Bhagat Puran Singh - Service To Humanity

Service To Humanity

While in Lahore, he would often visit the Gurdwara Dehra Sahib, where he would provide water for the visitors to the gurdwara to do the necessary cleaning before entry, and help in managing the cattle that provided milk for the Gurudwara's Langar, the common kitchen, in which he helped by cleaning the utensils, making chapatis or distributing food to the sangat (people coming to the Gurdwara). He even cleaned the floor of the Gurudwara in the evening.

One day, someone fell from the roof of the Gurdwara and was badly injured. Bhagat Puran Singh immediately rushed him to the local 'Mu Hospital'. Experiencing inner joy after helping the patient, he took a man with badly bleeding leg, full of vermin, to a hospital where he expressed his thanks to Ramjidas telling him, "Son! Now I can die a peaceful death." With this incident, the service of humanity became the mission of his life. Now he would wander here and there finding the injured, physically handicapped persons, taking them to the hospital. He also took care of them as his pocket and capability allowed. Once, he even washed the clothes of an old, poor beggar who was suffering from diarrhea.

On a moonless night in 1934, someone left a four year old child, a boy stricken with leprosy at the door of Gurdwara Dehra Sahib. After performing prayers for the child's wellbeing, the then Head Granthi of the Gurudwara, Jathedar Acchar Singh, handed him over to Ramjidas, who named the boy Piara Singh. Rather than handing the child over to a center for lepers, if any existed, Bhagat Puran Singh decided to care for and raise him himself. This incident was to completely transform the face of his life.

After the partition of India in 1947, Bhagat Puran Singh reached a refugee camp in Amritsar which housed over 25 000 refugees with just 5 annas(0.3 rupees) in his pocket. A large number of refugees were critically wounded and incapable of nursing themselves. The government didn't make any arrangements to take care of these refugees. Bhagat Puran Singh took the initiative, he took some chloroform and turpentine oil and started treating the wounds of these refugees. He would often go in the nearby colonies to get food for the hungry and medicine for the ill.

Bhagat Puran Singh was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, for his selfless work, feeding, clothing, and tending sick and dying people.