Dhruva was meditating on the Lord’s form with one-pointed attention and closed eyes. In his spiritual trance, he suddenly felt a flash in his lotus heart, as if Śrī Hari had personally appeared. He opened his eyes and the exact form that he had been contemplating in his mind now appeared before his eyes. After seeing the Lord, Dhruva offered Him his respectful obeisances by falling flat onto the ground like a stick. The inconceivable, beautiful form of the Lord fascinated him. His mind was firmly fixed upon the Lord and his eyes thirstily drank the sweetness of His form. He kissed Him with his mouth and embraced Him with his arms.

Śrī Hari is none other than the Supreme Soul, residing in the heart of all living entities. Since He knows the hearts of everyone, He could understand Dhruva’s feelings. Five-year-old Dhruva stood with folded hands and, out of feelings of intense longing, fervently desired to offer prayers of glorification to the Lord but, due to his immaturity, he was unable to express his feelings adequately in words. The merciful Lord could understand this and, out of compassion for him, He touched the throat of Dhruva with His conch-shell, Pāñcajañya, which has the capacity to bestow divine knowledge. The touch of that divine conch-shell conferred upon Dhruva great power of speech. Expressions of the utmost eloquence and refinement danced on his tongue—deep realizations of the truth of soul and Supersoul. All of this came to him in the most natural way. Dhruva’s heart drowned in devotion, while his mind basked in the greatness of the glory of the Lord. He started to pray:

“Oh Lord and Master of all potencies! By Your own cit-śakti, You have entered my mind and given life to hitherto hidden powers of articulation and to all my senses. I offer my obeisances unto You, O Supreme Person, knower of everything. Only by Your māyā is this endless universe created and You have entered into it in the form of Paramātmā, just like fire, that is one in essence, appears in many different kinds of firewood. Similarly, You manifest Yourself in many different ways, giving shelter to the senses of the liberated and conditioned souls alike. O Friend of those afflicted by miseries! Just as a person who wakes up from sleep is able to see everything in the universe and perceive that he is indeed seeing, similarly Lord Brahmā, by completely surrendering to Your feet, became aware of the real form of the universe and, simultaneously, became aware of his own ability to perceive. O Lord! Your lotus feet are the only refuge of the liberated souls, because all those who have taken shelter of them have reached actual liberation. Therefore, how can they ever forget You, when they have been helped so much by You? You fulfill all the desires of the living entities, even the desires of those who are already liberated from the cycle of birth and death, because You give them something immeasurably more valuable—Your eternal service. Therefore, if those who, by Your causeless mercy, obtain Your unconditional eternal service desire something other than Your loving service, they are actually foolish and cheated by māyā, because they want sense gratification for this body, which consists of dull and inert matter. All these objects of sense pleasure are always obtainable even for the residents of hell. O Lord, meditating on Your lotus feet and listening to the descriptions of Your character in the company of Your devotees provides a pleasure which cannot be compared to the brahmānanda or heavenly pleasures, what to speak of the lower material pleasures, because time is knocking the devas from heaven and throwing them down into this world. O Ananta, those who are pure souls are always Your devotees. Please grant me the proper company of those great souls because, if I listen to Your nectarean pastimes in the association of such pure devotees, I will be able to taste a deep and constant bliss of sublime purity, while escaping the greatest sufferings of this ocean of birth and death. O Padmanabha, those whose hearts’ desire is to enjoy the scent of Your lotus feet look for the proper association of the great souls; they do not develop an excessive attachment for this body and for what is related to it—wife, children, friends, house, riches, etc. They do not dwell upon all these material things. O Lord of lords, I know all the invisible and visible things included in Your Universal Form, such as the mahat-tattva and the five gross elements, the human beings, devas, demons, reptiles, mountains, trees, birds and animals, but I do not know anything of Your spiritual form. At the time of dissolution, this Purūṣa winds up all the universes within His abdomen and lies down in mystic slumber on the serpentine bedstead of Ananta Śeṣa. From His navel sprouts a brilliant golden lotus. I offer my obeisances to that Purūṣa. O Lord, You are eternally liberated, unlike the jīvā who is able to get liberation only by dint of Your mercy. You are supremely pure, while the individual soul is impure. You know everything, while the jīvā knows very little. You are the Lord of illusion, while the jīvā dwells in the clutches of illusion. You are immutable, while the jīvā constantly undergoes change by coming into contact with the fickle finger of māyā. You are the Original Person, and the jīvā is born from You. You are full of all opulence, while the jīvā has very little opulence. You control the three guṇas, while the jīvā’s quality is to be attracted by them. You always see everything and every position by means of Your cit-śakti and therefore you are totally different from the jīvās, who are in constant opposition to each other due to the bewildering influence of the guṇas. All unlimited potencies emanate from God, Who is the form of all inconceivable potencies, the eternal origin of the universe, without origin, limitless, full of bliss, immutable, the Supreme Brahman. I have surrendered unto the lotus feet of this Lord. O Lord, those who know that You are the only puruṣārtha—the most valuable asset to pursue in one’s life—worship You as the form of supreme bliss. For them, Your lotus feet are more valuable than any kingdom. A cow is full of affection for her newborn calf, giving him milk to drink and protecting him from ferocious animals. Similarly, by dint of Your great potency, You are inclined to bless with affection those who, like me, worship You with some ulterior motive, protecting them from the fearful ocean of birth and death.”

