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Sudama was among those devotees who were childhood friends with Krishna in His childhood. Krishna left Vrindavan at sixteen, and later He married and went on to live as King of Dwarka. Meanwhile Sudama was living as a Brahman, which means one who knows that the real self is spirit and who dedicates his life to being a spiritual guide for the whole society.
Sudama was also a householder, but he was not busy in accumulating wealth for very comfortable living. Whatever income came to him without difficulty, he accepted. He engaged his time in the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus showed himself to be perfect in knowledge. Externally Sudama appeared very poor because he had no rich attire and could not provide rich clothing for his wife. In fact they were not even eating sufficiently, and they were both very thin.
Often Sudama’s wife used to address her husband, “My dear lord, I know that Lord Krishna, the Supreme Lord of all the universes, is your personal friend. You are also a devotee of the Lord, and He is always ready to help His devotee. Moreover, Lord Krishna is always in favor of the brahmanas. Krishna is your friend, and persons like you have no other shelter but Krishna. You are saintly, learned and in control of your senses. Please, therefore, go to Him in Dwarka. I am sure that He will understand your impoverished condition.
Sudama, however, thought there to be no need to ask material benefit from Lord Krishna. But one time when she made this request, Sudama thought, “If I do go there, I shall be able to see the Lord personally. That will be a great opportunity, even if I don’t ask any material benefit from Him.” So he told his wife that he would go and that she should at once prepare some foodstuff that he could offer as a presentation to his friend.
Sudama’s wife had nothing in the house, but she went out and collected some chipped rice, which is the lowest grade of rice, from her neighbors, and she tied it up in a handkerchief. Sudama took the presentation and started at once toward Dwarka. As a devotee, he was always thinking of Krishna, and now he became absorbed in the thought that he would soon be able to see the Lord.
The Dwarka palace where Krishna lived was not accessible to anyone and everyone, for it was a king’s palace and was guarded all around. Saintly persons, however, were allowed to enter, and Sudama passed through three military camps and many gates until he finally entered the residential quarters of Krishna.
At that time Lord Krishna was sitting with His Queen Rukmini, but when He saw His friend Sudama coming, the Lord got up and went forward to receive him, and He embraced him feelingly.
He sprinkled the water used to wash the Brahman’s feet on His own head, as if for purification. He welcomed the Brahmana in many ways, giving him food and drink and saying, “My dear friend, it is great fortune that you have come here.”
Seating Sudama on His own cushioned bed, Krishna said, “My dear friend, you are most intelligent and know very well the principles of religious life. I know that after you finished your education at the house of our spiritual master you went back to your home and accepted a suitable wife. I know very well that from the very beginning you were never attached to the materialistic way of life, nor did you desire to be very opulent materially.”
“My dear friend,” Krishna said, “I think you may remember our activities during the days when we were living as students. You may remember that once we went to collect fuel from the forest on the order of the guru’s wife. While we were collecting the dried wood, we by chance entered the dense forest and became lost. There was an unexpected dust storm and then clouds and lightning in the sky and the explosive sound of thunder. Then sunset came, and we were lost in the dark jungle.
“After this, there was severe rainfall; the whole ground was over flooded with water, and we could not trace out the way to return to our guru’s house. You may remember that heavy rainfall—it was not actually rainfall but a sort of devastation. On account of the dust storm and the heavy rain, we began to feel greatly pained, and in whichever direction we turned we were bewildered. In that distressed condition, we took each other’s hand and tried to find our way out.
“We passed the whole night in that way, and early in the morning when our absence became known to our guru, he sent his other disciples to search us out. He also came with them, and when they reached us in the jungle they found us to be very distressed.
“With great compassion our guru said, ‘My dear boys, it is very wonderful that you have suffered so much trouble for me. Everyone likes to take care of his body as the first consideration, but you are so good and faithful to your spiritual master that without caring for bodily comfort you have taken so much trouble for me. I am glad to see that bona fide students like you will undergo any kind of trouble for the spiritual master. That is the way for a bona fide disciple to become free from his debt to the spiritual master. It is the duty of the disciple to dedicate his life to the service of the spiritual master.
“‘My dear blessed ones, I am greatly pleased by your action, and I bless you: May all your desires and ambitions be fulfilled. May the understanding of the scriptures which you have learned from me always continue to remain within your memory so that at every moment you can remember the teachings and quote their instructions without difficulty? Thus you will never be disappointed in this life or in the next.’”
