Simran Sewa

Bahagt Ji's Struggle to Save Lives

2009-05-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

'The doctor found her to be terminally ill and refused to admit her, which I thought if h had, lots of my problems would have been automatically solved for me. For one, being a woman she needed privacy, something I could not give with my other patients.'

As god would have it, Bhagatji was left with no other option but to take the woman, named Asha Devi, and her son, Jeeta, to his dera and put them up under a tent near the parking area.
Whenever she coughed and spat, he would cover the sputum with loose soil to prevent germs from spreading. He also took great care to protect Jeeta from the infection. To remove any doubts still, Bhagatji got the child's medical tests done.

Asha Devi did not have strength enough to look after her son. She couldn't even talk to him. So, silently she handed him over to Bhagatji. 'Very soon, I became attached to the boy. I would keep him with me, mostly in my arms, hugging him all the time. He was lovely to look at. Fair complexion, dark hair, big eyes! I would bathe him daily, comb his hair and feed him - just like I did for Piara. I thought I would educate him, and when he grew up, he would help me in my work.'

Asha Devi died about a couple of weeks after she was given shelter. 'Being a bachelor, I didn't give her body the last bath. Narain Singh, who was middle aged and married, performed this job.' Sadly he carried out her last rites. 'I had met her too late,' Babaji grief is obvious in his notes.

'Four days prior to her death I came across Chhajju Ram, a cook by profession, lying on the platform near the road bordering thandi khui - a place where cold water from earthern pots was served. I was on my back to my dera when I spotted him. His face was covered with a dirty piece of cloth. I uncovered his face and spoke to him.'

'I belong to Kangra. I came from Delhi to be treated for TB, but before I could even reach the hospital, someone took off with my trunk. It contained all my money too,'he told Bhagatji.
'Despite objections by civil authorities, I took him to the dera and looked after him,' wrote Babaji.
From a house opposite the Majitha House, Bhagatji would get good food - fresh, soft chapattis and green vegetables. He would keep them aside for Asha Devi and Chhajju Ram for they needed more nourishment. 'I would also buy grapes for them sometimes,' he recalled fondly.
Chhajju Ram died after about fifteen days and Babaji made his second trip in three weeks to the crematorium to consign Chhajju's body to flames.

Jeeta was too small then to miss his mother much and became exceptionally attached to Bhagatji instead. He would sleep with him too. One night the boy's body felt abnormally warm to Babaji. Warning bells rang in his ears and the very next morning he rushed jeeta to the doctor. 'The doctor refused to administer Streptomycin to him, saying he was beyond the treatment stage.'
Though Babaji was sure he could be treated, there was nothing he could do in face of the doctor's rigid stand.

'With a heavy heart, I watched him die a slow death. For almost five months before his death, I cradled him in my arms. During his last three days, he did not get up from my lap. On the third day, as I tried to put him down, he uttered a single syllable, "Ugh", in protest, and then just stopped breathing. I broke down.'

Bhagatji gave the boy his last bath and took him to the cremation ground. Before lighting the pyre, he cried again. 'I kept crying even as the fire raged. I did not leave till it died down completely,'Bhagatji recorded. 'I cried, saying, "Jeeta, look, I am not leaving you alone even now!"'

A few weeks later, Bhagatji came across a paralysed boy lying on one of the platforms at the railway station. He lay covered in his own urine and faeces, flies buzzing all around him. He could not move at all. 'I picked him up and brought him to the dera, cleaned him up and named him "Kalu" affectionately, for he was extremely dark complexioned.

During this period, the dera was moved from the railway station to a broken down house that had no doors or windows, opposite the Hussainpur railway line. The sick would be put inside the room, while Bhagatji and his sewadars would sleep outside. He would personally prepare Kalu's bed, spreading a sheet over the ground. One evening, however, he was too tired and told Narain Singh to make Kalu's bed.

'Perhaps he was careless in his job, for when I went to check on Kalu in the morning, the sheet was not under him and he was lying on the cold ground, shivering miserably. I rested his head on my lap and realized he was running high fever. I shouted for Narain Singh to light a fire to keep Kalu warm, but it did not help. Kalu too died in my lap within the next few hours... It just did not occur to me to take him to a doctor immediately.'

Heartbroken, Bhagatji took Kalu to the cremation ground. Before lighting the pyre, he stood near Kalu's feet and wept, 'Kalu, you have met an untimely death, but before departing you gave me the honour of serving you, loving you. May your orphan spirit, whom I tried to love like my own son, reside within the Almighty and pray for me, so that I can look after others and serve them with the same affection as I served you.'

In his notes, Babaji wrote, 'Every time one of my children died, I died with him.'

Conception of the Pingalwara

2009-02-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

As mentioned earlier, the Khalsa College refugee camp was full of human misery. 'Some had left behind wealth in Pakistan, some lefts lands, other relations. There were the sick, the handicapped and the mentally disabled. All seemed to be crying themselves hoarse at the calamity which had struck them,' Babaji said.

'I lived on roadsides for almost a year and a half, like a beggar, asking for food for my patients. I had no qualms doing so for these less fortunate children of god.' With his attire and a bell around his neck, he did look like a beggar!

'He would keep ringing the bell and go from house to house, covering almost an area of two kilometres,' recalls Gurbax Singh.

