3. Jay Jalaram Bapa Temple at Virpur

India is a land of saints since ages. Many saints have served the poor and miserable people of India through out their life. Such saints are really rare on this earth. One of such saint was Jalarambapa of Gujarat. Saint Jalaram was born in the year 1799 at Virpur, a small village near Rajkot, one of the important cities of Gujarat. There is a famous temple of Jalarambapa at Virpur in Gujarat. Many Indians have a deep faith in Jalarambapa. They always visit this temple whenever they get an opportunity. Saint Jalaram was not a god but was a human being, just like you and me. In spite of it, he is worshipped today amongst all Indians more than god. The worshippers of Saint Jalaram are available in all the parts of the world.

devotee of Lord Ram. His father was doing a business at Virpur near Rajkot in Gujarat. In spite of his many efforts, young Jalaram never took any interest in the worldly activities and was drawing towards Lord Ram day by day. His guru gave him one advice to feed hungry people all the time. Jalaram took this advice and started giving food to the poor, sick and needy people. His parents made him to marry Virbai, a local village girl. However, his religious activities continued along with his wife. Jalaram was moving from village to village to collect the donation to feed hungry people. People started to know and recognize about the work of Jalaram and they started giving donations to him for his noble cause of feeding hungry people. The span of activities increased and Jalaram was soon worshipped as "Rotibaba". He started giving food to all the people coming to his house since the year 1827. Both Jalaram and his wife continued serving like this for many years. Then came the greatest famine of the century in the year 1856. Jalaram and Virbai worked very hard and fed hungry people all through this famine. This service was really invaluable as it was performed without any physical expectations of any kind of returns. Finally, Jalarambapa died on 23 rd February 1881 while doing prayers of Lord Ram at Virpur only where he was born. This is called samadhi in Hindu religion.

The temple of Saint Jalaram was established at Virpur, Rajkot after the samadhi of bapa to pay the tribute to the noble acts of Saint Jalaram in the year 1885. There is no statue of Jalarambapa in this temple but his only real photograph available is worshipped here. Most of the Indians visit this place and Virpur has become a place of pilgrimage since then. The old practice of serving food, tea, and snacks whoever come to this temple is continued even today after around 121 years. This service was possible due to unlimited donations from Indians all over the world and has never stopped even for a single day during the long span of 121 years. Even today, all the persons visiting this temple take prasad in form of lunch, dinner or snacks. The whole job of cooking, serving, cleaning etc. is done by the youngsters of Virpur village without taking any type of compensation. Have you seen such a holy and noble place where food is served to all the people with love and affection without any charges for last 121 years? I am sure your answer would be NO. The most important aspect is that the temple trust have stopped taking donations since the year 2001 as there are sufficient funds already available to continue this service in the future. Special lunch and dinner are served on the birthday of Saint and some special occasions.

You can reach Virpur by road from any major city of Gujarat. Virpur is around 130 miles from Ahmedabad by national highway 8B. The roads are excellent and it hardly takes around 3 hours to drive. There is a Dharmashala available, managed by the temple trust, to stay during the night at very nominal rates of Rs. 20 (50cents) per day for two people. There is a small market where you can buy all types of souvenirs of Saint Jalaram. The temple is still having the bag and the stick that was carried by Saint Jalaram while he was going for collecting donations. There is also a beautiful statue of lord Ram and Devi Sita in the temple. The temple remains open all through the day and closes at 9pm. The morning and evening Artis are really worth attending. Try to remain present during these Artis and you will have a divine pleasure. Though food is provided free, there are some small hotels that can provide varieties of food on nominal payment. Around 10000 pilgrims visit this holy temple everyday and pay their homage to the great Saint Jalaram.

If you also want to share this unique experience, make sure to visit this temple at least for a day in Gujarat. This will increase your faith in powers of human beings and what can be achieved by the sincere efforts of an ordinary human being.