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My Friend Jugavati, and the Vishnupur Train Platform Swami | Podcast

Click here to listen to My Friend Jugavati, and the Vishnupur Train Platform Swami if you do not see the player above. The podcast length is 6:35 minutes.


Abbot George BurkeThe next treasure I want to tell you about lived right in the midst of the bustle of Delhi, but beyond it all.

One morning my friend Shyam Lal Sharma said he wanted me to meet a special person, a woman named Jugavati who was the sister of a famous Vaishnava guru of Brindaban. So off we went. Sharmaji was a man of very modest means, with whose family I always stayed when in Delhi, always sleeping in the living room. So I was surprised when we arrived at a three-story mansion in a new and prosperous neighborhood.

The surprises were not ended. As we went up the two flights of stairs to the third floor, Sharmaji explained to me that Jugavati had been a very wealthy woman, but several years before had given everything she had to her daughter with the understanding that a house was to be built with a temple of Radha-Krishna on the top floor and that full temple worship should be offered there daily by a priest. All she asked for was a place to live in the temple room itself so she could see Sri Radha and Krishna all the rest of her life.

The temple room was nothing less than opulent, though it very good and expensive taste. We saluted the deities who were being attended by the priest, and then turned to the left side of the room where Jugavati was sitting on a folding canvas cot of the type that soldiers and campers had been using for a century or more. A few things were under the cot–all that Jugavati possessed.

I wish I could have photographs of all the saints I tell about in these podcasts, but my attempts at description will have to suffice. So let me try to tell you about the appearance of Jugavati.

She did not look at all like her famous brother (I had seen his photo), but did look very much like Sri Ramakrishna’s great disciple Swami Shivananda also known as Mahapurusha who was the third head of the Ramakrishna Mission. Her face was strikingly noble, and her skin was golden in color and literally glowed with subtle light. (I had only seen this twice before.)

We sat and she began speaking to us about the supremacy of spiritual practice and aspiration. Reaching into a small bag she brought out a japa mala. It was her brother’s mala. He had given it to her just before he left the body and told her to use two malas for her sadhana, that she should hold onto one bead and with the other use a second mala to count off one hundred thousand repetitions of her mantra before moving on to the next bead in his mala. When she completed his mala she had done ten million eight hundred thousand repetitions of her mantra. Well, it had worked. She was living proof. Sitting there was a visit to God dwelling in an illumined heart. I went away breathing blessing.

In just a few weeks she left her body, frequently speaking about me and wishing we could meet once more. Surely God will grant her wish in a much higher world than this.


Also on this podcast is the story of the Vishnupur train platform Swami. Click here to listen to My Friend Jugavati, and the Vishnupur Train Platform Swami. The podcast length is 6:35 minutes.

Listen to more podcasts on meditation, the Yoga Life, and great spiritual figures at our Podcast Page.

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