'I started initially with the houses in the railway colony. The women there were kind, but when my rounds became a routine, they said, "Babaji, you are making a habit of it." Later, though, when they came to know about my "flock", they started giving me alms happily,' wrote Bhagatji. 'All this while, however, I had immense faith in my Guru and the sangat; I believed that together they would help me succeed in my mission.'

There was no organized help in the temporary camp that came up in the railway station compound. So once again it was left to Bhagat Puran Singh to take charge of two Sikh women and a crippled fifteen-year-old Muslim boy.

'I was forty-five by then, and though not feeling tired, I realized I needed help.' Narain Singh seemed godsend when he met Bhagatji and expressed desire to work with him. Later Gurbax Singh and Hazara Singh joined them. To Narain Singh, Bhagatji paid one rupee twenty paisa, and to Hazara Singh, fifty paisa. Together, the four would divide the duties between them.

'Whatever chapattis would be left after feeding my wards and the sewadars, I would take to Vijay Hospital - now renamed Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital - and distribute them among the beggars sitting outside and the poor patients inside.'

After his meal, Bhagatji would want to satisfy his thirst for news on current affairs and the environment. 'I would take time out from my hectic schedule to read the Tribune, which I would borrow from Dr Balbir Singh, a famous eye specialist, and would try to finish reading it quickly.'

Once, on his way back from the hospital, as he passed through the veranda outside the X-ray room, he saw a woman lying on a sack with a four-year-old boy sitting close to her. They were both in a miserable state. 'I stood there and watched as she crawled to a place away from the veranda to urinate - She was so sick she couldn't even stand up or sit straight. I took her treatment slip from her and read, "Pulmonary tuberculosis - advanced stage."
The boy looked starved, but I had no money on me to buy them food. And there was another problem. I was sure they would be removed from outside the X-ray room once the hospital closed. Where would she go then?'

Bhagatji requested the doctor on duty to tell the chowkidar not to remove her. 'I will come to pick her up early tomorrow morning,' he pleaded. The doctor agreed and gave necessary instructions to the chowkidar.
'By the time I got free from attending to my other wards the next day, it was nearly evening and I was worried for the woman and her son.' Meanwhile, she had crawled on to the main path - with her hungry and crying son by her side - hoping some kind-hearted person would take pity and give them some food or money. Bhagatji arrived in the evening with a tonga. But before taking her to his dera - the camp - he took her for screening to a TB clinic.

Loving Piara to Eternity

2009-02-06T06:44:00.000-08:00

'The kind of love I received from my mother until her death, I tried giving the same to Piara,' wrote Bhagatji. 'Though he was mentally a small kid even as he grew in age, his brain was not totally dead. He responded well to certain situations which I thought he couldn't even comprehend.'

When they had both just come to Amritsar, there were times when they would have to go hungry. Here's one particular incident, as told by Bhagatji to his adopted daughter and the present caretaker of the Pingalwara, Dr Inderjit Kaur: 'We had been hungry for eight successive days. There was no food; nor could I leave Piara alone and go begging for some. I got frustrated. I told Piara, "I am going to jump into a well and drown myself!" Piara shook his head, pointing towards himself, as if saying, "What about me? I will jump before you do!" Just then, a crow flew above our heads and a morsel of chapatti fell from his beak. I broke it into two halves, gave one to Piara and ate the other myself.'

'He is the garland around my neck,' Bhagatji would always refer thus to Piara's clinging arms around his neck. 'On the night the unruly mob attacked Dehra Sahib, and Piara sat outside the main door, I felt a grave despair tugging at my heart. I was worried about his fate in those three minutes that took me to reach to him.' So deep was the bond between them.

By the time they had had to leave Dehra Sahib, Piara had already been with Puran Singh for thirteen years. Within this period, he had begun understanding Piara well, the way he thought and felt.

'If one stood very close to Piara and shouted, or clapped his hands loudly, he would topple down in fright. He could not tolerate loud noise,' Bhagatji wrote in his notes.

Referring to days immediately after the Khalsa College camp closed down, he wrote, 'If I had been alone, it would have been easy for me to look after the seven-odd cripples who were tagging alone, but since I could not leave behind Piara anywhere, It became very difficult.'

To this he found a partial solution after some time.

'On the main road leading to Putlighar, just opposite Guru Nanak Vare, a sikh man and his wife had set up an earthen oven where they used to roast gram and sell it. Whenever I went to collect food from different houses- spread over half a mile- I used to leave the light of my life, Piara, with them.'

The old woman was still alive in 1984 but the sikh gentleman has passed away. 'With god's grace, more people like them started coming forward, volunteering to look after Piara for a couple of hours while I did my rounds.'

'Piara would feel happy seeing the hustle and bustle around him.'

'Whenever I undertook travel, I would leave behind Piara under exclusive care of one of the sewadars. But I knew in my absence he would become sad, and so, as soon as I returned to the Pingalwara, I would take him in my arms and cuddle him.'

Bhagatji confessed, 'Sometimes I think maybe it was due to the bond I shared with Piara that I was able to love other cripples.'

As the Pingalwara expanded, Babaji became very busy, but he would still find time for Piara. In the mornings, as was his routine, he would seat Piara in a cycle rickshaw and take him to Darbar Sahib, where they would both sit outside throughout the day.

