Sant Joginder Singh Sarl

The information below was written by Sant Joginder Singh Ji’s son, Privindar Singh Sarl.

Sant Joginder Singh Sarl was born on 13th February 1929 in the Tarn Taran District of Amritsar. He started going to the Gurdwara with his mother and performing Sewa (service) from a very young age. His mother was always visiting holy places and doing Paath (reading of Holy Scriptures). During this time, he met a saint named Sant Wasakha Singh, who was an associate of Sant Isher Singh Ji. He used to visit Sant Wasakha Singh every day after school and spent a considerable amount of time with him. He learned a lot about spirituality from Sant Ji during these daily visits. The saint coaxed him to recite ‘Waheguru’ at all times, so he would hide in the closet or under his blanket and continue reciting ‘Waheguru’. He also went on to learn music from Bhai Mohan Singh Ji and stared doing Kirtan.

He then followed his parents to Kenya and began to work as a telephone operator in Kenya Telephone Exchange. He was then promoted to travelling supervisor. He would be transferred to different cities and towns quite often in this capacity, hence he stayed at towns/cities like Nyeri, Eldoret, Kisumu, Kericho and Mombasa. During his stay at these towns, he was very much involved in performing Kirtan at the local Gurdwaras and used this opportunity to teach Kirtan to the Sangat. He studied Guru Granth Sahib Scriptures in depth and lectured on Gurbani as well.

He retired at a very early age due to Kenya gaining their independence from the British. He decided to settle in India and there he started his own business in poultry farming. He hired someone to look after the business and he formed a jatha (group) to perform Kirtan in the homes of poor people for free. These were people who could not afford to even pay for preparing ‘parshad’. As he was not actively involved in the farm, his poultry business failed. His father persuaded him to return to Kenya. Upon arrival in Mombasa, he was approached by the Gurdwara committee to take up ‘Sewa’ as Granthi (priest) at Mombasa Gurdwara. He stayed there for a year and was then approached by Ramgarhia Gurdwara in Nairobi to take up ‘Sewa’ as ‘Granthi’ at the Gurdwara. He moved to Nairobi and stayed there for a short while. As the political situation in Kenya was very unstable he decided to move to England with his family in 1968.

When he arrived in Slough, the Singh Sabha Gurdwara located at Havelock Road in Southall came to know about him, and approached him to serve at the Gurdwara as head ‘Granthi’. He brought about many changes to the Gurdwrara such as performing Kirtan in the morning (Asa Ki Vaar) and evening (Rehras Sahib followed by Kirtan). At this time, the Gurdwara only opened on the weekends. After serving there for awhile, he decided that he had to move on to pursue his mission to promote Sikhism and teach people about Nam Simran. He travelled throughout the United Kingdom (UK) to spread Guru Nanak’s message. He also visited non Sikhs in jails to help them and at the same time, he also taught them about Sikhism and meditation. A converted Sikh was charged for not wearing a helmet while riding a motor bike as he refused to remove his turban. Sant Ji helped him in the court against the charges. After the tour of UK, he started travelling to other countries such as East Africa, South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, Middle East, Europe, North America, Canada and India to spread the message of Guru Nanak by teaching Kirtan and Nam Simran to help people overcome their problems. He was multitalented and could play many instruments such as the flute, sitar, tabla ,banjo and harmonium. He was a poet and writer as well. He studied Gurbani ragas and composed his own music. He was the first person to translate his lectures in English so that the younger generation could understand the Gurbani scriptures leading them to understand Sikhism better. The following is a list of books that he wrote:

1) The Holy Vibrations of NAM .This book is about western people gaining spiritual achievement through teachings of Gurus.

2) Amao Rus . Translation of Suda Savaya (Guru Gobind Singh) in poetic form

3) Amrit Bani . Translation of Japji Sahib in poetic form

4) Simple harmonium Kirtan Teacher

5) Harikirtan Sikhia

6) Sarl Kirtan Sikhia

7) Kirtan Sikhia

8) Sarl Sugandhia. Religious poems

If anyone has more recordings of Sant Joginder Singh Sarl to share, please contact us.

The following recordings are from a set of 16 cassettes kindly contributed by Sant Joginder Singh’s son, Privindar Singh Sarl. He also accompanied Sant Joginder Singh on tabla during their tour to England and Canada. Please ‘right click’ and ‘save link as’ to download audio files. Enjoy!

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