Akali Phula Singh

     Guru Gobind Singhs soul left this earth and  merged with the Great Soul. Before he left he told the Sikhs to respect the Guru Granth Sahib as the living Guru from now on. For a long time the Sikhs stayed united, but after a long time some
Sikhs forgot everything the Guru had told them, so the whole Khalsa
wasn't totally united. There was a great man named Akali Phula Singh.
He had no fear or hatred in his heart. He always rose early in the
morning to chant the Name. Tragicly some Khalsa became greedy and
started fighting among other Khalsa. Khalsa was fighting Khalsa. They
fought for control of how to run things, they fought for land even. One
time two Khalsa armies were about to fight in Amritsar over who
controls the city and the Hari Mandir Sahib itself. Akali Phula heard this and
felt pain over the separation of the Khalsa. He met the generals of
both the armies. He said "We are all Khalsa, Guru Gobind Singh is our
father, we must not fight each other, we must stand together."
     The Sikh
generals were convinced and agreed not to fight. Akali Phula Singh
served as a perfect example of a Khalsa warrior his whole life. Later he when Maharaja Ranjit
Singh was the ruler of the Sikh kingdom Akali Phula Singh was one of
his generals. They were going to war with the Afghan armies. It was the
night before the battle and the generals and the maharaja were
discussing battle plans without sleeping. They decided to attack early
in the morning. They did an ardas and took a hukam from the Guru. After
listening to the Guru the Maharaja and the generals got ready for
battle. Just then a Sikh who had been watching the Afghan army all
night ran in. He said, "They have many big cannons that just arrived."
     This changed thier plans. The Maharaji said "Our Cannons won't arrive till noon, we will wait and attack after they arrive." Everyone agreed to
this plan except for one man, Akali Phula Singh. He said, "No, we
prayed before the Guru with the plan to attack now, we must attack now. We gave our word. Our lives are in His hands
not in any cannons." Some one said to him, "But we can not charge
against thier cannons!" Akali Phula replied, "Anything is possible for
those who have God in their hearts, the Khalsa are fearless. I will not
go back on my word." Then he quickly left and got on his horse. He came
over to his Akali soldiers and said, "Today we fight to the death for
the honor of the Guru. Let us show the world the courage of the army of
Guru Gobind Singh." His soldiers as one body unsheathed their swords
and rode their horses to the battle calling loudly, "Bole So Nihal, Sat
Sri Akal." Then he yelled, "CHARGE!" His army charged the fields.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh saw this and said, "What is he doing? We were
going to wait!" "He couldn't wait, he promised the Guru to charge at
dawn." Maharaja thought for a minute and then said, "Alright, sound the
attack, we'll charge with him."
     All the Khalsa armies mounted thier
horses and got their weapons ready and began to charge. Akali Phula
Singh was fearlessly the first one in the charge. Many bodies had
fallen down, many wounded. Akali Phula himself had been hit by many
bullets but kept fighting as if he was invincible. The battle raged on.
Now Akali Phula had been mortally wounded and fell on the ground. Some
Sikhs saw him and came over to him. With his last bit of strength he
told them, "Go on, charge. Fight for your Guru. Sat Siri Akal." The
Khalsa completely destroyed their opponents and won the battle. Many
felt very sad that Akali Phula Singh was no longer in his body, that he
left this earth and was liberated. They all knew that he did his duty to the very last
with perfect courage and fearlessness. They knew that it isn't the life
we live, it's the courage we bring to it. As Guru Gobind Singh taught
us: The Pure Ones belong to God, and Victory belongs to God. Wahiguru
ji ka Khalsa, Wahiguru ji ki Fate!