Born in 1904 to a Sikh woman who was the second wife of a wealthy Hindu landowner, Ramji Das was raised as a Hindu but would eventually become one of the most respected Sikhs in India Bhagat Puran Singh.

Although he was born into affluence, his family lost their land after famine struck in 1913. His parents had little choice but to work as servants in Lahore while young Puran went to school. Although eager to learn, he was unable to pass his matriculation exams. (He would later teach himself by reading works by Ruskin, Emerson, Tyson, Thoreau and Gandhi.)

Puran Singh lived his life with few material belongings and while his early childhood is described as lonely and difficult, those very circumstances led him to dedicate his life to the needy.

Author Reema Anand in her book His Sacred Burden: the Life of Bhagat Puran Singh, describes him as a devout follower of the Hindu religion until, as a young boy, he began to question his beliefs after he was refused a meal at a Hindu temple. Puran Singh was told by the priest he did not belong there.
É for many days I was haunted by the question that if I didn't belong to God's house then where and to whom did I belong? Anand quotes Puran Singh. He would get his answer, she writes, late one evening on his way from Ludhiana to his boarding school when he met two Sikh farmers. It was dark and Puran Singh was afraid he might get lost and asked the two men, who were reciting their evening prayers, if there were some place nearby where he could spend the night and get something to eat.

One of them offered to let Puran Singh stay at his home. The next day, Puran Singh went to Gurdwara Rehru Sahib, where he was welcomed so warmly that he was inspired to return there daily and do service. People started calling him Puran, which means ideal.

He decided to rewrite the matriculation exams and while waiting for the results, which were a failing grade again, he decided to move to Lahore and began doing daily service at gurdwara Dehra Sahib.

At Dehra Sahib the 20-year-old Puran Singh would wait each day to serve a partially paralyzed man who would crawl more than one kilometer for the Gurdwara's langar. That man's struggle to survive inspired Puran Singh to reach out to others in similar plights, writes Anand.

In 1931 Puran Singh spent eight months serving crippled and handicapped patients outside Gurdwara Baba Atal Sahib in Amritsar. In 1934 he found an abandoned child near Gurdwara Dehra Sahib. The unnamed four-year-old boy was deaf, partially blind and required constant support and care. Puran Singh washed, changed, fed him and gave him the name Piara Ð the loved one.

The two remained together until Piara's death 14 years later.  Many questioned Puran Singh's reasons for devoting his life to this young boy. Piara has been gifted to me by the Guru himself, how can I turn away from him then? he would respond.

With a collection box and bell in hand and Piara Singh on his back, it was not unusual to spot Puran Singh making appeals for money on the streets of Lahore and later Amritsar. The boy was, in his words, a garland around my neck. By carrying Piara on his shoulders, Puran Singh said he felt as if he were carrying all those who needed help and compassion.

He remained in Lahore until the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 when, with a few rupees, the clothes he was wearing, an iron begging bowl and few notebooks, Puran Singh left for Amritsar.

The road to Amritsar was swarmed with people . . . No one was sure whether he or she would reach the destination safely, he would later recall.
Once in Amritsar Puran Singh went to the Khalsa College camp where he witnessed an endless sea of the sick and the wounded, wailing women and children rendered orphaned.

He also saw handicapped and crippled people for whom there was no care. Puran Singh took it upon himself to set up his own makeshift camp and take care of as many of these people as he could. After a few months the camp was closed down and Puran Singh was forced to move those under his care.

I lived on the roadside for almost a year and a half, like a beggar, asking for food for my patients, he writes. I had no qualms doing so for these less fortunate children of God.

All the time Puran Singh talked of some day creating a permanent care facility. By the time he found a permanent place for a camp Ð an abandoned cinema hall Ð it was 1950 and he had 90 patients under his care.

Five years later the cinema came up for auction and Puran Singh feared he would have to move his patients again.

Fortunately, a prominent politician visiting Amritsar came across Puran Singh's camp. He was so moved by Puran Singh's efforts that he allotted land at a low price and granted money to help construction of a building, which was completed on March 6, 1957.

Overcoming impossible odds, Puran Singh finally realized his dream of Pingalwara a home for those who would have been left to die by the roadside, uncared for and unmourned.

The number of patients at Pingalwara has increased steadily and today it provides food, shelter and care to more than one thousand. According to the All India Pingalwara Charitable Society, seven to eight new patients join the Pingalwara family every month. Any destitute persons found on the roadside are immediately picked up by the Pingalwara staff. Patients are also received from Sri Darbar Sahib, where they are at times abandoned.

Bhagat Puran Singh never married and never accumulated material wealth, but left behind a priceless legacy.