Sant Kirpal Singh – Childhood
Sant Kirpal Singh was a very obedient child. But on two occasions He gently yet resolutely asserted His independence. He was in the habit of helping all He knew, regardless of their relations with His family. So once His father called Him and said, "Pal (His pet name), our friends will be your friends and our foes will be your foes." But Pal replied with cool deliberation, "Father, your friends will be my friends, but it is not necessary that your foes be my foes, as your enmities may have been based on misunderstandings. Life is too short and I have not come to have enmities and hatreds. I have come to love all."
His family was non-vegetarian. But He was averse to taking meat even as a child. While His brothers and sisters would ask for more, He would have none at all. He was content with bread and vegetables. His father asked, "Pal, why don’t you take meat? It will do you good." He sweetly replied, "It is very well, father, but is not meat dead flesh, and would you have me make a burial ground of my body?" The father could only smile, and the child had His own way.
When Sant Kirpal Singh was seven, eight years old, He was reading in school. One day He asked the teacher, "Please, give me leave, I want to go home, my grandmother is leaving the body." The teacher said, "What a Saint you are, sit down and attend to your study!" Soon afterwards one person came from His home. He said, "Kirpal is wanted at home, His grandmother is going to die." He was a conscious entity. He knew each and everything.
Once Sant Kirpal Singh was asked for the purpose of His learning at school, He said, "I am learning for the sake of knowledge." Others said, "We want to become a doctor, we want to become a judge, we would like to become an engineer", but Sant Kirpal Singh said that He was learning for the sake of know-ledge – and He became the teacher of humanity.
From His early life Sant Kirpal Singh was a lover of books and devoted most of His time to extra-curricular studies. Once He had started reading a book He would not leave it, until it was finished. Very often He would continue reading the whole night and would only sleep a short time. There was no electric lighting in His home. So He had to read by the light of an oil lamp. Fearing that too much study would tell upon His health, His father ordered that Pal should go to bed by ten in the night. But His love for books could not be overcome. It was winter. He would no doubt get into the bed, at ten but while everyone thought Him asleep, He was reading His books under the cover of His quilt. He read all the books of a college library during the two years of His studies there. His studies were not confined to His texts alone. He invariably stood first in His class. One day the boy who used to stand second in the class did not do his work. The headmaster expected all the students to come prepared in advance for the day’s lesson by noting all the difficult words and their meanings after consulting the dictionary. The headmaster got annoyed with the boy and took him to task. The boy complained that it was just his first default but Kirpal Singh had never followed his instructions. The headmaster told him that Kirpal had no such need as He knew everything in His texts and much more besides.
Badhra Sena
When I was writing in the high class, there were examinations given. I used to take foreign history. British history was one part of the subject. My point was, I read not one but two, three, four histories of the same country by different authors. All don’t agree in detail. Some give more, the others less. The teacher gave notes on the main points, facts, then the examination was given. There was a maximum of 55 marks to be given out. I replied from references I had read in my own language. Another gave out word for word from the notes dictated to him by the teacher. So he gave me 54 marks out of 55 and gave that 35 out of 55. He complained, "I’ve given every word that you have dictated to me. Why did you give him 54 and not me?" "Because you have given word for word what I dictated. He (Kirpal Singh) has said what all historians say."
Sant Kirpal Singh
During His student life He told His mother six months ahead of her impending death, requesting her at the same time that she should from then onwards engage in the sweet remembrance of the Lord; for death was a necessary end and none could escape it. His prophetic words came true and she actually ended her earthly sojourn exactly at the time and date He had foretold. Seventeen days before her actual time of departure, He wrote to her that she should get ready as she was to go shortly. When the news of her sickness at the village came, He wrote to His elder brother, S. Jodh Singh at Nowshera, requesting him that he should at once proceed to the village and serve her as best as possible as it was the last service he could render to her; explaining at the same time that it would not be possible for Him to be by her side at the last moment. It so happened that His mother actually passed away within a couple of days after His brother’s arrival in the village. It was not unusual with Him to foresee the coming shadows of death in the family, and in time, He would make arrangements for their quiet departure, preparing them for the great final change. He would calmly bid them adieu as if they were going to some distant land – the home of their Father.
Sant Kirpal Singh, through purity of mind and sincere devotion had at a very early age developed powers of transvision. He could in His early twenties clearly see what was happening anywhere and read out what was in other people’s mind. This knowledge naturally interfered in His day-to-day work and made life burdensome. He prayed to God for two gifts: first, that this Divine gift should be kept in reserve so that He may pass His earthly life as an average man and, secondly, that if anyone benefited through Him, He Himself should have no knowledge of it.
Badhra Sena