Her family was exceedingly poor so she started working at a very young age to make two ends meet. She helped her father in fishing at the Yamuna River, close to her village. She would sell fishes in the village's weekly market. But the family could hardly survive on that income.
She has three brothers.
Poverty compelled her to work as a construction laborer and in the farm. She also joined satsangs or prayer gatherings where she found free food. Jyoti also found consolation there after returning exhaustively from the field.
Jyoti earned fame and quickly became a ‘katha vachak' – A person who tells stories, mainly from scriptures.