Dhruva’s invocations greatly pleased the Lord, Who is always affectionate to His devotees. Desiring to grant him a boon, the Lord spoke thus: “O prince, you have fulfilled your vows perfectly. I am blessing you with all good fortune. I know what you desire and I shall award you a most brilliant position in a place difficult to achieve. This rare place will never be destroyed. Its name will be Dhruvaloka. Until now, no one has been able to attain that place, which is always near the planets, the stars and the constellations. The planets of the great powerful sages will last until the end of the kalpa [a time of great cosmic dissolution], but your planet will never perish. That planet is always near to the abodes of Dharma, Agni, Kaśyapa, Indra, the Seven Ṛṣis, the forest hermits and the other stars. These abodes of the devas and the sages always revolve around your planet [in Vedic cosmology, all celestial objects orbit relative to a fixed point, the pole star—Dhruvaloka]. Dear boy, very soon your father will hand over his kingdom to you and will retire to the forest. With steadfast intelligence and adherence to the principles of dharma, you will protect this earthly kingdom for 36,000 years. Your brother Uttama will be lost in the forest while hunting. His mother Suruci will leave the palace to search for him, and will become trapped in a forest fire. I am the personification of yoga. Therefore, you will worship Me through yoga practice and present Me suitable offerings according to your position. This will enable you to obtain the greatest pleasures in the world. At the end of your life you will be able to remember Me and reach My abode, the supreme planet worshiped by all planets, which is beyond the abode of the Ṛṣis. Those who renounce the material world will never fall down from that place, once they have reached it.” After giving this boon and these instructions to little Dhruva, Śrī Hari left with Garuḍa to His own abode. Thus, Dhruva obtained service to the lotus feet of Śrī Hari, the most rare of gifts. The lotus feet of the Lord alleviate the tendency of the mind to search futilely for happiness divorced from the very source of happiness, Śrī Krishna.

Still, Dhruva was not yet fully satisfied. According to the order he had received from Śrī Hari, he departed for his father’s house. While on his return journey, Dhruva remembered the harsh and intolerable words of his stepmother, which had pierced his heart to the core. Realizing that he had not thought to ask the Lord for the most precious of all boons, unalloyed devotional service to Him, he reproached himself bitterly. “Ah, how unhappy I am! Alas! The great munis, who strictly observe vows of celibacy, reach their position only after many lifetimes of great tapasya. I, on the other hand, obtained the shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord after only six months and, even then, with distracted vision. And now I have again fallen into saṁsāra from that position. Alas! What ill fate! What misfortune! Just see how foolish I am! Although I obtained the lotus feet of Śrī Hari, which destroy all material conditioning, I prayed for a temporary kingdom. I think that this mishap was caused by the devas, who became envious as they could not tolerate the fact that I received a kingdom higher than theirs. Otherwise, how could I possibly have rejected the instructions that Devārṣi Nārada had given me intended for my own benefit? There is no one more unfortunate than I! Like a person feeling great fear and pain while dreaming of a wild animal attacking him, I have been confused by māyā into dualistic thinking and was unable to desire the Lord only. Rather, I have been thinking of my brother as my enemy. This thought is causing me great pain. It is very difficult to please Śrī Hari, the Soul of the universe, by one’s own tapasya. But see: I succeeded in pleasing Him, yet I prayed to Him for temporary things. I prayed for things that are useless, just as medicines are useless to a person who is about to die. As a poor man approaches a great emperor, the sovereign of the whole world, to beg for a few grains of broken rice with its husk, similarly, in my misfortune, I prayed to Śrī Hari to get some small things of insignificant value. Śrī Hari wanted to give me the service of His lotus feet, but due to my foolishness I prayed for something to satisfy my pride. Ah, fie on me, one hundred times!”

While his son Dhruva was on his way back home, King Uttānapāda was informed about his return. At first, he could not believe it. Who would take seriously the news of the return of someone who had died? The King thought to himself, “How can I believe that Dhruva is returning home again? What pious deeds have I performed in order to get him back? From where is this good fortune coming?” Then the king remembered the words of Devārṣi Nārada, who had foretold that his child would come back soon. The idea of seeing his son again almost drove the king mad with happiness and, reflecting again upon what he had done to Dhruva, he began to reproach himself. Then, in an ebullient mood, he presented the messenger of good tidings with a very valuable gold chain.

