in my house here.”
When he had finished writing the letter, Sundar sealed it and picked up his staff and dark glasses. As he had done so many times before, he set off for Tibet without shoes or sandals, clad only in his saffron robe, with a cotton blanket draped over his shoulder.
Sundar’s first stop was the leper hospital, where he asked Mr. Watson, the hospital superintendent, to mail the letter he had just written and to take care of any urgent correspondence that came for him while he was away. Then Sundar said good-bye to Mr. Watson and started toward the railway station. Sunnu Lal, one of the Indian preachers at the hospital, waved to Sundar and then joined him as he walked down the hill toward the station. The two men walked quietly together for a mile or so, and then Sunnu Lal turned back toward the hospital. Sundar walked on alone, grateful that he was finally on the way to preach to his beloved Tibetan people once again. This time he was determined to make it all the way there.
On November 18, 1929, the headline in the Morning Post newspaper read:
MYSTIC LOST IN TIBET
Christian Preacher Who Visited London
FEARED VENGEANCE BY LAMAS?
From Our Own Correspondent, CALCUTTA.
Misgivings are felt among his followers in India regarding the safety of Sadhu Sundar Singh, the Christian mystic and preacher. Not a word has been heard of him since entering Tibet in April on one of his teaching tours.
The Reverend Riddle, the New Zealand missionary Sundar wrote to before setting out for Tibet, along with his friend Dr. Taylor, set off on a twenty-eight-day trip into the Himalayas to see whether they could trace Sundar’s footsteps. They hoped to find some news of him, but there was none.
When they returned to Sabathu, they discovered that everyone had some theory as to what had happened to Sundar. Some speculated that he had contracted cholera and his dead body had been thrown into the Ganges River. Others thought that he had probably slipped off the rocky trail and fallen into a ravine, where he perished. Still others guessed that he had made it to Tibet and been martyred there or was set upon by bandits. But no one knew for sure what had happened to Sundar, and since his body was never found, no one ever would know exactly how he had died.
Finally, in 1933, the Indian government declared Sundar Singh officially dead, and his will was executed. According to the will, Sundar left the house and the money from the royalties of his books to be used for training and supporting preachers who worked in Tibet and the Indian states bordering the region. In addition, some of the money was to be used for scholarships for motivated boys from poor Christian families so that they could attend college, and for scholarships for preachers to get further theological training.
As news of Sundar’s disappearance and death spread, Christians all over the world mourned his passing. They comforted one another with words from his books and reminded themselves of the things Sadhu Sundar Singh had told them. Sundar had often said, “It is better to burn quickly and melt many souls than to burn slowly and not melt any.”
On his last trip to England, as he addressed the Keswick Convention, Sundar had declared, “I feel no fear at the thought of one day dying in Tibet. When that day comes, I shall welcome it with joy. Each year I go back to Tibet, and perhaps next year you will hear that I have lost my life there. Do not then think, ‘He is dead.’ But say, ‘He has entered heaven and eternal life and he is with Christ in the perfect life.’”
After forty years on earth Sundar Singh had indeed entered into the perfect life that he had dreamed of so often as he traversed the Himalayan Mountains.