'When I would be too tired after a full day's labour to get up at night to check on Piara and other cripples, I would rely on the sewadars. At such time I would wonder, "Is it worthwhile - running an institution like the Pingalwara! Will these sewadars, whom I pay money, be able to look after my patients with the same love and care as I do?" Then I would console myself with the thought that they were definitely better inside the Pingalwara than rotting on the roads.'

At different stages in his life, he would be stricken with the thought,'If I were to fall sick or die, who would look after my Piara?' So, every now and then, he would call some sympathizer over to the Pingalwara and say, 'If something happens to me, look after Piara, please!'

As fate dictated later, when Babaji died, almost two years before Piara, he left a team of sewadars and doctor Inderjit to look after Piara. It is said that on Bhagatji's death Piara didn't cry or grieve- as if he could not comprehend the loss he had suffered.

Bhagatji attributed the establishment of the Pingalwara solely to Piara, 'If Piara had not come into my life, or if there had been an institution in 1934 which could take care of him, he would have been admitted to it, and there would have been no Pingalwara!'

Bhagat Ji's Camp

2009-02-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

'Once I saw a man lying outside the college compound,' Bhagatji said, 'I went over to him and asked, ''Babaji, do you need anything?" The man was an educated Brahmin. He gave me a two-rupee note and said, "Get me some chilled sharbat." I went to the Putlighar crossing and got him a drink. Then I said, "Babaji, if you have any money on you, please give me some. I am a devotee of the Guru and there are so many like you who are lying unattended. I need money for them!" He did not believe me. However, I visited him every morning. On the third day when I went to see him, he had died.'

This was the acid test of Bhagatji's integrity. He had no money but had seven infirm patients - apart from Piara - requiring medical treatment.

With a grim resolution, Bhagatji went through the dead man's clothes and found a substantial amount in the form of hundred and ten-rupee notes.

'The total came to seventeen hundred and ten. I spent the money on my "children" and to fulfil our collective diet requirements. A few days later, however, I started feeling guilty. The money I was happily spending did not belong to me. Finally, whatever was left after the Brahmin's and an old woman's cremation, and our expenses of three days, I gave for safe keeping to a shopkeeper I knew. It was later given to the family of sewadar Mehtab Singh, who had lost his life in the Partition riots.'

The camp closed down on 31 December and Puran Singh shifted with his brood first to the space outside Chief Khalsa Diwan, and then to the railway station complex.

Here also he looked after the refugees who were still coming in buses and were being put up at an arzee-- temporary-- refugee camp.

Officially many of these camps had been wound up, but the stream of refugees coming was ceaseless. Soon Bhagat Puran Singh's own camp came into being.

From Lahore to Amritsar - Bhagatji's unshattered integrity

2009-02-04T06:50:00.000-08:00

The road to Amritsar was swarmed with people, screaming, crying and howling loudly. There were forty-five including Bhagatji and his companions on such a hard journey where no one was sure whether he or she would reach the destination safely.

In an Army camp near Amritsar, they had stopped for a few days. The officer in charge asked the army cook to make kheer from the rice and milk specially supplied to them for the refugees. 'But we were neither given kheer nor milk as all the sewadars had dispersed.' Hazara singh tries to remember. From there, we went to Sharifpura and finally to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple).
While some sewadars went to Darbar Sahib, Bhagatji with no money and Piara on his back went to Khalsa College camp on 18 August. 'It was a heart-rending sight.' Bhagatji wrote. ' The tents were pitched on the main lawns. It seemed to be an endless sea of the sick and the wounded, wailing women, children, rendered orphans, handicapped and the crippled, who needed a lot of love and care, but which was not available to them. Even those among them who were sick were lying all over the college grounds with no one tending to them.'
'The old and sick paathi, whom I had picked up from Lahore and had brought with me to Amritsar, died after five days. I took care of him-the best I could-with Piara on my back all the time.'
Bhagatji never shied from helping those who needed him.
'The first cripple I picked up was from the road opposite the Principal's bungalow. The old woman seemed to belong to a good family.' In one of his biographical notes, Bhagatji wrote, 'I knew the kind of service I was undertaking, or had partly undertaken in Lahore, was not very hygenic, but the need of these people was much greater than my own likes or dislikes. Most of the abandoned invalids around the college grounds lay in their own excreta, covered in soiled and sinking clothes. My main task was to keep them clean and arrange for food for them.'

Opposite Khalsa college was an acid-manufacturing unit, owned by Lala Shambhu Nath. It had four taps with round-the-clock water supply. This was where Puran Singh used to sponge his patients and wash their dirty clothes. He wrote about another cripple in one of his accounts, 'He was a middle aged, paralysed Hindu from the Lahore city. One could see his entire body had swollen up because of septicaemia. He simply lay under a tree in a corner of the compound. I used to bring him his food there and look after him as much as I could. The infection entered his brain later and he died of haemorrhage.'
With the inflow of patients increasing, the fire raging inside him to serve the needy became an inferno. He continued dealing with one refugee after another with the same smiling countenance. They would often ask him, 'Who are you?' And he would answer smiling, 'Guru's Bhagat.'

Bhagat Puran Singh In Horrible Times Of Partition

2008-04-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

"It was horrible - the period preceding the partition and later.Muslims,Hindus and Sikhs, suddenly all became fanatics.They cut throats and spilt each other's blood.Religious fanaticism can be gruesome," Bhagatji shuddered to recall those days.

