Sudama Vipra

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
2 November 2018, Beyt Dvaraka

Narad told the story of Sudama Vipra [in Sri Garga-samhita, Dvaraka-khanda, chapter 12].

There was a brahman called Sudama Vipra. He was a friend of Lord Krishna who lived with his wife Satya in Sviyapur. Sudama Vipra was an expert in the Vedas (he knew all Vedas) and all scriptures, and he was a very poor brahman—he had no wealth, no property and always kept distance from money and things (he did not like these things and always felt annoyed towards them).

One day, Sudama Vipra told his wife, "You know, Dvarakanath Sri Krishna is my friend. When I stayed at the house of my Guru Sandipani, we studied together there. Now Krishna has become the king, he is Dvarakanath and very rich. I have not seen Him for so many year. I remember He was very kind and always helped poor people." When his wife heard it, he asked her husband, "You say your friend is a very rich person—why do you not go to Krishna and ask him to help you? You do not have proper food and clothes, you have nothing... Whoever goes to Krishna returns from there very rich, you can go there too." She told him many things, but Sudama Vipra replied, "What are you saying? I teach everybody not to be attached to money, wealth, property, etc. and you are telling me I must go take some money from Krishna. I cannot do that, I do not like this." Satya kept asking him and saying, "Can go there. We are suffering from so much sadness and poverty, and we are now becoming old... Go there." Sudama Vipra explained to her, "What will I achieve by that? Such is my fortunate—whatever Lord Krishna gives us, I am very happy with that, it is not necessary to want much money. So, what will I go there for? It is not necessary for me to go there, I can pray to the Lord from my house."

Soon after that, when he was praying to the Lord, Krishna Himself told him, "Sudama, please come. I want to meet with you one day." This inspiration came to him. Sudama Vipra thought, "I will go to Krishna, but I have nothing to give to Him! What will I give to the Lord, to my friend Krishna?" With the help of his wife Satya, he collected four handfuls of tandul (rice) from some houses, tied it in his soiled cloth and went to meet with the Lord.

When he came to Dvaraka, he saw big houses and palaces everywhere—he was puzzled, "Where is Krishna?" He asked a gatekeeper, "Where does my friend Krishna live? There are so many houses..." The gatekeeper told him, "Krishna is everywhere!" Sudama thought, "Oh, Krishna is everywhere? Then I will go to this house!" He entered one of the houses and saw that Krishna was there. Krishna immediately appeared in that house and was ready to receive him—as soon as He saw Sudama Vipra, He embraced him, spoke to him sweetly, took him to His own singhasan (seat) and made him sit there. Sudama Vipra was very uncomfortable—there were nice big cushions, big singhasan, etc. and Sudama Vipra was a poor brahman. Then, Krishna said, "Oh, you have come from so far and have been walking for so long, your legs must be paining!" and He started to massage his feet. Not only that—He told his mahisi (queen) Rukmini, "Why am I serving my friend alone? You too must serve him!" Krishna engaged everyone to serve His friend (sakha) and devotee.

You can see from this example: we want to serve Krishna, but Krishna Himself serves His devotees. Gurudev also said, "If you serve devotees, Krishna will come to serve you." If you serve devotees, if you give love and affection to the devotees, Krishna will give love and affection to you. The example of this is Sudam Vipra—Krishna Himself shows that He himself comes to serve His devotee.

Another thing is that the scriptures say that if you want to meet the king, if you want to meet the Lord or your Guru, you must give something to them according to your capacity. If you have nothing, then you can collect something—just as Sudam Vipra had nothing, his wife had nothing, but his wife went house to house and collected some tandul (rice), he tied it in a dirty cloth and gave it to Krishna.

This is the place we have visited today with the devotees, by the mercy of Gurudev. It is Beyt (Bet) Dvaraka, we came here to see the place where Sudam Vipra met with Krishna.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.

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