Meeting of Lord Krṣṇa with Sudāmā Brāhmaṇa
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to be very clean, and because of his weak body, his bones were distinctly visible. The goddess of fortune Rukmiṇīdevī personally began to fan him with the  cāmara  fan, but the other women in the palace became astonished at Lord Krṣṇa's behavior in receiving the  brāhmaṇa  in that way. They were surprised to see how eager Lord Krṣṇa was to welcome this particular  brāhmaṇa . They began to wonder how Lord Krṣṇa could personally receive a  brāhmaṇa  who was poor, not very neat or clean, and poorly dressed; but at the same time they could realize that the  brāhmaṇa  was not an ordinary living being. They knew that he must have performed great pious activities; otherwise why was Lord Krṣṇa, the husband of the goddess of fortune, taking so much care for him? They were still more surprised to see that the  brāhmaṇa  was seated on the bedstead of Lord Krṣṇa. They were especially surprised to see that Lord Krṣṇa had embraced him exactly as He embraced His elder brother, Balarāmaji, because Lord Krṣṇa used to embrace only Rukmiṇī or Balarāma, and no one else.
After receiving the  brāhmaṇa  nicely, and seating him on His own cushioned bed, Lord Krṣṇa said, "My dear  brāhmaṇa  friend, you are a most intelligent personality, and you know very well the principles of religious life. I believe that after you finished your education at the house of our teacher and after you sufficiently remunerated him, you must have gone back to your home and accepted a suitable wife. I know very well that from the beginning you were not at all attached to the materialistic way of life, nor did you desire to be very opulent materially, and therefore you are in need of money. In this material world, persons who are not attached to material opulence are very rarely found. Such unattached persons haven't the least desire to accumulate wealth and prosperity for sense gratification, but sometimes they are found to collect money just to exhibit the exemplary life of a householder. They show how by proper distribution of wealth one can become an ideal householder and at the same time become a great devotee. Such ideal householders are to be considered followers of My footsteps. I hope, My dear  brāhmaṇa  friend, you remember all those days of our school life when both you and I were living together at the boarding house. Actually, whatever knowledge both you and I received in our life was accumulated in our student life.
"If a man is sufficiently educated in student life under the guidance of a proper teacher, then his life becomes successful in the future. He can very easily cross over the ocean of nescience, and he is not subjected to the influence of illusory energy. My dear friend, everyone should consider his father to be his first teacher because by the mercy of one's father one gets this body. The father is therefore the natural spiritual master. Our next