"Little did I know that I would witness the same kind of violence years later in my own city." Going back to the forties, he recounts the sequence of events. "We were attacked by a mob of Muslim fanatics on 13th August 1947 at 2.55 p.m. About fifteen minutes before the attack, I was standing on the topmost landing of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's samadhi trying to sight my friend Barrister Raghunath Rai, whose haveli was right across, wondering how I could save him.There was fire all around his haveli.I wasnt carrying Piara then; I had left him outside the langar hall."

Just then, bullets from 303 rifles started whistling all around him.The sewadar standing right behind him fell on the ground.Puran Singh's first thought was of Piara. People were scampering for cover,running and screaming like mad, both over the tomb and outside the gurdwara."Someone may trample on him," he worried.

Running towards the main door, he spotted a group of women and children sitting under the banyan tree in the lane. "Run for your lives, the riots have begun," he shouted . The women quickly ran towards the rooms under the samadhi.

"I dont know whether the mob spared them or not," Bhagatji wondered aloud later.

He himself had run and quickly picked up helpless Piara, banging on the door to the langar hall," Open the door." Fortunately, sewadar Ujagar Singh heard his cries and let him in.

"Sometimes I think that if we had not soon been let in,then in all probability, we would have been shot at or stabbed to death,right there. And if something untoward had happened to Piara, I would have collapsed there and then,"

Stray incidents of violence,rape and arson were already being reported from the city of Lahore.Gurbax Singh came to Puran Singh one day and said,"I found a Hindu girl in a semi-clad state in the ruins outside the city.She says she has been gang-raped by some Muslim boys." Puran Singh took hold of his arm and marched him immediately to the nearest police station, saying,"You must lodge a complaint here,stating whatever you have heard or seen.The truth, Gurbax Singh.Dont be afraid, I am standing here beside you."

Gurbax Singh remembers," Such was his personality.He was not afraid that it was a Muslim-dominated locality, or that the administration profoundly shared Muslim ideologies.He made me do my duty, while he stood guard."

Remembering details of the attack , Bhagat Puran Singh wrote , "From every nook and corner outside the gurdwara, bullets were being fired at us. Had not the building of the Gurdwara been made strong with metal sheets nailed on the terrace, we too would have died.

' "Guru's Sikhs, gear yourself up for a long fight. Fear not the Muslims; we will fight them until our last breath," Mahant Sahib was trying to boost the morale of the sewadars, who had armed themselves with whatever they could lay their hands on. ' The attack by the Muslim fanatics , who were later joined in by army personnel, continued till 18 August 1947. Three trucks full of armoured Indian Army men came to rescue the sewadars trapped inside the gurdwara.By the time they arrived, we had already given up hope and were rationing the food.'

According to Hazara Singh, who was present in Dehra Sahib during the curfew," We had locked ourselves in. When on third day of the curfew it seemed the things had improved, the head Granthi , Heera Singh, told us to unlock the doors and asked one of the sewadars to clean the tawa to make chapattis. He was still cleaning it when a bullet struck him on the neck and he died. For five days,then, we chewed uncooked rice and gurr in the store. Yes, chewed, for we could not swallow uncooked rice.The youngsters in the lot could somehow manage it , but the old men were in real trouble.

'The Jathedar refused to abandon the place,saying, " Not till I receive orders from the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committe(SGPC)."'

'The orders did not come then, but later I learnt that the mahant had managed to escape with a lot of gold and silver, which was property of the gurdwara, and handed it over to the SGPC,' wrote Bhagat Ji.Dehra Sahib had been my home for 24 years.On seeing my hesitation to leave it, Heera Singh, who was already in the truck shouted,"Puran Singh, what are you waiting for?Hurry up!" Still, I hung back. He shouted again, "Puran Singh, think about Piara.Come on, climb!"

May be that did the trick and Puran Singh climbed on to the truck.If he had not done so, history would not have been created.

'Perhaps the Guru had desired a greater service from me, and I had to leave Lahore," BhagatJi philosophized.

So, with khadavans on his feet, kachchera on his otherwise naked body, a phullkari on his back, and iron bowl(bata) in his hand, a cloth bag containing his notebooks and few magazines on his shoulders, and just one rupee and thirty paisa in his pocket, Bhagat Puran Singh left for Amritsar.

Piara Singh - The Reason Behind Pingalwara

2008-04-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

I just want to let the readers know once again that the biography of Bhagat Puran Singh Ji that I am putting here is taken from the English Book "His Sacred Burden" - Bhagat Puran Singh - By Reema Anand.I am sure anyone who reads Bhagat Ji's life gets inspired in many ways.

"It was year 1924.I would wait eagerly for a certain partially paralysed man at Dehra Sahib,with twin emotions of joy and sadness in my heart.He would crawl for more than a kilometre to have his langar there.I would serve him food and at the same time thank God for gifting me with all the limbs" Bhagat Ji told.

The impact that this man had on Bhagat Ji's mind prepared him for accepting Piara Singh and many others like him who were to come later in his life.From serving langar to the sangat in the gurdwara,cleaning the hall and washing the utensils, to taking sick people to the local hospitals and bringing them back,Bhagatji never said no to any form of sewa.

Bhagat Ji himself had nothing to give to others,but he always tried to help people who came to him.Recalling how students would flock around him,seeking money for books or school fees,Bhagat Ji said, "I would station myself at the main door and make them stand with me.The moment I saw a fairly financially stable devotee,I would ask for aid on the boys' behalf."

