Bhai Puran Singh has often been referred to as the "bearded Mother Teresa" to underline his immense work amongst the destitutes. Against the backdrop of violence and poverty in 1947, he established a premier institute which takes care of sick, mentally and physically disabled, and forlorn persons. Whatever money and financial resources he could gather he used these to run this institute. It was also said that he was in the running for nomination to receive Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, but somehow the things could not work out. It can be said that by not giving him the Nobel prize it was a great loss for the sick and disabled persons and even greater loss for the nobel Prize committee.

His life story is a saga of grit, determination, faith in the almighty and unlimited love for the suffering humanity. A very brief sketch of Bhagat Ji's life is given below.

Bhagat Puran Singh was born at Rajewal, Distt. Ludhiana in 1904. He founded Pingalwara in 1947 to take care of the suffering of those who, amongst the millions of displaced persons, in the aftermath of partition of Punjab, were the least cared for. To begin with, he took a few uncared for sick people under his care and where he cared for them, he named it Pingalwara. Today Pingalwara is a very big home of human service. Bhagat Ji's contribution in spreading awareness about the global dangers of environmental pollution, increasing soil erosion, etc. are also quite significant. His dedication was awarded with heaps of honours by many quarters. He was awarded Padamshri award, by the Indian government in 1979, But he retruned this award in protest when the army attacked and desecrated Darbar Sahib complex in 1984. He died on August 5, 1992. We request you to kindly help the Pingalwara in serving the suffering humanity to the extent you can.
At present, Pingalwara is run by Dr Inder Jit Kaur, she is also President of All India Pingalwara Charitable Society(Regd). She has embarked upon a mission to produce a movie on the life of Bhai Puran Singh ji.