Maharaj Uttānapāda felt so excited about the return of his son that he was feeling restless and could not remain in his house. He gave orders to prepare a chariot, decorated with gold and pulled by beautiful, swift horses. The king hastened out of the palace and ascended the chariot. Amidst the sound of conch-shells, trumpets, flutes, and the loud chanting of Vedic hymns, he departed to meet his son, accompanied by brāhmaṇas, dignitaries, ministers and all of his friends.

After a short time, the party arrived at the edge of the forest and they could see Dhruva approaching. Having been bereft of the company of his son and thinking him to have died, the king was so excited and anxious to see him that he was laboring heavily with uninhibited emotion. Descending from his chariot, he quickly approached the boy and embraced him tightly with both arms. Dhruva, however, did not feel strongly attached to him, because the touch of the lotus feet of Śrī Nārāyaṇa had cut asunder the knots of material bondage. Uttānapāda was kissing his son’s head again and again, drenching his body with tears of joy.

Dhruva, the best of good-hearted persons, first offered obeisances to his father’s feet. His father blessed him with full affection and greeted him by saying, “Dear Dhruva, are you well?” After that, Dhruva offered his respects to his two mothers, Sunīti and Suruci, by prostrating himself. Seeing the child prostrated at her feet, Suruci embraced him affectionately and made him get up. With a faint and half-choked voice she blessed him, saying, “Dear boy, may you live long! Those who have been blessed with friendship, affection, mercy and love by Śrī Hari, having pleased Him with their good qualities, will always be respected and loved by all souls, just as water always runs downward.”

Then, Dhruva met Uttama. They held each other for a long time, while their bodies trembled and their eyes shed tears of joy. Dhruva’s mother, Sunīti, touched his tender body and embraced him tightly, quickly forgetting the pain of long separation. Her eyes poured forth tears of affection, which drenched her breast together with a sudden flow of milk. All who lived in the palace were thrilled to see that wonderful scene of a mother meeting her lost son. They told Queen Sunīti, “O Mahārāṇī! Look at the exalted glory of your son! His long awaited return has dispelled all our sorrow. You were granted the opportunity to see him again today due to the result of pious activities performed in many lifetimes. We are sure that this boy will become emperor. The Lord removes the sufferings of His devotees and you will be able to worship His lotus feet, which dispel all fears and grant the yogis, who worship Him, the power to conquer even invincible death. Indeed the Lord takes away the miseries of the devotees who take shelter of Him.”

King Uttānapāda put Dhruva and his brother Uttama on the back of an elephant, which rode them to town in a great, jubilant procession. When the citizens came to know that Uttānapāda’s son was coming, they became almost mad with joy and started preparing many auspicious celebrations. Everyone was very busy making beautiful decorations for the doors of all the buildings, along with collecting fruits, blossoms, young banana trees, mango twigs, beautiful cloths, garlands and valuable stones. They lined the streets with pots filled with water and lamps, all nicely arranged. They decorated all the palaces and main gates of the city with very attractive golden cloths. They sprayed sandalwood water on the yards, main roads, housetops, leisure places and lanes and displayed raw and puffed rice, grains, flowers, fruits, sweets, clothes, ornaments and pūjā articles. All the citizens became very happy as Prince Dhruva passed by. The ladies of the town, full of motherly affection, showered upon him white mustard seeds and grains, and offered him curd, water, darbha grass, flowers, fruits and many other gifts, along with innumerable blessings.

While the citizens sang captivating melodies, Dhruva entered the palace of his father, which was studded everywhere with precious gems. King Uttānapāda took great care of Dhruva, carefully nourishing him as though he were a god. The palace had beautiful ivory beds—white like milk, and decorated with gold and jewels—and precious seats with gold-leafed decorations. Everything was beautifully ornamented. The palace walls were studded with crystal-clear blue sapphires and had bas-reliefs of images of women holding brilliant lamps to illuminate the place. Near the palace lay a beautiful garden full of wonderful trees, where birds sang sweetly and bees, intoxicated with honey, buzzed around and around. In the middle of the garden was a small lake with steps that descended into water, glistening with diamonds. There were exotic white lilies and lotus flowers blossoming on the surface of the water. Swans, herons and other aquatic birds of much grace lithely moved around, which only served to enhance the beauty of the pond.

King Uttānapāda was astounded to see and hear the magnificent glories of his son Dhruva. When Dhruva came of age, the king consulted with his ministers and anointed him Yuvarāja (Prince Regent), and was very happy to see the respect that all the citizens had for him. When the king became old, after pondering the meaning of ātmā-tattva, he detached himself from all material objects, such as the opulence of his kingdom and the association of his wives and children. He became a renunciate and left the palace alone and on foot.