English
Dhruva's Penance
Source: Shrimad Bhagavata Purana, Skandha 4 (chapters 8–12); Vishnu Purana, Book 1 (chapters 11–12)
King Uttanapada had two queens, Suniti and Suruchi. The king loved the younger queen, Suruchi, more, and her son Uttama too. The elder queen, Suniti, was the mother of Dhruva.
One day the king sat with Uttama on his lap, fondling him. Five-year-old Dhruva wanted to climb onto his father's lap as well, but the king did not call him over or make room for him.
Then Suruchi said proudly, “Child, you are the king's son, but you were not born from my womb. If you want the throne, go and please Lord Narayana with austerity, and be born again as my son.” The king said nothing.
Stung by the insult, Dhruva ran weeping to his mother. Suniti's eyes filled with tears, but she said, “Son, wish no one ill. Only the Lord can remove sorrow. Take refuge at His feet.”
Dhruva left home that very moment. On the way he met the sage Narada, who tested him: “You are only a child. Go home. Even great yogis find the Lord hard to reach.” But Dhruva would not turn back. So Narada gave him the mantra “Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya” and sent him to Madhuvana on the bank of the Yamuna.
The penance began. In the first month Dhruva ate only fruit, once every three days; in the second, dry grass and leaves every six days; in the third, only water every nine days; in the fourth, only air every twelve days.
In the fifth month he stood on one foot, holding his breath, his mind fixed on the Lord alone. Under his weight the earth began to tilt, and the breath of every creature began to stop. The frightened gods ran to Lord Vishnu for shelter…
The Lord told the gods, “Do not fear. That child's mind is absorbed in Me, so when he stopped his breath, the world's breath stopped too. I will go Myself and bring him back from this harsh penance.”
The Lord rode on Garuda to Madhuvana. The form Dhruva had been seeing in his heart suddenly vanished from within. Alarmed, he opened his eyes… and that very form stood before him.
Dhruva fell to the ground in salutation. He longed to praise the Lord, but he was a child and did not know the words. Then the Lord touched his cheek with His conch, and at once a beautiful hymn, full of wisdom, poured from Dhruva's lips.
The Lord said, “Child, I know your heart's desire. You will receive a place no one has held before: an unmoving realm around which the planets, the stars and the seven sages revolve. First you will rule righteously for thirty-six thousand years, and then you will reach that fixed abode.”
The Lord disappeared. Yet as he walked home, Dhruva's heart was heavy. “The Lord could free me from birth and death, and I asked Him for a kingdom! Like a pauper who stands before an emperor and begs only for husks of grain.”
Meanwhile King Uttanapada had been deeply ashamed of how he had treated his son. Hearing that Dhruva was returning, he went out of the city himself and embraced him. Not only Suniti but Suruchi too blessed him with all her heart.
In time the king gave Dhruva the throne and retired to the forest. Dhruva cared for his people righteously for a long age. At the end, the Lord's attendants came with a celestial chariot. Dhruva thought of his mother Suniti, and saw that she too was travelling ahead of him in another chariot.
So the boy reached the realm that never leaves its place. The star that shines unmoving in the northern sky is still called Dhruva, the Pole Star.
What this story teaches
The boy who was denied a lap was given, by unshaken faith and patience, a place no one can move. Turn an insult into practice, not bitterness.
The Vishnu Purana (Book 1, chapters 11–12) tells the same story with a difference: after leaving home Dhruva meets the seven sages rather than Narada, and they teach him how to worship the Lord. This retelling follows the Bhagavata.
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