By Pola Singh | Malaysia |
It has been a day since I made the drive back from Melaka to Kuala Lumpur. The dust from the journey has settled, but the profound stirring in my heart has not. My 77-year-old body carries the physical exhaustion of the road, yet my soul overflows.
The 54th Annual Melaka Sant Baba Sohan Singh Ji Salaana Yaadgiri Semagam concluded yesterday (May 24, 2026) at the Gurdwara Sahib Melaka, but Baba Ji’s sacred presence refuses to part from me. Waking up this morning, I am brought to my knees in absolute gratitude and humility. How deeply blessed I am to have walked the very same earth as him.
For those who never had the privilege of meeting him, let me speak of a holy man who, more than 50 years after his passing in 1972, still breathes inside the hearts of thousands of Malaysian Sikhs.
Melaka: Where the Legend Began
Melaka holds an irreplaceable sanctuary in the soul of every Malaysian Sikh. It was here that Sant Sohan Singh Ji anchored his life’s work, and it is here that the Sangat (congregation) converges every year, stripped of ego, to remember him.
Walk into the Melaka Gurdwara during this three-day event, and you are immediately struck by his living presence. He is not a static portrait on a wall or a name hollowly invoked in speeches.
In the Sewadars: He lives in the quiet, tireless determination of the volunteers.
In the Elders: He is there as frail hands steady one another to climb the concrete steps.
In the Youth: He lives in the bright laughter of children darting through the langar hall.
He is there—gently guiding, silently motivating, reminding every soul to carry out their sewa not as a chore, but as pure love and humility in action.
Ask anyone in the Sangat, and you will hear only reverence. Seniors in wheelchairs make the gruelling pilgrimage year after year, just to breathe the air of his blessings. Young families who never knew him speak his name with awe. He united Malaysian Sikhs in life, and in death, he binds us still.
He Did Not See Rich or Poor—He Saw Family
“In his eyes, there were no big houses or small houses, only Waheguru’s children.”
My family—the Tara Singh family—came from the most humble, impoverished beginnings. We had nothing. Yet, Baba Ji never discriminated. Not once. He looked past our poverty and saw our souls, treating us with the exact same warmth, time, and respect as the wealthiest families.
The power of his blessings remains etched in my mind. For the Sangeet ceremonies of my two elder sisters, Ajaib Kaur and Piaro, Baba Ji arrived at our modest home in Air Leleh on a humble trishaw. He didn’t rush. He sat on our floor, offered his profound blessings, and prayed for their futures.
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Today, with folded hands and a bowed head, I testify that his prayers were answered. Both sisters were blessed with decades of happy marriages, joyful homes, and children who have flourished.
I am one of 10 Tara Singh siblings. By Guru Ji’s grace, we are all thriving today. If you ask me the secret to our survival and success, I will tell you plainly: it was the unmerited blessing of Sant Baba Sohan Singh Ji and our family’s unwavering faith in him. He gifted us dignity when society offered us none, and a hope that carried us forward. For that, I live each day in deep gratitude.
One Sangat, Across Borders
This remembrance has outgrown Malaysian borders. Every May, Sikhs from Australia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia converge upon Melaka. They do not arrive as coddled international guests; they arrive as family, eager to lower themselves in service. They bring generous donations, but more importantly, they roll up their sleeves and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the locals.
Distance evaporates when the heart is called home. And the sewa is a sight of pure devotion:
- At Dawn: Mothers and daughters gather, their palms dusted with flour, rolling out hundreds of rotis in prayerful silence.
- In the Kitchens: Volunteers chop mountains of onions and potatoes, eyes watering from the fumes but spirits soaring.
- At the open-air kitchen: Men stir massive, steaming pots of langar to feed thousands, while the cha brews ceaselessly.
- In the Hall: Volunteers manage orderly lines, ensuring the elderly and toddlers are given priority.
No task is considered beneath anyone. No job is too small when done in his name. This was his ultimate lesson: Sewa is not mere service; it is love made visible through humility.
Why I Share These Words
When I write these pieces for Asia Samachar, members of the Sangat often tell me how deeply they relate to the stories. Through these regular reflections, I have been blessed with global friendships and the motivation to keep writing.
I write because stories keep his memory alive. As long as we remember, his light continues to banish our darkness.
What We Take Home
Baba Ji firmly embedded the core principles of Guru Nanak Sahib Ji into our mundane, daily routines. For those of us blessed to have encountered him before 1972—even through the eyes of a child—we remember his discipline, his immense warmth, and his absolute insistence that humility and sewa are not weekend hobbies, but the very way a Sikh should breathe.
Though the crowds grow massive each year, the atmosphere becomes strangely more intimate. We come for him, but we find each other. Old friends from editions five, 10 or 20 years past embrace like long-lost siblings over cups of tea, promising, “See you in 2027, if Guru Ji wills.”
An Extraordinary Legacy
To those who never knew Sant Baba Sohan Singh Ji, understand this: He was a man who transformed thousands of lives without ever asking for a bank balance, a title, or a social status. His silent blessings still ripple through weddings, births, careers, and quiet bedtime prayers from Melaka to Sydney to Bangkok.
He left his earthly vessel in 1972, yet at this 54th anniversary in 2026, he remained the busiest person in the Gurdwara.
What a man. What a legacy. What an immense blessing that I was born in Melaka, and that my family’s destitute path crossed his holy track.
Sitting in Kuala Lumpur today, resting after the long drive, I am filled with a quiet, overwhelming fulfilment. I am adopting gratitude not just as a feeling, but as my daily ardaas (prayer).
We will return next year. With folded hands, with plates to wash, and with hearts wide open. Because Sant Baba Sohan Singh Ji isn’t history. He is home.
Sant Baba Sohan Singh Ji, your light still guides our faltering steps.
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Dr Pola Singh, who retired as Maritime Institute of Malaysia director-general in 2011, is also the author of ‘Uphill — The Journey of a Sikh-Chinese Kampung Boy’
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