Mahabharata

17. Sudama

Krishna is shown as a very mischievous child during his lifetime. Radha, his childhood friend who can basically understand him and was attracted to him had given him a flute. He used to blow the flute every night and every night used to be a celebration of flute and a clap dance. His friends used to steal maakhan with his friends and they used to throw stones at the water pots that women used to carry just for fun. These memories helped them when he went to get education with his brother Balram to his guru, Sandipani for gaining education. There, he befriended Sudama. Sudama and Krishna were the ideal kind of friends. Their stories of pure friendship are famous till today.

One day, Krishna and Sudama went on an outing. Sandipani's wife had packed them some eatables. Sudama ate the eatables by himself because Krishna had assured him that he was not hungry. When guru's wife came to know about this, she cursed Sudama that Sudama will always remain poor.

There is another story where it is said that Krishna had picked four fruits from a tree when they had gone for an outing. Sudama ate three of them. As soon as he was about to bite the fourth one, Krishna snatched the fruit from him and said, "I picked these fruits. At least let me eat this one." And bit on it but winced when he tasted the bitter taste. He looked at Sudama and asked, "How could you eat such a bitter fruit with so much interest?"

Sudama simply answered, "So that you don't ask for it and don't suffer the bitterness." In the same way, two best friends are compared to Krishna and Sudama and there are many stories of their friendship. Krishna's sadhana or training was different than that of Sudama and Balram. Sudama's education was only bookish. He knew all the scriptures as a Brahmin. Balram's education was fully based on warfare but Krishna's education was fully mental and spiritual.

After their education completed, it is said that Balram mocked him on how Krishna was still 'thin as a stick' and looked soft and delicate like women but when he was on the wrestling arena, no one could defeat him, not even Balram. He could look through people and tell how they're going to react to a particular situation. In short, he could predict the future with the help of psychology. He had such a strong mind that everyone recognised him as soon as he entered the scene or a room. He was playful all through his life. His playful deeds are mentioned in the bhagwad puran.

Later on, Krishna and Balram were invited to Mathura by Kans. Kans somehow had come to know who was the eighth son of Devki and Vasudev because of the way all the demons were getting killed first at Gokul and then at Vrindavan. So, Kans sent got a chariot but the charioteer was a servant of Ugrasen, Krishna's maternal grandfather. Ugrasen was imprisoned by Kans too so that Kans could get Mathura. So, in short, he had imprisoned his father, his sister, his brother-in-law and had done full planning to kill his nephew. Some people argue that how can Krishna kill his own maternal uncle. I advice them to study how as a ruler, Kans used to get so much grains in the form of taxes and how his subjects used to fear his army of demons.

The charioteer confessed that Kans had invited him so that he could kill Krishna with the help of his wrestlers. Krishna and Balram just smiled and told him to continue with the journey. Krishna and Balram had defeated every wrestler there when Kans got angry and challenged Krishna. Krishna killed Kans and became the king of Mathura.

Krishna went back to Vrindavan to find that Radha was married to Ayaan. Her father wanted her to marry Ayaan and she couldn't refuse her father. Krishna felt heartbroken. He took his flute, which was gifted to him by Radha, the flute which entertained number of gopis in Vrindavan and left Vrindavan forever.

Vasudev and Devki had one more daughter named Subhadra. So, Krishna and Balram started to live with their real parents, the Yadavas and Ugrasen was declared as the king of Mathura once again.

However, Magadh's king Jarasandh constantly challenged Krishna for wars. However, Krishna couldn't kill him because Jarasandh's death should happen with the hands of Bheem, the second Pandava. So, he avoided killing Jarasandh. In one such wars, Krishna had killed Eklavya, the disciple who cut his thumb for Guru Dronacharya. When Krishna saw the number of soldiers getting killed with their every battle, he fled to Dwarka with his brother, his family, and army while leaving Ugrasen to continue ruling over Mathura. Dwarka used to remain on the surface on the daylight and used to submerge in the night. This was arranged by Krishna to avoid Jarasandh attacking them at night. Since Krishna fled, he was also called Ranchhoddas.