Among all the Vaisnavas the mood of the Gaudiya Vaisnava is the highest, because Gaudiya Vaisnava does not ask for any benefit from serving Krsna. Instead of asking to be taken care of by God,Gaudiya Vaisnava instead chooses to love and care for God.Knowing this, one may wonder why Sudama went to Krsna to ask for some benefit. Sudama was not just an acquaintance of Krsna in his childhood, he was one and one with Lord Krsna. If Sudama would forget from the text book while answering the teacher Sandipani Muni in the classroom, seeing that Lord Krsna also purposely did not reply to the teacher with the answer and acted as He could not remember it as well.
Krsna is God, He knew the poverty situation of Sudama in his house with wife and children. He also knew that Sudama will not ask anything from Him, and at the same time Krsna cannot give anything unless somebody asks it from Him. That is the law that Lord Krsna has. So Krsna knew it was impossible to work out the situation of Sudama unless Sudama came and asked Him for help.
Long time had passed, so one day Lord Krsna decided to leave Dvarka to go and see his friend Sudama. He changed Himself into a sadhu (beggar) and went to Sudama’s house asking for alms. “Radhe Radhe, is anybody there?”, Krsna as a sadhu said aloud. Sudama was busy with worship, so his wife Sushila came out and said to Lord Krsna who was in the form of a sadhu, “Maharaja, we have some impurity at home.”, to which the sadhu asked, “What is that impurity? Did you have a child birth at home.” Sushila replied, “Yes, we have a baby.” The sadhu then asked, “Is it a boy or a girl?”, and Sushila replied, “We have a girl.” Lord Krsna as a sadhu then asked, “What is her name?” and Sushila replied, “Her name is poverty. That is her name.”
Lord Krsna has a rule, whatever His unallowed devotee lacks He supplies, so therefore He said, “Is this Sudama’s house?” and Sushila replied, “Yes, how do you know him?” Krsna in the form of sadhu then said, “I know both of them very well, Krsna and Sudama. They were studying together in school. They were not only fast friends, they were one and one, very close friends. While their teacher Sandipani Muni wold ask Sudama a question and Sudama could not recolect the answer, Krsna would purposefully pretend not to remember the answer also. Now Krsna is the king of Dvarka, you can get some help from Him if you want. Send your husband to see His friend, He will surely help him and remove his poverty. Hearing this Sushila said, “Oh really, my husband is the friend of Krsna, who is well known everywhere?”. Krsna in the form of a sadhu said, “Yes, you didn’t know!? They are such good friends!.. Sudama is one and one with Krsna.”
So when the sadhu left and Sudama got up from worship, Sushila asked Sudama, “You are good friends with Krsna, why you never told me that?” Sudama replied, “There is no need to tell because He is a royal king and I am poverty stricken. So Sushila said, “Well, friends should be visited once in a while, and a real friend will recognize the required situation.”
Sushila knew that her husband would never ask anything from Lord Krsna. With her insistance Sudama agreed to visit Lord Krsna thinking that this was now a very good chance to see his friend, the Supreme Lord. He agreed to go and Sushila gave him a little flat rice as a gift, because the Supreme Lord, the Guru, and the king, should not be visited empty handed.
When Sudama was ready to depart from the house to Dvarka, Sushila told him to please tell Lord Krsna the following, “You created two fasting days of Ekadasi for all human beings, and after the fasting day there is Dvadasi day, when everyone breaks their Ekadasi fast. But our Ekadasi fast never ends. Please bless us so that we also have a Dvadasi.” This is not called asking something from Lord Krsna because, “mama janmani jamanisvare bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi”, saying that “Oh Lord Krsna, I’m totally Yours, please take care of me so that I can serve you better”. That is is not called asking.
[Taken from Sri Krsna Balaram Swamiji Talks, 2, KBS0069]
