Laws of Karma at work

Sudama was a firm believer in God being totally omnipresent and omnipotent. 

He believed, and lived accordingly, in God’s ability to do anything, at anytime, at any place.  God knows what is in our heart and minds.  God knows what we need vs what we want.  God knows what is in our interest and will do everything to help us !  God gives without telling us what He is doing for us.  It is for us to recognise this and be thankful for what we have received.  Why should we than “beg” in our prayers to God ?  Sudama told God how much he loved God in his prayers, never once did he beg – not even when he was face to face with God incarnate !!

Bhaktaraj Sudama was sent by his wife to attain material wealth from the divine ruler of Dwarka. Sudamaji came to the golden city as a beggar, but left it as a very wealthy man. Not just in the physical sense, but intellectually as well. When the Lord of all Dwarka, husband of the goddess of wealth Himself washed his feet, Sudama realised the truest nature of "wealth" he actually had.

That of friendship, patience, intellect, spirituality, knowledge of all the Vedas etc.

The Lord of all the universe did not wash Sudamaji's feet for nothing ! Realising all this, he felt rather foolish asking for a few gold coins ! How could he bargain his priceless "wealth" and friendship for a little bit of gold ? As soon as Sudamaji realised his true "worth", the Lord bestowed limitless material and spiritual wealth upon him. To Lakshmi-Pati, giving his friend material wealth was no great task at all. But, by washing his feet etc, God wanted Sudamaji to realise his true potential before giving him the material wealth.

Sudama led a blameless life.  Yet, the weight of his past karmas was such that though he was blessed with great intelligence, he was destined to be financially poor all his life.  Even God does not break the Laws of Karma !  Having set up laws, even an earthly king is expected to obey these laws.  The ruler of the universe is no different – though able, when interacting with mortals, God is expected to keep within the Laws of Karma.

God wanted to help Sudama.  The only way Shri Krushna could alter the balance of karmas, was to attribute some greater merit from new karmas to Sudama’s karmic balance.   These would have to be great enough to wipe out the “poverty” inducing karmas of Sudama.

Feeding the hungry accrues great merit.  Krushna decided to have Sudama feed the Universal form of the Lord ! 

By eating the "powa" Sudama brought for him, Shri Krushna fed all creatures, great and small, in His universal form.  The merit of this one act alone totally wiped out all negative karmas of Sudama’s past, and gave him enough credit to last him many a life times !!   Laxmiji had to stop Lord Krushna from eating any further, as any more merit would be too great a load of karma for any soul to bear !  

Afterall, the ideal thing is to release yourself from all karmas – good and bad.
Only than can you be free of this cycle of birth, death and rebirth !

http://pushti-marg.net/bhagwat/Sudama.htm