Talk:Jalārām Bāpā and Vīrbāī
By Vishal Agarwal
Hindu Dharm teaches us that if there is one good deed that we must perform every day, it is feeding holy men, and the needy. Therefore, giving food in charity is called sadāvrata, which means “an eternal holy vow.” One must feed not only humans, but if possible, also animals.
One saint who followed the sadāvrata was Jalārām (1799 – 1881) of Rājkot, in the Indian state of Gujarat. He was born in a family of businessmen, but at a very early age, he announced that he had no interest in running his father’s business. Instead, with whatever money he had, he liked to feed visiting Sādhus, the poor and the needy. He and his wife became disciples of a Guru named Bhoja Bhagat, who was a low‐caste farmer himself.
The Guru asked Jalārām to start the sadāvrata, and gave him a mūrti of Rāma. Jalārām was worried that he may not have enough to feed the needy every day. But his Guru said, “Worship Rāma every day. Soon, Hanumān will also come to you. And after that, you will never be short of food for giving away in charity.” Jalārām and his wife Vīrbāī worked as laborers for reaping the harvest in the farms of others. In return, the farm owners gave the couple money and a share of grain, with which they practiced the sadāvrata.
The Guru’s words came true. In a few days, a mūrti of Hanumān appeared out of earth mysteriously, and Jalārām started worshipping him along with the mūrti of Rāma. And just as his Guru had said, Jalārām noticed that he always had enough food to distribute from his own earnings. His friends and admirers also started offering food to Jalārām so that he could distribute it every day. Jalārām helped in grinding corn and preparing food with hard physical labor. The fame of Jalārām and his wife began to spread far and wide for their noble and generous behavior.
People started saying that Jalārām could even work miracles. For instance, once a tailor had an excruciating stomach ache that the doctors were unable to cure. He fell at the feet of Jalārām and called him Bāpā (‘father’) begging him to pray on his behalf. Jalārām prayed to Rāma and the tailor’s stomach ache got cured! Thereafter, he came to be called Jalārām Bāpā by his admirers.
In another instance, a thief came to Jalārām and begged him to protect him from imprisonment. The criminal was not only released from his punishment, but with Jalārām’s guidance, he became a good man himself for the rest of his life.
At another time, a rich Muslim merchant was cured of his illness by Jalārām Bāpā, who prayed at the merchant’s home and asked Bhagavān Rāma to cure him. All doctors had told the merchant that his illness was incurable and that he would die. But soon after Jalārām prayed for him, the merchant became well. Out of gratitude, he donated a cartload of food grains to Jalārām’s kitchen.
Once, three Arabs who worked for a Hindu employer quit their job when their master refused to increase their pay. On their way to look for some other work, they killed some birds for food, and put them in a bag. As they crossed the home of Jalārām, he invited them to come inside and eat some food. The Arabs were embarrassed, because they were carrying the dead birds in the bag, whereas Jalārām was a vegetarian. They hung the bag on a tree outside and went in to eat Jalārām’s food. After the meal was done, the saint came out to see them off, and saw the bag hanging from the tree. He touched the bag with his stick and said, “The birds inside the bag must be feeling suffocated. Open the bag and release them.”
In his own lifetime, people of many religions started regarding him as a great saint. When the Arabs opened the bag, they were shocked to see that the birds were alive. They let the birds fly off. Jalārām then blessed the Arabs and said, “Go back to your employer, and he will raise your salary more than you had asked for.” The Arabs did as they were told, and were surprised that the employer raised their salaries by seven rupees, although they had asked for only four more.
Even today, his descendants continue Vīrbāī and Jalārām Bāpā’s sadāvrata. He is regarded as a saint by a large number of people, who have constructed temples in his honor not only in India, but also in the countries of East Africa, the United States of America, New Zealand and in the United Kingdom.