Jack Voelkel
The Rich Young Sikh Who Followed Jesus
by Christy Wilson
Bakht Singh was a Sikh, born into a wealthy Indian family in the north of India. Yet he left everything behind to follow Jesus. And the Lord used him to plant more than 600 churches, all self-supporting, in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
As a young man, Bakht Singh went abroad to England, where he studied agricultural engineering. There, embarrassed by his long hair, he had his first hair cut. (Sikh men are never supposed to cut their hair—that’s why they wear large turbans.)
After completing his studies in England, he went to Canada to gain the practical experience he needed….When he arrived in Canada, he went to a church for the first time in his life. But the people had such long, sad faces that he was sure they didn’t have the answers to life. So Bakht Singh decided to go to church when no one was there and just meditate.
While he was staying at the YMCA in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Bakht Singh heard a young man singing in the shower. “Here I am lonely and sad,” he thought, “and this man is so happy and joyful. I wonder why? As soon as he gets out of the shower, I’m going to ask him.” And that’s exactly what he did.
“I’m happy,” the young man told Bakht Singh, “because all my sins are forgiven. I have everlasting life. I know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord.” “Tell me more,” Bakht Singh pleaded. So the young man told him about Jesus. Realizing that Bakht Singh was hungering and thirsting for more, the young man gave him his own Bible. “Here, you may borrow my Bible. It will answer your questions.”
So hungry was he for the truth that Bakht Singh sat up all night reading through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and into John. At first he thought this was a holy book for Westerners only—until he read in John: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The sin of the world—not the sin of the West! Suddenly Bakht Singh realized this included him.
Then he read in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world (not just the West) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might be saved.” He had never heard that before! Since he had just read what Jesus said to Nicodemus about being born again, Bakht Singh knelt down beside his bed and asked the Lord to forgive his sins and to give him a new life. And Christ did. From that moment on, Bakht Singh’s life was changed.
At first, he planned to return to India and make a lot of money to use for the Lord’s work. But the Lord spoke to him. “I don’t want your money, I want you!” Like Moses, he resisted. “Lord I can’t speak.” (He had a speech impediment.” If I made your mouth, can I not make you speak?” the Lord replied.
Before Bakht Singh returned to India, he wrote and told his family that he had accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. When he was reunited with his family in Bombay, his father said: “We received your letter. We know you have become a Christian. We will be happy to let you come home with us on one condition: that you never mention this to a single soul. The family honor is at stake. We will all be disgraced if anyone finds out.”
Because he loved his father and mother and wife so deeply, Bakht Singh was tempted to agree. But then he remembered the words of Jesus Christ: “If anyone loves father or mother or wife…more than Me, he is not worthy of Me.”
“I love you, “Bakht Singh told his father and mother, and his wife. “But Jesus is my God. Has created me and He has saved me. He has forgiven me and given me everlasting life. I’m afraid I can’t agree to keep quiet about Him.” Although Bakht Singh had no money, he was filled with joy. He would witness to people on the streets of Bombay about Christ, and they would invite him to a meal or a cup of tea in a restaurant….
For the next three years Bakht Singh did nothing but study the Scriptures. He read the whole Bible through more than a hundred times! I have never met anyone who knows the Scriptures as well as he does. Every letter he writes includes Bible references which serve as a personal sermon.
I came to know Bakht Singh when he came to Toronto as one of the main speakers for the first InterVarsity Student Missionary Convention in December 1946…. He slipped on the ice and broke his right arm with a compound fracture. We rushed him to the hospital where the doctors had X-rays taken. “Your arm is broken so badly,” the doctors told him, “that we’ll have to open it up and reset the broken bones.” “Well, can I speak at the Convention?” Bakht Singh asked. “Absolutely not,” they replied. You’ll be in the hospital for weeks.”
“Can you wait until after I speak?” he asked them. “Then I’ll come in for the operation.” The doctors consulted with each other. “It’s your arm,” they finally concluded. “You’ll be in terrible pain, but if that’s the way you want it, medically speaking, it will be all right.” So they set his arm in a sling, and he went on to speak, as scheduled.
Was he powerful! He spoke on counting the cost of following Jesus. It was based on Luke 14 where Jesus says: “no one builds a tower without first counting the cost…” “Young people,” he said, “count the cost of following Jesus. Don’t follow him lightly.” Bakht Singh knew the Bible so well that he could hold it open in one hand and quote from it extensively, without even glancing at it. He was a tremendous blessing!...
After Bakht Singh finished his talk, we rushed him to the hospital where they performed surgery on his arm. I visited him there daily. Sharing his hospital room was a Canadian businessman, a nominal Christian. So Bakht Singh told the businessman the following story. “I come from India where we grow tea. We exported it to the British Isles where they put it in fancy boxes and shipped it all over the world. But even though we grew and exported tea, we never drank it ourselves. We never even tasted it! Finally we became curious. If other people like the tea so much, we should try it too. We did, and it was so good that we’ve been drinking tea ever since!
“You Canadians have also been exporting a wonderful produce—the Lord Jesus Christ—to the rest of the world through your missionaries. Now I’ve come to tell you to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy is the man who puts his trust in Him.” And then he led the businessman to Christ!
This businessman became so excited that when his family came to visit, he had Bakht Singh witness to them as well. His hospital room was soon turned into an evangelistic center. When I went to see him, it was filled with doctors, nurses, paramedics, and patients from up and down the hall. There was Bakht Singh in the midst of them, preaching in his hospital room! And all these people were fascinated with what he was sharing….
Years later when Bakht Singh visited us in Kabul, Afghanistan, I asked him to lead the devotions at breakfast. He looked up at the beautiful snow-capped mountains surrounding Kabul and spoke: “Let us reflect on ‘the mountain peaks’ in the book of Isaiah,” he began. And then by memory, he quoted the key verse in each of the sixty six chapters of the book of Isaiah. That was his devotional!
Born in 1903, Bakht Singh went to be with the Lord in 2000 and was buried in India. While he lived He counted the cost and decided to follow Jesus. The Lord used him in a mighty way.
Some Reflection Questions
1) What impresses you about the life of Bakht Singh?
2) Note the crucial decisions in his life.
3) What do you think was the source of his spiritual power and authority?
Source: Chow, Ivan (compiler); Helen S. Mooradkanian (editor). More to be Desired Than Gold. A Collection of True Stories as Told by J. Christy Wilson, Jr. South Hamilton, MA: Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, pp 45-50. For more information, note the website: http://www.brotherbakhtsingh.org/photos.html.
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