Krishna & Sudhama

Hi friends,

It is always a pleasure to recall the stories of Lord Krishna.
We all love his stories, as we feel connected to him. He is one of us, with all our pranks and faults.
Lord Ram was an idealistic representation of man, whom we ordinary people find difficult to emulate.
I’ll tell you the story of Krishna and Sudhama as it is connected to what I am going to say.
Sudhama was the son of a poor Brahmin.
He was a childhood friend of Krishna who went to the same ashram of Guru Sandipani.
Once when they had gone to play, the Guruma had given some Chana (gram) to share with Krishna.
While playing, it became dark and they were both sitting on the branch of a tree.
In the darkness, Sudhama felt hungry and remembered the gram.
He started eating without sharing with Krishna.
Krishna heard Sudhama eating and asked him what he was eating and asked him to share with him, as he was hungry too.
Sudhama said he was eating nothing. His teeth were chattering because of the cold.
Krishna being all knowing knew what he was doing but kept quiet.
When God asks you for anything and you say you have nothing, then God too gives you nothing.

Both grew up with time.
Krishna became King of Dwarka and Sudhama remained a poor Brahmin with many (27) children whom he could hardly feed.
Sudhama’s wife had heard that her husband and Krishna, the king of Dwarka were friends.
Many a time, she requested her husband to go and meet Krishna and ask for help.
But Sudhama’s pride came in the way. He did not want to ask his friend for a favor and destroy their friendship.
He always kept postponing.
However, the pangs of hunger of his wife and children became so strong that one-day he finally agreed to go.
But he couldn’t go his friend’s place empty handed.
From childhood days he remembered that both of them liked puffed rice.
So his wife made some puffed rice, put it in a bundle, and sent off Sudhama.
When Sudhama reached Krishna’s palace, the guards would not let him in because of his tattered clothes.
However, he convinced them to inform Krishna that his childhood friend had come to meet him.
As soon as Krishna heard that Sudhama had come, he jumped up and ran bare footed to the gate to welcome him.
All the couriers and the queen Rukmini were astonished at this love of Krishna.
Krishna made Sudhama sit on the throne and he sat on the floor. He knew Sudhama was tired and his legs ached.
Krishna himself washed Sudhama’s feet and then wiped it with his own shawl.
Then they sat and talked about old times.
Krishna asked about Bhabi (Sudhama’s wife) and children.
Sudhama couldn’t get himself to say of their plight and said they were all well and happy.
He was too shy to ask for anything.
Krishna being All Knowing understood and smiled.
But he could not give anything without asking. The bible too says, “Ask and you shall receive”
But there is another way.
If you give God anything He gives you a thousand fold.
Krishna asked Sudhama whether Bhabi had sent anything for him.
Sudhama was too shy to say anything.
He did not want to show his poverty by giving just the puffed rice.
Krishna then asked what he carried in the bundle and took the bundle.
Sudhama hung his head in shame.
Krishna opened the bundle and when he saw the puffed rice he said, “ This is what I was looking for”.
He took one fistful and put it in his mouth and ate it with relish.
Then he took a second fistful and put it in his mouth, all the time exclaiming how delicious it was. It reminded him of school.
He then extended his hand for a third mouthful but his queen took away the bundle from him, saying it was enough for one day.
Thus God had taken from Sudhama so that he could give him something in return.
They gossiped late into the night. Then they went to their rooms to sleep.
Sudhama could not sleep as he had not asked Krishna for anything and he did not want to face his wife.
When Krishna went to his room, he called Lord Vishwakarma, the architect and engineer among the gods and instructed him to go to Sudhama’s village and change his house into a palace
When Vishwakarma went to Sudhama’s village and wanted to convert his house to a palace, Sudhama’s wife asked if only their house was to be converted to a palace.
Vishwakarma replied that those were his instruction.
Sudhama’s wife then told Vishwakarma to go back.
If he would convert everybody’s house in the area into palaces then he should convert Sudhama’s,
otherwise they would live in their present state.
She did not want to live in riches, if her neighbors were poor.
How could anybody be happy if his neighbor is unhappy?
Vishwakarma went back to Krishna and informed him of this decision of Sudhama’s wife.
Krishna then smiled at the large heartedness of Sudhama’s wife and
instructed Vishwakarma to change all the houses in the area to palaces.
Sudhama stayed with Krishna for some time.
But the days soon passed and Sudhama had to leave. Both friends were sad.
On the way back Sudhama was cursing himself as to why he had not asked Krishna for anything. But Krishna was all knowing. He knew of my plight. Why did he not give me? He was feeling very sad all the way back.
When he reached his village he found everything changed.
Where his house stood previously there was now a palace.
He thought he had come to the wrong village.
He sheepishly asked a well-dressed and bejeweled lady standing there, “Madam, could you tell me where Sudhama’s house is? It used to stand here.”
The lady then touched his feet and said, ”Swami, this is your house, and I am your wife”

And they lived happily ever after.

Mr. Lobo as I informed you earlier, was with us a few days.
He had made a suggestion that we should do something for the weaker section of society.
If mother Teresa could come all the way from Europe and Steve Waugh can come all the way from Australia, could we not do something for our own people, living in India?
Do we have to depend upon the government?
We know they are a corrupt bunch of politicians who just like to feed their own fat bellies.
They will do nothing.
And when missionaries want to do anything for the poor, they put up all sorts of hurdles on the way.
I know some of the missionaries are at fault.
Why should they convert people?
Why can’t they just help the people without any strings attached?
One God creates us all and all are equal in his eyes. So why convert?
But why wait for missionaries now?
God has given us good education and above average income.
We should try to help the weaker section with our wealth.
It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.
Ranjan had recently sent an e-mail to discuss a get together.
I would request a small get together to take concrete action as how we could help society.
We are old people who can help with ideas, donations and make cheer leaders.
We look to the young boys in the age group 35 to 45 to take the lead.

I would request feedback from all boys.

Radheshyam