Hari Om
When war was declared between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, the King of Udipi chose to be neutral. He told Krishna, “Soldiers have to eat. What I will do, is provide cooked food to soldiers of both sides.”
Krishna agreed. The Udipi king did so, and personally took care of serving Krishna his meals.
Yudhishtra often joined Krishna at dinner. During dinner, Yudhishtra would ask the Udipi king, “Was the food today sufficient for all the soldiers?”
The king would smile and tell him that all the soldiers had been fed.
Similarly, when Duryodhana would ask the same of his general, he got the same answer. The soldiers were all fed and no food had gone waste!
This was very mysterious.
Finally, one evening after dinner, when the Udipi king had left Krishna’s tent, Yudhishtra asked, “How does the Udipi king know exactly how many people to cook for? So many people die on the battlefield – we do not know how many soldiers will survive every day.”
Krishna merely replied, “Why don’t you ask him?”
That’s what Yudhishtra did.
The Udipi king replied saying, “You must have noticed that I am there when Krishna eats his dinner. In fact, I serve him the sweet dish myself. Every sweet dish is garnished with a certain number of cashew nuts. Krishna eats some and leaves some. I count the number of cashews that he has eaten and calculate the number who will die the next day. For example, if he eats five cashews, I multiply that by thousand, and I get the number of people who will not survive the war the next day. So I plan the cooking accordingly.”
Yudhishtra was flabbergasted.
FAITH was what made the Udipi King recognise Krishna’s True Self.
Udipi today, is also a region famous for its cooks and people in the restaurant industry.
GF’ Blessings.