In return Baba Ji would ask for nothing.

During this period, his mother was still employed with Sardar Harnaam Singh.Between 1927 and 1930 , when her health deteriorated, she summoned him to her and said,' Puran, take me away now.I dont want to burden Sardar Sahib with my sickness'.

Bhagat Ji Recalled ,'I kept shifting my ailing mother from verandas and the corridors of Gurdwara Chehrata Sahib in Amritsar to the trees lining the verandas and to the roadside.I took care of her until the end..She died like a poor orphan'.

After suffering for 2.5 years and being bed-ridden for the last 1.5 years,she died on 23 June 1930.For Bhagat Ji,his role model was gone;there was suddenly a void which engulfed and hurt him. 'I didnt cry for one whole day', Bhagat Ji said.

Bhagat Ji still enjoyed warmth of Mahant Bhai Teja Singh's love, so this grief did not throttle him.But later on when the mahant too died,Bhagat Ji's pain poured out unabated.The grief left him numb but he did not give up.

In 1931, he served crippled and handicapped patients for eight months outside Gurdwara Baba Atal Sahib.The sangat brought lots of eatables with them,which Bhagat Ji used to serve to the crippled numbering 20-25.

In 1934,two sikh landlords from ludhiana visited Dehra Sahib.They had brought with them a 3 year old boy who was partially deaf and dumb,and mentally handicapped.They asked the leader of Gurdwara "Babaji, this boy was born deformed.Initially his mother took care of him, but three months after her death,the father,who did not share her sentiments and love for the boy,abandoned him.Our wives looked after him for a few weeks but they find attending to his chores very exhausting and cumbersome.Please take him under your guadianship". They were told "This child needs special attention and care, for which we dont have a provision in this Gurdwara".Nevertheless,the two men left the boy at the Gurdwara's main entrance.

Next morning, the boy's cries attracted all sewadars to the spot.The mahant picked him up and said the ardas,"Dear Guru, this child has come seeking shelter at your door.Give us the strength to look after him." With these words he handed over the child to one of the sewadars present there. Bhagat Ji recalled " unfortunately the sewadar spent too much time running around on other errands and could not give the child much attention." Recalling those days Bhagat Ji said " His condition was pitiable.He was left on rubble heap with sharp stones jutting out of it.He kept defecating and crawled a little away from the faecal matter each time.No one came forward to clean him.I also kept watching..watching the helpless boy and my own reactions.By evening,after defecating countless number of times,the poor boy was feeling very weak.My eyes became teary and a deep sadness filled my soul.An anxiety coursed through my being and I felt the restless energy in me transforming itself into a decision."

The next day Bhagat Ji bathed the child,dressed him in clean clothes and carried him on his back to the gurdwara.In the main prayer hall, he cried as he prayed, " Oh dear Guru! As your true disciple, a Gursikh, I adopt this boy as my own".

It seems as if his lonely heart had been waiting for the arrival of this God's creature.He informed the nearest doctor about the child's conditions, and with proper medication and affectionate care, his health started improving.

Bhagat Ji named the boy Piara Singh,meaning 'The Loved One', and gave him so much love, which probably the child's real mother could not have given him.Piara provided him with a reason to live.For thirteen years to come, Bhagat Ji roamed the streets of Lahore with Piara on his back.

Gurbax Singh,a retired railway employee in Lahore,was witness to this devotion.He recalls
" Puran Singh , would attend to Piara with such motherly love and care that it was marvellous to see them together.If he saw mee as he picked wrappers and peels of fruits from the road, he would ask," Gurbax, why dont you join me?", to which I would reply," This is not my cup of tea,Puran Singh"".

Piara had become Bhagat Ji's lifeline.The joy he expereinced in looking after him was divine.Once ,Piara fell seriouly ill and suffered high fever.When fever did not subside for 21 days,he got worried.He prayed," Dear Guru,I have never asked anything from you,nor will I ask ever again.Only this time,I pray,save my child".His prayers were soon answered.

On his part, he kept his promise until death.He never expected any rewards from life,nor did he ever complain.There came a constant appeal from the other sewadars of the Gurdwara," Why are you wasting your youth,Puran Singh?" To this he would reply ," Piara has been gifted to me by the Guru himself,how can I turn away from him then?" Thus,they were confirmed that his joy lay entirely in looking after Piara, Piara Singh.

Adversity Strikes Bhagat Ji's Family

2008-03-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

In 1913 Bhagat Ji's family was seriously affected by the famine.His parents became dependent on others' generosity. Bhagat Ji's Father Shibumal was reduced to a pauper,but he still wrote off 50 thousand rupees that farmers owed him. His parents decided to work as labourers and started cutting overgrown grass for people in neighbouring villages.

Still Bhagat Ji's mother didnt want to call him back from the hostel.She wanted Ramji Das(Bhagat Ji) to develop into a clear -headed,complex free boy and didnt want him to see blisters on her hands.She worked in other people's houses doing odd jobs.Ramji Das's monthly fees was ten rupees, so Mehtab Kaur's target was to earn at least that much every month.She would send her entire earnings to her son and did not keep any money for herself.

During this period, an aquaintance, Rala Singh visited the couple.He was a retired army man.Pitying Mehtaab Kaur he said "Is this how you are going to pay for your son's education for four more years?I know a doctor in Montgomery who needs domestic help.Both you and your husband can work there."

