Why was a great devotee like Sudaamaa so severely poor?

[This question was posed to Swami on the auspicious occasion of Guru Purnima.]

Swami replied: When Kṛṣṇa was studying in the school of Guru Sāndīpani in Ujjaini forest, Sudāmā was His classmate. Kṛṣṇa was thought to be an ordinary human being by everybody including Sudāmā. One day, the wife of Sāndīpani gave some roasted bengal gram-seeds as a snack to Sudāmā who was going to the forest along with Kṛṣṇa to collect firewood. She told Sudāmā to share the snack with Kṛṣṇa. But Sudāmā ate the entire snack all by himself, secretly, without giving Kṛṣṇa his due share. This is like earning money by cheating others (corruption). The wealth of God and a pious man is not only indigestible, but is also harmful like poison. This brought poverty to Sudāmā, which was the punishment, as per the divine constitution. The punishment was meant only to bring about the reformation of the soul and it was not meant for revenge. The poverty reformed Sudāmā to such an extent that when he was going to Kṛṣṇa, he borrowed a handful of parched rice to present to Kṛṣṇa, even though his own family had nothing to eat. Kṛṣṇa completed His entire education in about two months and even brought back the dead son of Sāndīpani to life, as an offering to His Guru or preacher. Only then did Sudāmā realize that Kṛṣṇa was God. Sudāmā started worshipping Kṛṣṇa since then as God.

The Gītā says that the cause for unjust desire is the quality called rajas (Kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajoguṇa samudbhavaḥ—Gītā). Rajas also produces ego which makes the soul feel that it is the wisest and that it need not listen to the advice of elders. Duryodhana and Rāvaṇa did not listen to the good advice of their elders due to their ego, which was born of rajas. This ego gives a person the courage to commit sin, neglecting the inevitable possibility of punishment in the future. Since Sudāmā had the nature of the good sattvam quality, he realised his sin and repented so much that he never repeated that sin again in his life. He was so much reformed that even though Kṛṣṇa did not give him wealth immediately, he never aspired for it, even in his mind. He was made very very rich by Kṛṣṇa since he was devoted to Him and lacked all aspiration for any fruit in return. God is omniscient and will help us much more than we expect, provided we serve Him without the aspiration for any fruit in return.

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| Shri Datta Swami | Why was a great devotee like Sudaamaa so severely poor? | Sudaamaa Krishna Gita Kaama esha krodha esha, rajoguna samudbhavah Raavana