Text 34
nanv abruvāṇo diśate samakṣaṁ
yāciṣṇave bhūry api bhūri-bhojaḥ
parjanya-vat tat svayam īkṣamāṇo
dāśārhakāṇām ṛṣabhaḥ sakhā me
nanu — after all; abruvānaḥ — not speaking; diśate — He has given; samakṣam — in His presence; yāciṣṇave — to him who was intending to beg; bhūri — plentiful (wealth); api — even; bhūri — of plentiful (wealth); bhojaḥ — the enjoyer; parjanya-vat — like a cloud; tat — that; svayam — Himself; īkṣamāṇaḥ — seeing; dāśārhakāṇām — of the descendants of King Daśārha; ṛṣabhaḥ — the most exalted; sakhā — friend; me — my.
After all, my friend Kṛṣṇa, the most exalted of the Dāśārhas and the enjoyer of unlimited wealth, noticed that I secretly intended to beg from Him. Thus even though He said nothing about it when I stood before Him, He actually bestowed upon me the most abundant riches. In this way He acted just like a merciful rain cloud.
Śrī Kṛṣṇa is bhūri-bhoja, the unlimited enjoyer. He did not tell Sudāmā how He was going to fulfill his unspoken request because, according to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī, He was thinking at the time, “My dear friend has given Me these grains of rice, which are greater than all the treasures I own. Even though in his own house he had no such gift to bring Me, he took the trouble of begging it from a neighbor. Therefore it is only proper that I give him something more valuable than all My possessions. But nothing is equal to or greater than what I possess, so all I can do is give him such meager things as the treasures of Indra, Brahmā and other demigods.” Embarrassed at being unable to properly reciprocate His devotee’s offering, Lord Kṛṣṇa bestowed His favor on the brāhmaṇa silently. The Lord acted just like a magnanimous rain cloud which provides the necessities of life for everyone near and far but feels ashamed that its rain is too insignificant a gift to give in return for the abundant offerings that farmers make to it. Out of shame the cloud may wait until nighttime, when the farmers are asleep, before watering their fields.
The chiefs of the Dāśārha clan, with whom Lord Kṛṣṇa is identified in this verse, were especially renowned for their generosity.