So they left for Montgomery. Bhagat Ji and his mother knew that time that they would not be seeing each other for four years. "Their going away made me more determined than ever to boldly face my circumstances." Bhagat Ji said.

Mehtaab Kaur washed utensils for these four long years before movig to Lahore.Shibumal tried to give her company, but his endurance had been severely tested and he failed in his resolution.He left her to live with elder Ramji Das and stayed there till his death.

"I have never been able to overlook this indiscretion committed by him- abandoning my mother to wrestle alone with adverse circumstances" Bhagat ji commented.

In Lahore, Mehtaab kaur started working at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.Once during vacations , she took Bhagat Ji to visit Lahore's famous Shiv Temple and Gurdwara Dehra Sahib.Being at an impressionable age and also already in the grip of identity crisis, Ramji Das analysed quietly the difference between Sikhism and his own religion(Hinduism) and vowed to become a true sikh.

"I shall forever remain indebted to my mother for the hardships she faced for my sake and the man she made out of me" Bhagat Ji said. Unfortunately, despite mother and son's combined efforts, Ramji Das could not clear his matric and he became very depressed.

"It was awful, till this brave mother of mine wrote to me, " Dont worry,son, those who dont clear their matric still get pleanty of oppurtunities to prove themselves." My heart became light at her encouraging words and I heeded her summons to return to Lahore." Bhagat Ji recalled.

Bhagat Puran Singh Ji's transformation into Sikhism

2008-02-22T13:21:00.000-08:00

Bhagat Ji was a very keen listener and agood practioner of Hindu religion as a child.His awareness of Hindu Gods and Godesses and myths attached to them was very good. He had been visiting the local temple since he was a small boy.There were ten to twelve tiny hindu idols of stone and clay which he would carefully wash and then dry them with a piece of clean cloth. He did all this with great love and care.He would pluck twenty one leaves from a particular tree and would write "Om Namah Shivai" on each one in red chandan. Then he would offer it to the main Shiv idol.

He was equally exposed to sikhism and was never stopped from attending any of the various religious congregation.

There were two incidents which influenced his spiritual countenance and gave definite direction to his life.

On his way to the village one day,he stopped at the Neelkanth temple,and as was his routine,he washed the idols,dried them with cloth and prayed.It was fairly late and Bhagat Ji was hungry.The temple priest rang the bell for food and all the inmates sat down to eat.So did Bhagat Ji.The priest served the food to all others sitting there except Bhagat Ji.He said to Bhagat Ji "You dont belong here". Bhagat Ji got up quietly without any argument and started for home.But for many days he was haunted by the question that if "I didnt belong to God's house then where and to whom did I belong?."

He had appeared for his matric examination at Ludhiana and was returning to his boarding school. Bhagat Ji told " I was extremely tense,for I knew that once the examinations were over,the hostel authorities would send me packing.My parents had already left for Montgomerry and I had no home.Where would I go then? On the way back, it became dark, and as the roads were unfamiliar to me, I was scared that I might get lost.Somewhere near the canal, I met two sikh farmers, one of whom was blind.He was reciting Rehraas Sahib while the other listened quietly.I also sat down and listened to him.When the prayer ended, I asked them, "Is there any place where I can spend night and get something to eat?" They directed me to Gurdwara Reru Sahib.I told them "I have kept fast today and to break it I can only eat sweetened rice". The eleder of the two gentlemen then took me to his house, made sweetened rice for me and gave me his own bed to sleep in."

Such compassion by the two sikhs attracted Bhagat Ji towards their religion like a magnet.Next morning , he started for Reru Sahib. On reaching, sweet melodies of Guru's Shabad awakened the inner recesses of Bhagat Ji's soul.With a strange sort of peace settling inside him, he sat down in the langar hall while the sewadar served sweetened lassi to him. In lunchtime sewadar called out "Langar is ready, Guru's cherished followers.Come and eat."

Bhagat ji said " As those sweet words melted in my ears, I felt I was receiving answers to the several questions that had been bothering me for last so many years.I could feel myself melting into Sikh fold.It was like a mother enveloping her son in her warmth."

Long before the Reru Sahib incident, Bhagat Ji had made notes in his diary as to how the physical aspects of Khalsahood impressed him.Bhagat ji had attended the Jor Mela at Fatehgarh Sahib.Fatehgarh Sahib is the place where "Chotte Sahibzadey" were bricked alive by Muslim ruler.Bhagat Ji recalled "I sat close to where Guru Granth Sahib was residing on a raised platform,watching everything and taking in every single detail, for I had never been part of such a large congregation".At mela Bhagat Ji was very impressed with personlaity of ADC of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala.Bhagat Ji , who till that time, had always tied a loose parna around his head, patted his head with a new interest. He went back home and told his mother, "something is missing here", pointing towards top of his head.

Bhagat Ji told "When the whole congregation left barefoot for Gurdwara Jyoti Saroop, the maharaj too became part of that procession, and I thought, here is a religion which does not beleive in class or caste distinctions.

The life history of "Chotte Sahibzadey" inspired him beyond his own imagination. He said " I felt strong emotional bond with the Sahibzadey as I bowed before the sacred place".

Bhagat Ji followed his intuition to the last specific and adorned himself with the ways of Khalsahood for all his years to come.

