Baba Isher Singh Jiਬਾਬਾ ਈਸ਼ਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ

Sant Baba Isher Singh Ji (5 August 1905 to 26 August 1975) was a twentieth-century Sikh saint of Rara Sahib in Ludhiana district, Punjab. As head of the Bhai Daya Singh Samparda, he spent five decades preaching through kirtan and katha, giving Amrit to hundreds of thousands, and turning a deserted jungle clearing into Gurdwara Karamsar.

Who was Baba Isher Singh Ji?

Baba Isher Singh Ji was born Gulab Singh on 5 August 1905 at Allowal, a village near Patiala, to Baba Ram Singh, the village nambardar, and Mata Rattan Kaur, both devout Sikhs. His parents named him Gulab, meaning rose, after a wandering saint blessed his father with a rose and foretold that his son would spread the fragrance of Naam far and wide. From childhood he was drawn to prayer: he meditated by a well outside the village, read Gurbani, did seva, and sought the company of saints.

He was educated at the primary schools of Chulela and Manaod and then at Model High School in Patiala, where he did well in his studies and in sport, playing hockey with the soldiers of the Patiala Topkhana. He spoke Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi and English. But worldly learning could not hold him. He spent his mornings and evenings at the gurdwara, singing kirtan, and searching for the Truth his whole life would be given to.

His name is easily confused with another saint of the same era. Baba Ishar Singh Ji of Nanaksar Kaleran (1913 to 1963), born Inder Singh at Jhoraran in Ludhiana district, was the disciple and successor of Baba Nand Singh Ji of Nanaksar. The two men shared a name and a lifetime but belonged to different lineages: Baba Isher Singh Ji of Rara Sahib was the disciple of Sant Attar Singh Ji of Reru Sahib and head of the Bhai Daya Singh Samparda, while the Nanaksar saint carried forward Baba Nand Singh Ji's mission. This entry is about the saint of Rara Sahib.

How did he become a disciple of Sant Attar Singh Ji?

As a young man he came into the company of Sant Attar Singh Ji of Reru Sahib, a revered saint of the early twentieth century, and became his devoted student. Under the saint's guidance he took Amrit and was given the name Isher. In July 1922 he left his home to look after Sant Attar Singh Ji at Reru Sahib, and soon Sant Kishan Singh Ji joined him in serving their guru. The two young men would remain together for the rest of their lives.

Sant Attar Singh Ji gave them two principles to live by: to be firm believers in Atam Marg, the spiritual path, and to constantly practise and preach Naam; and to be always upright and never to beg for anything. When Sant Attar Singh Ji died on 21 January 1927, the two disciples were grief-stricken. To steady themselves they set out on pilgrimage, visiting Machhiwara, Kiratpur Sahib, Anandpur Sahib, Amritsar, Nankana Sahib and Panja Sahib, and then they came to Rara Sahib and settled there.

What is Rara Sahib, and why did he settle there?

Rara Sahib is a village 22 kilometres south-east of Ludhiana, on the Chawa-Payal-Ahmedgarh road, on the bank of the Bathinda branch of the Sirhind Canal. It took the name Sahib after a visit by the sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind Ji. When the two saints arrived it was a deserted jungle. They settled there at the request of Sardar Gian Singh Rarewala, a former chief minister of PEPSU who had been Sant Isher Singh Ji's classmate and friend.

For years they sat in simran and samadhi, deep meditation, in the jungle. The well beside which Sant Isher Singh Ji meditated for nine years still stands, half a kilometre east of the main gurdwara. In 1936 devotees built the Darbar Sahib on the bank of the canal, naming it Gurdwara Karamsar after Sant Karam Singh Ji of Hoti Mardan. In 1940 Sardar Mohan Singh arranged a secluded enclosure, the Bhora Sahib, for the saint's meditation. The great diwan hall followed in 1980 to 1983, and the complex grew a 105 foot clock tower and the Karamsar Sarovar, a holy tank 83 feet by 62 feet.

The two saints divided the work between them. Sant Kishan Singh Ji looked after the whole gurdwara: the langar, the buffaloes and cows, the schools and the farm. Sant Isher Singh Ji was set free to travel, doing kirtan, answering the questions of seekers, and preaching the teachings of Guru Nanak wherever he went.

What did he teach?

His teaching was simple and practical: Naam, simran, kirtan and seva. He taught that the Name of God should be remembered at amrit vela, in the early hours before dawn, and carried through the day in honest work and selfless service. His katha, his discourses on Gurbani, and his sweet, melodious kirtan drew crowds wherever he went, and recordings of his katha and kirtan are still listened to today by Sikhs and scholars alike.

At the end of every diwan he held Amrit Sanchar, and his followers credit him with initiating hundreds of thousands of people into the Khalsa over five decades. His biographers say that 101 of his students reached the state of Brahmgiaan, the highest spiritual realisation. He remained celibate all his life, owning nothing and asking for nothing, and the two principles his own teacher had given him, to practise Naam and never to beg, stayed the rule of his life.

How did his message reach people around the world?

Between the 1950s and the 1970s he travelled far beyond Punjab, visiting Sikh communities in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and the United Kingdom, preaching, doing kirtan and giving Amrit. Back in Punjab he established a second ashram, Gurdwara Sant Ashram at Dhablan, in 1954. Hundreds of gurdwaras around the world are connected to the Rara Sahib Samparda today.

He also built for the people around him. In 1945 he got a school established inside the gurdwara compound at Rara Sahib, which was later taken over by the Punjab Government. In 1969, the 500th birth year of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, he established a college at Karamsar, with the support of Gurnam Singh, then the chief minister of Punjab, so that poor children of the area could study further. After his death Sant Kishan Singh Ji founded the Sant Isher Singh Ji Memorial Public School in 1987 and a memorial hospital, which serve about fifty villages around Rara Sahib.

How is Baba Isher Singh Ji remembered today?

He died on 26 August 1975 in Wolverhampton, England, while sitting in meditation. His barsi, his death anniversary, is observed every year on 26 August at Gurdwara Karamsar, and his birth anniversary is celebrated on 5 August at Gurdwara Ishersar Sahib in Allowal, the village where he was born. Sant Kishan Singh Ji succeeded him as head of the Bhai Daya Singh Samparda and carried the mission forward.

Gurdwara Karamsar Rara Sahib remains one of Punjab's great places of pilgrimage, where devotees gather for sangrand and pooranmashi, take Amrit, and listen to kirtan in the diwan hall he inspired. His life is told in Sikh homes as proof that a village boy who gave himself to Naam could move thousands, and his katha still guides seekers who never met him.