Hari Om Parents,
Today we started our class with our opening prayers.
Now that we have covered all avatars for this year (up until Vamana Avatara), we will be seeing about the devotees of the Lord (BHAGAVATAS).
The first devotee we are going to see is DHRUVA, a child devotee just like Prahlad.
King Uttanapada was the first son of Manu. He had two wives namely Suniti and Suruchi. But the king loved the younger wife Suruchi more than elder wife Suniti. Not only did he love Suruchi, but he was also little intimidated because of her arrogance and anger.
Suniti had a son named DHRUVA and Suruchi had a son named UTTAMA.
One day, Suruchi was happily playing with her son Uttama along with the king. At that time Dhruva entered their place and he too wanted to play with his father. But the king paid no attention to Dhruva and continued to play with Suruchi and Uttama, because he knew Suruchi would be angry if he paid attention to Dhruva. Dhruva tried to include himself in the play.
Angrily Suruchi caught hold of Dhruva and said, "You cannot play with my husband even though you are his son. To play with him you have to take birth in my womb.
Now you go and pray that at least in the next birth you have to be born as my son to play with your dad, the king. Suruchi threw the little boy out.
Dhruva got very sad and ran to his mother crying his heart out and recounting the whole incident.
Suniti comforted Dhruva and started telling him about Lord Narayana. These were her words: "My son, Lord Narayana is the father to all beings. He is the Lotus-eyed One. He removes all the miseries and fulfills the desires of those who take refuge in Him. Now your stepmom has given you a correct advice for prayer. Pray to Lord Narayana to remove all your sorrows and fulfil all your desires. But He is not easily attainable. After years of strict austerity and penance, yogis have realized Him through intense devotion."
Dhruva thought over his mother's words. In the middle of the night, he silently left the house to go in search of the Lord. He went on asking everyone and went deep into the forest and asked the animals too. But none of them knew. For many days and nights Dhruva kept on wandering in the woods in search of the Lord. He kept on calling, "Narayana! Where are you?"
Now seeing his intense devotion, the Lord wished to send a teacher (Narad Muni) to Dhruva as he was very sincerely seeking to find out about him.
Narada first wanted to test whether Dhruva of his devotion. He appeared before him and tried to persuade him to return back to his mother.
You have all comforts in your palace, go back to your palace and enjoy with your mom. However much Narada tried to persuade him to go back, Dhruva was stubborn enough not to go without seeing the Lord.
Seeing his immense devotion, Narada was greatly pleased and taught him the sacred mantra.
"OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA" and asked Dhruva to meditate. Dhruva prostrated to his teacher and kept on chanting the mantra.
The first few days was restless for him. But soon he subjected himself to rigorous tapas. He went on and on and on and on with his Tapasya. At last, the Lord appeared before him and told him to open his eyes. When Dhruva saw Him, he was filled with immense devotion and fell at His feet with great reverence. After seeing lord, he completely forgot about his sorrow and the wish he wanted to ask for. He requested Lord to grant him utmost devotion to His Holy feet and that he required nothing else.
The Lord blessed Dhruva and advised him to go and rule his father's kingdom and after that he will reach the Lord and guide the entire mankind as Dhruva Nakshatra.
After bowing down to the Lord, Dhruva returned back to palace and followed Lord's word. He ruled the kingdom as a wise and great ruler for many prosperous years. Towards the end, he retired to the forest to perform Tapasya. When his time to leave the material world arrived the attendants of Lord Vishnu came down to take him to Vaikunta to become a pole star called DHRUVA NAKSHATRA.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Dhruva was a five-year-old boy. Through rigorous devotion and persistence, he attained the Lord. Let us also follow his footsteps and attain the Lord.
Next class we will see about each character and association with the current world.
With Guru's Blessings
Saratha Arthanari
Malathy Balasubramanian.
