Lord Krishna and Sudama remember their Gurukul days
Lord Krishna and Sudama are now rocking on the swing and The Lord begun a conversation: “Friend, do you remember the fun we had at school in Ujjain? Then you were healthy. You have lost too much weight now. Remember the love our Guru bestowed upon us?”
Sudama said, “Indeed! Our Guru and his wife loved and cared for us more than our parents.”
“Sudama, do you remember the time when Gurudev’s wife sent us to bring some firewood?”
“Leave that, it’s not worth talking about Krishna”.
“It is Sudama! It was fun! When we were returning to school with the firewood, there was a huge storm.”
“Yes I remember”, said Sudama quietly and sadly.
“Sudama, it rained heavily. We left the firewood on the ground and climbed a tree. I could hear your teeth making noise. When I asked you about the noise, you said that your teeth were clattering from the cold, when actually, you were eating the roasted grams given to you by Gurudev’s wife to share between the two of us! You ate it all, my share too, and lied! How funny was that!”
Sudama was embarrassed and the queens burst out laughing. Sudama was thinking, no wonder I am deprived as I ate your share of food.
Lord Krishna continued to say, “We sat there in the cold and rain all night. In the morning, Gurudev was annoyed at his wife for sending us for firewood so far. Gurudev then came searching for us. We were shivering with cold at the time. Gurudev brought us down from the tree, hugged us with relief, blessed us and brought us back to the hermitage”.
“And Sudama, are you married now?”
Sudama humorously replied, “Yes! That’s why I have lost so much weight!”
“Great! What’s my sister-in-law’s name?”
“Sudama shyly said, “Sushila; honestly, she is just like her name. Thanks to your grace, I have a good wife. She supports me in everything, religion, my activities and my oath of not begging.”
“And what do you do for a living?” asked Lord Krishna.
“I have a very busy job. I do my regular prayers three times a day and chant God’s name the rest of the day.”
“Is that it? Then how do you feed your family?”
“With your grace,” replied Sudama.
Although Sudama’s children are crying of hunger and the family is struggling, Sudama did not cry his sorrows in front of God. Lord Krishna is pleased to see Sudama’s strength and spirit.