Krishna continued, “My dear friend, you may remember that many such incidents occurred while we were in the house of our spiritual master Both of us can realize that without the blessing of the spiritual master one cannot be happy. By the mercy of the spiritual master and by his blessing one can achieve peace and prosperity and be able to fulfill the mission of human life.”
Lord Krishna talked a long time with His friend Sudama. Then, just to enjoy His friend’s company, He began to smile and asked, “My dear friend, what have you brought for me? Has your wife given you some nice eatables?”
Sudama hesitated out of shyness to bring forth the chipped rice. The Lord assured him that He was in need of nothing, but that He would gladly accept any offering given in love.
“How can I offer such an insignificant thing?” thought Sudama. But the Lord knew his heart. He knew very well, since He is situated in everyone’s heart, that the Brahmana had come to see Him on the instigation of his wife to get some material opulence. Moreover, He knew fully well that Sudama’s love for Him was not tainted by any desire for material benefit. Krishna then decided He would very lavishly award Sudama.
“What is this?” Lord Krishna snatched the bundle of chipped rice, which was tucked in a corner of Sudama’s shoulder pack. “Oh My dear friend,” Krishna went on enthusiastically, “you’ve brought me such nice palatable chipped rice. It will please not only me but the whole creation.” It is understood from this statement that Krishna, being the original source of everything, is the root of the entire creation. As watering the root of a tree immediately distributes water to every part of the tree, so an offering made to Krishna or any action done for Krishna is to be considered the highest welfare work for everyone. The benefit of such an offering is distributed throughout the creation.
While speaking in this way, Lord Krishna ate a morsel of the rice, but when He attempted to eat a second morsel, Rukmini, the goddess of fortune, checked the Lord by taking hold of His hand.
“My dear Lord,” she said, “by your taking this one piece of rice Sudama will become wealthy not only in this life but in the next. You are so kind that this one morsel of rice is enough to cause him who offered it to become very opulent in this life and continue as such in the next.” Rukmini, the goddess of fortune, was already personally obliged to stay as a guest in the Brahman’s house in order to bestow him with great fortune.
Sudama did not appear to have received anything from Krishna, nor did he ask anything; the whole time he was merged in an ocean of transcendental bliss. After taking rest that night in the palace, the next morning he started for his home. He was completely absorbed in remembering the dealings with the Lord, and he was happy to have seen Him.
Sudama reached his home. But when he looked for his cottage he saw in its place a huge, gorgeous palace made of valuable stones and jewels and glittering like the sun.
“What is this?” he thought. “How am I seeing these changes? Does this palace belong to me or to someone else? Surely this is where I used to live—it is the same place—but how wonderfully it has changed!” Then one dazzling opulence and beauty after another was revealed to Sudama Brahmana. His old neighborhood had become transformed into an area of parks with nice lakes full of lotus flowers and lilies and flocks of multicolored birds. Beautiful men and women were strolling in the parks and musical chanters who looked like demigods came forward to greet him. On hearing of her husband’s arrival, the wife of the Brahmana ran out of the palace to greet him. She appeared so beautiful that it seemed as if the goddess of Fortune herself had come to meet him. The Brahmana was surprised to see his wife so beautiful and so greatly affectionate, and without saying a word he entered the palace with her. His inner chambers were like the residence of the king of heaven. The palace was surrounded by many columns of jewels, rich canopies of velvet and silk hung in various places, and everything was opulent.
He could not determine what had caused the change, but then he began to consider: “I have always been poor—what could be the cause of this? It could only have come from the all-merciful glance of my friend, Lord Krishna. Surely these things are the causeless mercy of my friend Krishna.” Sudama could understand that the Lord considered such an insignificant offering as a handful of chipped rice, offered in affection by His devotee, a great thing and that He had given him riches more wonderful than any seen on earth, or even possessed by the demigods in the heavenly planets.
Sudama then offered his prayers to Krishna, praying that he did not want any opulence. He prayed that all he wanted was that he might not forget to offer eternal service to Krishna. Whatever opulence he received from the Lord should not be used for his own extravagance but for the service of the Lord, and so he accepted everything that happened as prasada (God’s mercy).
Anything which we receive from the Lord—any facility, wealth, fame, power or education—should thus be used for His service and not for our sense enjoyment. In that way, Sudama remained in opulent surroundings without detriment to his spiritual life, and his affection for Krishna increased day after day. He was made more aware of his friend at every moment and of the Lord’s mercy.
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