The Paramathma

Ku chela – means torn or tarnished cloth. His state was no different from his name. People stopped calling him by his original name – Sudhama. Krishna with Rukmini was at the door to receive his old childhood friend. Krishna was eight feet tall and healthy while his friend hardly had any skin to cover his skeleton. He welcomed his guest as per the protocol, cleansed his friends feet with water and offered him his pitamber as carpet. For someone who did not have food for weeks together, it should have been difficult to apprehend that it was Parmathma himself who bowed down to touch the feet. All the more Kuchela was fatigued walking through the huge palace of Mathura and through the seven corridors. Krishna offered kuchela his seat in the courtyard which was so huge.  He got relieved.

As both started sharing stories of their childhood Krishna started narrating a story of their student days at ashram of Sandhipa.

Once, the teacher sent Krishna and Kuchela to bring fruits from the forest for a ceremony. As they went to the forest, thick clouds formed over the sky and the whole place became dark. It started pouring. Both took shelter in a cave and preserved the fruits they collected. They took the fruits to the Guru only the next day. The worried teacher was happy to see the kids back. He praised their sincerity and blessed them happy life. When they were smiling at these good old memories, Krishna commented “Sudhama - our Guru’s wishes came true, here, both of us are very happy in life”.

Kuchela agreed to Krishna and smiled. Krishna was surprised. He expected Kuchela to talk of his poor state of life.

Later Krishna asked his dear friend what he got for him. While kuchela in shame tried to hide the rice flakes that he carried in a torn cloth from home, Krishna finds it out and snatches it away from him and consumes a fistful in glee. Kuchela was more than happy about sudarshana of Paramathma and was ecstatic about the way he was treated at the royal court of Krishna. He decided not to ask Krishna for any acquisitive help for his family.  Kuchela left home empty handed. He knew that he had to answer his wife and kids back home. As he reaches his village he could not believe his eyes. His hut now turned into a majestic palace, his wife is decked up in attire of a queen, and kids looked like wards of royals. There was gold and silver everywhere and all other wealth in the world at sight in his home.

This is an old popular story of Kuchela and Krishna but the highpoint in the story which is seldom told is ‘Acharya Kataksham’ (blessing of Gurus). God ensures that words uttered by Gurus are never falsified.