Krishna & Sudhama

To understand Gita, let us understand Krishna!

In Mahabharata we come across a fine example for friendship in two instances. One is the friendship of Karna and Duryodhana, the other is Sudhama and Krishna. But the Karna’s friendship is more of faithfulness of him for his friend who helped him at his need. In case of Sudhama, it is purely out of love towards Krishna and vise versa. Our ideas come in the way of understanding. It seems to us that Krishna giving away wealth to Sudhama in return for handful of rice is too much. We fail to see that it is more difficult for Sudhama to bring a handful of rice as a present to his friend Krishna the King. Sudhama is utter poor, a beggar. For him to bring Rice is greater than Krishna giving of a small portion of wealth. But we see the quantity not the quality. There we fail to understand the greatness of Sudhama. In my perception even Krishna might not have been impressed by his gift of wealth in front of Sudhama’s gift of rice. 

If we consider Buddha & Sudhama together we will know the significance. Sudhama has nothing and he brings Rice to Krishna as gift. Buddha has everything yet he begs for food. It is extraordinary. Ordinarily a poor man begs and a rich man gives. But when they reverse their roles, it has immense significance. Sudhama is as extraordinary as Buddha, both are rare persons. It is the love’s way. It does not bother whether we have so much or so little. It goes on giving, yet it will never feel that it has given enough. 

When Sudhama came to see Krishna, he brought a hand full of rice. But he was hesitating out of shyness because of the simpleness of the gift to give it to his friend Krishna the king. But Krishna on seeing Sudhama asks for him to give the gift he had brought in a cloth packet and starts eating it in the court immediately. There is nothing special about it. It is the love’s way. It is because the love has become so scarce that we find this scene so special even surprised. Krishna and Sudhama are the great example for friendship.

Wishing you all a new year of good health & happiness,

Dr. Dwarakanath, 

Director, MITRAN foundation- the stress management people.