Parables and Insights - Sundar Singh

Part-IV

"We in India," says the Sadhu, "knew already that God is good. But we did not know that He was so good that Christ was willing to die for us." "There is much that is beautiful in Hinduism, but the highest light comes from Christ." "To some extent God satisfies all desire for Himself, but full satisfaction is only found in Christ"; "he who finds Him finds Heaven upon earth."
"The Wise Men followed the Star to Bethlehem. But when they reached Bethlehem they no longer needed the Star, for they had found Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. When the sun raises the stars lose their radiance." "In India we have many genuine truth-seekers, who faithfully follow their Star; but it is only starlight which guides them. But you Christians have the glory of the Sun." "Hinduism and Buddhism have dug canals, but they have no living water to fill them." "In this sense I was prepared to receive the Living Water from Christ." "Christianity is the fulfillment of Hinduism."
"There is in the Himalayas a certain kind of flower which by its scent lulls men into unconsciousness.... in form and colour the flowers are beautiful; everyone who sees them feels attracted to them, but no one walks near them, or sits down among them without being overtaken by mysterious and fatal slumber. At first I thought that the flowers were poisonous, but people assured me that this was not the case, for those who have been overcome by the scent do not die until the twelfth day, and then death ensues from hunger and thirst, and not from the immediate effect of the drug. In like manner the things of this world are not in themselves evil, but they stupefy careless souls, and hinder them from being conscious of spiritual hunger and thirst, and they drift into a sleep which may easily lead to spiritual death."
"I say to the Hindu Sadhus: 'You become Sadhus because you want to torture yourselves. I became a Sadhu in order to serve; I do not torture myself, although I have often been tortured by others. 'Indians forsake the world and deny themselves before they have discovered the fullness of God. They practice self-denial for its own sake not because they have found peace, but because they want to win peace."
"When a man is thirsty, whether he is learned or ignorant, young or old, in order to quench his thirst what he needs is not knowledge, but water. Before he drinks the water he does not need to know that it contains oxygen and hydrogen. If he refused to drink it until he could understand what we mean by oxygen and hydrogen he would die of thirst. From time immemorial men have quenched their thirst with water without knowing anything about its chemical constituents. In like manner we do not need to be instructed in all the mysteries of doctrine, but we do need to receive the Living Water which Jesus Christ will give us and which alone can satisfy our souls."
"It must be admitted that philosophy has made no progress in the course of centuries. The same old problems repeat themselves, though in new forms and in fresh language. In India an ox with blindfolded eyes goes round an oil-press all the day long. When his eyes are unbandaged in the evening he finds that he has been going round and round in a circle and that although he has succeeded in producing some oil he has gone no further. Although the philosophers have been at it for hundreds of years, they have not reached their goal. Now and then, after much labour they have produced a little oil, which they have left behind them, but it is not sufficient to meet the sore need of mankind."
The Sadhu differentiates true knowledge of God from pantheism:1. "God is our Creator and we are His creatures; He is our Father, and we are His children." 2. "If we ourselves were divine, we would no longer feel any desire to worship." 3. "If we want to rejoice in God we must be different from Him; the tongue could taste no sweetness if there were no difference between it and that which it tasted." 4. "To be redeemed does not mean to be lost in or absorbed into God. We do not lose our personality in God; rather we find it." 5. "Pantheism does not admit the fact of sin. Therefore we often find immoral conduct among its followers."
"No one ought to imagine that the Presence of Christ and the sense of 'Heaven upon earth' mean what a believer in pantheism means when he says: 'Now I am God.' No, we are in God and God is in us. But that does not mean that we are God or that He is man." "There is fire in the coal, and the coal is in the fire, but the coal is not the fire, and the fire is not the coal. We are only so far united with God as we give our hearts to Him and allow Him to baptise us with the Holy Spirit."
"Look at the sponge as it is immersed in the water. The sponge is in the water, and the water is in the sponge. But the sponge is not the water, nor the water the sponge, but both are different things. When we give time to prayer then we are in God, God is in us; but that does not mean that God is our soul or that we are God." "Just as the water is in the sponge, so God is everywhere and in all things, but He is not identified with created things."
"Have you ever stood in a smithy? Did you notice how the blacksmith held the iron in the fire? It became more and more glowing the longer it lay in the forge, until at last it looked quite like fire. The iron was in the fire, and the fire was in the iron, but the iron was not the fire, nor the fire the iron, when the iron began to glow, the smith could bend it into any shape he desired, but it still remained iron. Even so we still retain our personality when we allow ourselves to be penetrated by Christ."
"The Atonement achieved a union which was not there before. He is in us, and we are in Him; by this I do not mean that kind of union which Indians call 'losing oneself in God.' They talk of the stream which is swallowed up or lost in the ocean. We do not lose ourselves, but we attain life in union with Him."
"Krishna says: 'In every age I am born to save the good and to destroy the wicked.' Jesus, on the contrary, came to save sinner