The Friend Who Brought Rice

The sages told the Pandavas of Sudama, the poor brahmin who had been the boyhood friend of Krishna, and of how a single handful of beaten rice, given with love, drew down upon him the boundless grace of the Lord.

In their youth, Krishna and a poor brahmin boy named Sudama had studied together at the hermitage of their teacher, sharing the same lessons and the same simple life, and a deep friendship had grown between them. But after their schooling their paths had parted utterly. Krishna had gone on to become the lord of the golden city of Dwaraka, glorious and beloved, the king and the very God walking the earth. And Sudama had remained what he was born, a poor brahmin, and as the years passed he sank into deeper and deeper poverty, living with his wife and children in a humble hut, often without enough food to fill their stomachs, scraping by in honest want. Yet through all his poverty Sudama never lost his serenity nor his devotion; he was content with his lot, devoted to God, and asked nothing of anyone.