In Memoriam Yamuna Devi passes Govinda Vallabha Devi Remembered

Srimati Yamuna Devi left her body December 20th, 2011 in Melbourne, Florida during the early morning hours. Yamuna was an expert cook and author of the IACP award winning 800 page volume ” Lord Krsna’s Cuisine The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking”. In 1988 this was an incredible achievement in a male dominated field filled with European meat centric cooking. Hers was a vegetarian South East Asian sic Vedic cookbook gaining international recognition. Encyclopedic in it’s scope, a labor of love that took ten years to research, test and illustrate out in the field in the kitchens of royalty and temples in India where nary a Westerner had set foot. Back home she was a ground breaker and anyone working in this genre today, particularly female (Nigella Lawson, Padma Laksmi) and  Vegetarian owes her a debt of gratitude for paving the way to making this type of cuisine earn the respect of Westerners for the vast and sublime art form that it is. This is huge.  Yamuna was a living legend within the Vaisnava community and she could have well been outside that community if she had sought such attention. One of a small group of married couples that journeyed to London to establish Krsna Conciousness, she was an important member of a band of unlikely pioneers who eventually encountered The Beatles, established a thriving temple, and who greeted and took care of so many of those persons who visited Sr Sri Radha Londonisvara’s mandir setting a beautiful example of devotion and service. She appeared with her godbrothers and sisters on George Harrison’s Radha Krishna Temple album with the Hare Krsna Mantra hitting Number 1 on the UK’s Top of The Pops in 1969. Her singing was angelic and full of devotional nectar and to this day hers is the voice heard every morning in 400 temples and farm communities worldwide. An empowered Vaisnavi devoted to the lotus feet of her guru Srila Prabhupada, I got to see her in action during The Cook and The Book food festival in Philadelphia where I assisted in the kitchen. She was serious business. I didn’t dare waste her time speaking to her (I was all of 20) and just watched in amazement (while rinsing pounds and pounds of mache). The recipes she assembled for this affair were of a sophistication unseen for the quantity of persons attending and the precision with which she operated made me realize the meaning of expert. I remember her leading mangala – arati prayers during her stay in the Philadelphia temple. (I had requested she lead).  Her singing was simply ecstatic with a cooling effect like a full moon. True their are many lovely kirtaneers today but the sound vibration that emits from the mouth of a soul on the platform of bhava is beyond any material expertise or sensuality. (Somewhere I have that  Yamuna mix tape with that morning program). Her god brother Joshua Greene recalls that everything she did was for the Lord’s pleasure with her offering of arati as graceful as a dancers.  Yamuna was the real deal. She was meticulous in everything she did and the bar was raised high. I remember worrying if the chick pea and yogurt dish with mustard seed and coconut I served as part of the breakfast menu I had prepared would be to her liking but was too scared to ask. (It was her recipe.) A little later she kindly recommended me to Peter Kump’s Cooking School class that I was inspired to take because of her magnificent example. Her passing comes on the heels of another sweet soul Srimati GovindaVallabha devi who recently left her body on 12/12/2011. She was always very kind to me during my training at New Nilacala Mandir. She would always inquire if I had enough to eat when I returned from sankirtana which was greatly appreciated as I would return tired and hungry after attempting to distribute books. I remember distinctly our conversation in Sri Sri Radha Sarad Bihari’s kitchen while I was preparing an offering for Their Lordships.

I said , ”Well, I guess one day when I finally get to prepare a meal for Krsna I will feel differently.”

Govinda Vallabha devi replied that in fact I WAS cooking for Krsna right NOW and that there was NO difference between the arca – vigraha standing on the altar and the Lord Himself. That struck me like a bolt of lightening and removed my theoretical understanding of devotional service. In an instant, she removed a deep misconception within my heart and brought me so much closer to the Deity letting me see Them for the first time in a more personal way. I credit her for the deepening of my feelings for Them from that moment onward. Thank you both for all your service, sacrifice and love for Guru and Gauranga. I am beginning to feel the weight of your passing and the need to step up and teach. See you on the other side. Your fallen servant, Ekayani devi dasi
p.s. I direct the reader to the re-released edition of her landmark book, the instant classic that Julia Child called “Big and beautiful.” Just click on the book cover!

Tags: george harrison, vaisnavi