Shares Lineage of Baba Daya Singh Ji

(the 1st beloved one)

​

Sant Jawala Singh ji, (1889-1957) widely revered for his piety especially among Sikhs in the Doaba region of the Punjab, was born on 1 May 1889 at Lagari, a village in Hoshiarpur district. Sant Jawala Singh ji and his twin brother were the sons of highly religious parents, Narain Singh and Raj Kaur. He received instruction at the village primary school and at the gurdwara. Tall and of athletic build, he joined the army on 5 January 1907 as a soldier in the 35th Sikh Battalion. It was during his service at Rawalpindi that he came in contact with Sant Aiya Singh ji, spiritual successor to Sant Karam Singh ji of Dera Hoti Mardan, a village near Mardan cantonment in the NorthWest Frontier Province. He formally became a disciple of Sant Aiya Singh ji on 5 March 1911. 

 

Sant Jawala Singh ji saw action in France during World War I, but resigned from the army on 1 January 1917 and Joined the Dera at Hoti Mardan to devote himself to a life of contemplation and service. At the persuasion of Sant Harnam Singh ji of his native Hoshiarpur district and with the permission of his religious mentor (Sant Aiya Singh ji), Sant Jawala Singh ji returned home to Doaba in December 1918 and settled in a lonely place between the villages of Harkhowal and Pandori Bibi, about 11 km southwest of Hoshiarpur. Dera Sant Ghar, the name by which his Dera came to be known, attracted Sikhs in increasingly large numbers. They came drawn by Sant Jawala Singh ji`s pious manner and by the simplicity and lucidity of his religious discourses.

 

Thousands received the rites of Khalsa initiation at his hands, among them being Maharaja Sir Yadvinder Singh, ruler of Patiala state. Sant Jawala Singh ji supported the Akaali and Babbar Akaali Movement and set himself staunchly against the heresy preached by the Parich Khalsa Diwan of Bhasaur. At his initiative several girders were raised or rebuilt at Sikh holy places, such as Anandpur, Patna and Talvandi Sabo. Sant Jawala Singh ji passed on in a village in Kapurthala district of the Punjab, on 13 November 1957.