Walking on a path that leads to God

2008-02-22T10:38:00.000-08:00

If you look at Bhagat Ji's pictures its hard to imagine he was a person of such stature. He didnt care a bit about his appearance or what people called him. People called him an "Educated Beggar" as he always had some books or papers in his hand.

Let me continue with life of Bhagat Ji from the book "His Sacred Burden " by Reema Anand.Every little aspect of his life is something we should try to apply to our lives and learn from.

Bhagat Ji's parents were very generous people and they opened their house to everyone without caring about infectious nature of Plague which hit the country in 1904-1905. To divert Bhagat Ji's attention from the hatred of his elder brother her mother started taking him to "Neelkanth Temple", a Shiv temple of Hindus. She would take his help to draw water from the well for watering plants and trees and for cattle to drink.

His mother told him "Look down while you walk,son, lest God's tiny creatures be crushed under your feet". Bhagat Ji said that he became so conscious of this fact that he always tried looking down whenever he walked. As told by his Sewadars once Bhagat Ji refused to go somewhere and said " I wont be able to see the ants...it is evening now.We will leave in the morning".

Bhagat Ji's mother tuned herself perfectly to nature and her surroundings. She had been inspired by Sikh Guru's Sakhis.She planted "Trivenis" - group of three trees, neem,pipal and banyan around a pond in her village.Bhagat ji would become sentimental whenever he talked about her, he said "I went back home in the seventies and again in the mid eighties.The trees she had planted are still there with a huge canopy of branches providing shade to the passers-by".

Her mother told him "Thorns and nails might pierce somebody's foot,son, while stones etc will obstruct everyone's path". Silently Bhagat Ji absorbed this and applied it to his own life for rest of his life. In the picture below he is seen picking up things from the road later in Amritsar.

"The best part of our interaction was that she never imparted her advice to me as a sermon;it always came with a reasoning I could digest" Bhagat Ji told.

Both mother and son would spend the afternoon tending to the cattle. Bhagat Ji said " As I saw them drinking water, a great surge of happiness would course through my being. An unfamiliar coolness would descend on me - as if it was my thrist which was being quenched".

Once in Amritsar Bhagat Ji saw an over crammed tonga which made the horse's feet bleed. Bhagat Ji was on another tonga from opposite side. He stopped , got down, reached to the other tonga and shouted at its driver "Damn you, can't you see that poor animal is bleeding?Why then are you hitting him?Tell me. Cruel man, get the poor horse's leg treated first".

Despite his old age,till his last days, Bhagat Ji did not deter from serving others.

Once at the age of seven,he fell ill and was running high fever.When even after three days his fever didnt come down ,his mother prayed to the Guru and wept, "Cure him and he will walk on the path that leads to you".

Who could have walked on that path better than him?

Mata Mehtab Kaur - Birth of Bhagat Ji

2008-02-18T10:30:00.000-08:00

I found this picture depicting crux of sikhism on sikhiwiki . It shows how five evils can be marginalised with essential ingredients of sikhi compassion,love,truth,humility and contentment.Three pillars of sikhi "Kirat Karo"( Honest earning), "Naam Japo"(Medidate on God's name) and "Wand Kay Shako"(Share your earnings) are to be the support of a sikhs life. Simran and Sewa forms the base of sikhi.

Our success in life in true terms depends on how much of Simran and Sewa we are able to integrate within our being.

Coming back to inspirational life of Bhagat Puran Singh Ji, I am going to write a bit about his early days. He didnt have a very good childhood in terms of family circumstances. Sometimes I think, even after being raised in quite well off families with lot of love , in sikh families for lot of us and with lot of securities we dont have much compassion for the needy or even if we have some our own careers,comforts and need of securities overshadows it. Bhagat ji never had any financial security but he made others life more secure, he didnt get love from most of his family members but he treated every patient as his own child, he didnt have someone to teach him about sikhi at home but he is a role model for all sikhs , he failed in high school twice but he wrote like scholars on various issues.

Her mother's name was Mehtaab Kaur, she had lost her husband soon after marriage. She was a "Jatt" by cast and a hindu Khatri named Shibumal showed interest in marrying her. Shibumal was already married with a grown up son and a daughter. The union was frowned upon due to caste difference. Shibumal brought Mehtaab Kaur to his Haveli in village "Rajewal" in Punjab. Shibumal got her aborted thrice as he thought their caste difference would create problems for the matrimony of their children and there could be property disputes with his elder son. Mehtaab Kaur pleaded with him not to get her aborted fourth time. In this environment of insecurity,guilt,unfaithfullness,religious generosity,jealousy and intolerance Mehtaab Kaur gave birth to Bhagat Puran Singh ,then named Ranji Das Junior,in village Rajewal Rohnon in Khanna district, near Ludhiana, Punjab on June 1904. Shibumal loved his both sons bur Ramji Das senior never got along with Ramji Das Junior. For many Ramji Das junior was illegitimate child of Shibumal.Mehtaab Kaur was full of generosity and unlike Shibumal, was deeply religious. Shibumal was quite generous though. Bhagat Ji said "I grew up in a house full of warmth and affection, mainly due to untiring efforts of my mother.My diet was unquestionably the best which money could provide." According to his contemporaries he was always alone.He was considered a bastard by his stepbrother. He never knew why his brother hated him so much. When the truth was revealed to him by his mother he became even quiter and his mother moved him to a boarding school near Khanna.

