Posted:
A quick update to last night's episode
Sudama's kids are @ the table, impatiently waiting for their food. Sudama comes there and asks them to be patient. Susheela asks him why should her kids be patient, when they have everything they need? The maids come w/ the food and receive a scolding from Susheela. However, Sudama stops them from eating, and insists that they do their puja b4 their meal (actually, couldn't they have done that while waiting?) Susheela objects to putting Krishna ahead of her kid's hunger, and Sudama asks her since when has she become so selfish that she is totally different from the woman who used to wait for them all day? Previously, she too used to meditate on Krishna all day, but these days, she doesn't have a moment for him. He makes all 4 of the kids follow him to the puja shrine, overruling Susheela. The fat son Mohan refuses to go, but Sudama insists. They all go there and Sudama starts singing a bhajan in praise of Krishna, while the kids pray.
Krishna, Jambavati & Satyabhama are admiring this, and Krishna remarks that just as food is necessary for one's physical well being, the prayer is necessary for their soul. Sudama & his kids finish the puja, and Sudama permits them to go and eat. They all sit and start eating, but Mohan throws a tantrum about aloo gobi being served today as well, when it was the dish yesterday, and demands to know who ordered it? Sudama quietly tells him that he made it, and tells him to eat it - it'll taste much better. Mohan refuses, and Sudama tries to remind him of the times when they'd wait all day for him to come home from begging, and sometimes would cherish even a grain that they got to eat, and so he wouldn't allow him to insult the food. Mohan gets up and leaves.
That night, Susheela & her sons are asleep on the bed while Sudama is asleep on the floor 😕 Mohan is still feeling hungry, and gets up, and thinking they are all asleep, goes to the dining area, where the food is. He hesitates to have the food, but eventually does. Sudama, who's been observing him, joins him, and Mohan remarks that he too didn't have anything, and feeds his father. Sudama feeds him as well, and they 2 have a father-son bonding moment.
Satyabhama remarks that Sudama's kids ain't gonna stray again, but Krishna tells them that there is still work left. He however remarks that kids do end up w/ whatever values their parents impart them - just as those kids were ready to eat anything when their stomachs were empty, similarly, they'd pick up whatever values are given to them when their mind is empty.
Sudama tells Mohan that since he is a Brahmin, it's now time that he learned what Brahmin dharam is. It is to get alms from no more than 5 houses. From tomorrow, Mohan & his brothers would have to beg from 5 houses, and would come w/ Sudama. Mohan objects to this, and Sudama frowns.
Comments:
I liked how Sudama disciplined his kids, and how patient he was. Most parents I know would yell @ them or worse, but Sudama was patient enough to try and explain things to them, but firmly made sure that his orders prevailed. I was impressed by how he disciplined Mohan - making Mohan go w/o food if he refused to eat that was exactly the right way to do it.
In the other thread that I linked to here, I noted how strange it was that Susheela slept w/ her kids on the bed while Sudama slept on the floor. One would have thought that the house had 2 beds - one for the kids, and another for the parents. I guess that reforming Susheela is still what's left for Sudama.
I also noted there how strange it was that Sudama would continue begging despite being rich now. He should instead have taught his kids to chant the vedas in temples, instead of begging for anything - distributing their knowledge w/o a fee would have been the highest dharam for them.
