Sundar Singh was born into a Sikh family in the village of Rampur (near Doraha), Ludhiana district (Punjab state), in northern India. Sundar Singh's mother took him to sit at the feet of a Hindu sadhu, an ascetic holy man, who lived in the jungle some miles away, while also sending him to Ewing Christian High School, Ludhiana, to learn English. Sundar Singh's mother died when he was fourteen. In anger, he burned a Bible page by page while his friends watched.Sundar Singh was also taught the Bhagavad Gita at his home.

Conversion to Christ

Sundar felt that his religious pursuits and the questioning of Christian priests left him without ultimate meaning. Sundar resolved to kill himself by throwing himself upon a railroad track. He asked that whosoever is the 'True God' would appear before him, or else he would kill himself; that very night he had a vision of Jesus. Sundar announced to his father, Sher Singh, that thenceforth he would get converted into the missionary work of Jesus Christ. His father officially rejected him, and his brother Rajender Singh attempted to poison him. He was poisoned not just once but a number of times. People of that area threw snakes into his house, but he was rescued from mistreatment with the help of a nearby British Christian.[4]

On his sixteenth birthday, he was publicly baptised as a Christian in the parish church in Simla,[2] in the Himalayan foothills. Prior to this, he had been staying at the Christian Missionary Home at Sabathu, near Simla, serving the leprosy patients there.