His Sacred Burden - Bhagat Puran Singh

2008-02-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

Its been quite long since I posted anything on this blog. I started it just to share some rare pictures of Bhagat Puran Singh Ji which I took from museum of "Pingalwara" in Amritsar. I just knew he was someone very great who devoted his whole life to serving the needy . But recently I read a book called "His Sacred Burden - Bhagat Puran Singh" by Reema Anand. It just left me in total awe .

I couldnt beleive such a person ever existed . Its so hard to imagine what he did for humanity and so selflessly. But its a tragedy that not many people know about him. Like Reema Anand says in the book "Who was Bhagat Puran Singh? It pains me whenever I have to answer this question , especially when the questioner is Punjabi" . His life is such an inspiration. We all can learn a lot from him about selflessness, about serving all creatures of God, about dedication to a cause so great, about sewa in truest sense, about humility,about fearlessness, about integrity, about compassion,about seeing God in all, about love and about so many other things. He looked no better than a beggar and people called him "educated beggar" but he never cared. Many of us read and listen to Gurbani but fail to follow even a single thing in totality. Bhagat ji lived "Seva" so truely and in totality.

I just couldnt hold the temptation to let others know what I now know about Bhagat Ji and hence the revival of this blog. I have read "His Sacred Burden" and I recommend it to everyone. Its Bhagat Ji's biography in English, has many rare pictures of Bhagat Ji, has original letters written by Bhagat Ji translated in English. I am also reading some other books which were compiled by Bhagat ji himself. Through this blog I would try to share things about Bhagat Ji as I read various books about him and by him. Many books (including "His Sacred Burden") are distributed free of cost by Pingalwara, Amritsar. If any one is interested in getting books from Pingalwara, please send me an email with your address. I will try to arrange the books through someone I know personally in Pingalwara or you can probably go to Pingalwara website and send your details directly to them.

Personally his life has inspired me a lot and I think in todays time we all need bit of such inspiration to awaken the "seva" capability hidden in all of us. I think its our responsibility of all to spread the word about Bhagat Puran Singh and his life for the simple reason that it will help so many in so many ways. Whoever gets to know about Bhagat ji will not only get inspired but will also know importance of "seva" and "Daswandh" and will in turn help the needy and inspire others for the same. I hope through this blog with Waheguru's kirpa I will be able to do my bit in letting more people know about Bhagat Ji.

I am also trying to put details of various sikh charities, involved in great causes , in one place so that whoever gets inspired to do any seva and give his/her Daswandh will be able to find a place to do so. I personally struggled many times to find appropriate places to give out "Daswandh" and have zeroed in on these by knowing their activities quite closely.

Epitome of Sewa - Bhagat Puran Singh - Pingalwara - Amritsar

2006-06-28T05:07:00.000-07:00

Its hard to even imagine such a soul.I have no words to explain his sewa. I took some pictures from the pingalwara museum. Here Bhagat Ji is carrying Piara Singh . Piara Singh was crippled , Bhagat Ji picked him up one fine day and called "Garland of my Neck" ,took care of him . Its because of him that by Guru Sahibs Kirpa Pingalwara came into existence and served numerous needy people.

Bhagat Ji with his "Garland of Neck"

Bhagat Ji with another needy child.

Here Bhagat Ji is writing something. Along with Sewa of deceased,crippled and needy people he used to write on Gurbani and Gurmat and also on general social topics.He has written and published lot of such articles both in Punjabi and English from Pingalwara Press.

Bhagat Ji thinking where to keep these needy people. He never cared about his own body,clothes,health.

Bhagat Ji with a patient.

Bhagat Ji in thoughts in front of Khalsa College Amritsar.

Manuscipt of one fo Bhagat Jis Articles in His own handwriting.

Bhagat Ji always emphasised on cleanliness. He asked people to pick up any dirt from roads and put it at right place.Here he is seen picking up something from road himself.

See the Garibi he lived in .He gave the needy his own food,his own clothes .

Once again lost in books and his thoughts about humanity and its welfare.

Bhagat Ji with some more people and his "Donation Box" and a bell. He roamed around to collected any small donations for the needy people.

Another picture of Bhagat Ji.

Bhagat Ji doing Ardaas near a badly crippled patient.He felt the pain of patients as his own pain.

Pingalwara in its early forms when Bhagat ji had arranged to keep needy people on makeshift beds.He tried to help the needy in whichever way he could and with whatever resources he could gather.

Bhagat ji with the needy.

Bhagat Ji with some more Gurmukhs.Sleeping himself on floor.

Bhagat Ji seen with thick specs and papers, in thoughts.

Bhagat ji in His simplicity.

Bhagat ji listening to Gurbanee(centre).

Bhagat ji worried about a patient.

Bhagat ji with another patient.

Bhagat jis Arrangement to carry patients.Bhagat ji is also seen.

Bhagat ji getting a patient to pingalwara.

Bhagat ji with another Singh.

He loved all the creations of God.

Bhagat ji with his family.

Bhagat being host to some foreigners.

The cycle cart used by Bhagat ji to carry Piara Singh Darbar Sahib daily.

A painting of Bhagat ji with "Garland of His Neck".

Another painting of Bhagat Ji with Piara Singh.

Very true and lived so truely by Bhagat ji.