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. Tragically 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 their 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 their 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!