Dhruva and Narayana — Star Myths of the World

The story of Dhruva and his encounter with the divine Narayana, who is the Lord Vishnu, contains many lessons for us and is valuable to contemplate for our benefit even in this very modern age and this very present moment.

The story of Dhruva can be found, among other places in the Sanskrit texts of ancient India, in the Bhagavata Purana, in Canto Four, beginning in chapter 8. One English translation of this text can be found here.

In that chapter of the Bhagavata Purana, we learn of a king named Uttânapâda, who as king was strictly charged with "the protection and maintenance of the world" (see verse 7).

In a pattern found throughout the world's myths, in which we frequently encounter "two mothers" (one blessing, and one cursing, and thus associated with our "two births" -- see for example this previous post discussing a famous story about Solomon's encounter with two mothers), the king has two wives in this story.

According to the Bhagavata Purana, the king's two wives are named Sunîti and Suruci, and when we encounter the family in the story, each of the wives has a young son by the king. The son of Sunîti is named Dhruva, and the son of Suruci is named Uttama.

However, the king favors one wife over the other -- he dotes upon Suruci and neglects Sunîti. Suruci for her part jealously promotes her son at the expense of Dhruva in the affection of the king. Thus, one day when Dhruva, the son of Sunîti, attempts to climb up on his father's lap to join Uttama the son of Suruci, Suruci sees Dhruva and rebukes him, telling Dhruva he does not deserve to sit on the lap of his father the king, saying:

"My dear child, you do not deserve to seat yourself where the king sits because, even though you were born as a son of the king, you were not born from my womb. Oh child, you do not understand that, because you are not my own but were born from the womb of another woman, the thing you desire is out of your reach. You can seat yourself on the throne of the king if you want, but only if you, by means of penance, have satisfied the Original Person of God and thus by his mercy have secured a place for yourself in my womb."

The text tells us that Dhruva, whom we later learn to have been five years old at this time, is devastated by these harsh words, and even more so by the fact that his father the king is looking on and says nothing in the face of this rejection. The child is filled with anger and begins to breathe "as heavily as a snake struck by a stick," according to the text, and he runs to his mother, weeping with emotion at the rejection.

Sunîti of course is very sad to see her son Dhruva in such a state, and she comforts him and lifts him to her lap. Not knowing what else to say, the text tells us that she advises the boy to seek out the very Lord of Transcendence himself, the one who is beyond the reach of blunt instruments, and advises Dhruva to fix his mind upon the divine image of the god, thinking of nothing else.

Getting himself under control, we are told, Dhruva leaves his mother and the palace and heads out to follow her advice. On the way, he encounters the great sage or Rishi named Nārada, who is a great musician and carries in one hand a khartal (a percussive instrument resembling a castanet) and in the other a tanpura (a long-necked stringed instrument resembling a lute). Nārada is sometimes known as Rishiraj, or the king of all sages.

Nārada asks Dhruva where he is going, and he is so impressed by young Dhruva's answer, as well as Dhruva's respectful tone and earnest desire to meditate upon the Supreme Lord and to follow the path advised by Dhruva's mother that the sage gives the boy his blessing and directs the child to go to the bank of the river Yamuna in the sacred Madhuvana forest, and to practice pranayama (control of the breath or Prana) and meditate upon the merciful Supreme Lord Vasudeva while reciting a mantra.

The mantra which Nārada imparts to Dhruva, which the sage tells the boy is a "most confidential mantra," is the mantra recited in the video below: Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya.

Having been thus advised, we are told, young Dhruva circumambulates respectfully around the great sage, and performs the proper obeisance to his reverence, and proceeds deep into the forest to the banks of the river Yamuna, where he begins to meditate upon the divine person of the Lord Vishnu. Please note that Krishna is one of the avatars of Vishnu, if you are confused by all the varied names by which the deity is referred in the ancient texts; one of these names is Narayana, by which the Lord Vishnu in his calm and oceanic state is often known.

There, after meditation and recitation of the mantra, and also standing upon one leg, the text tells us that Dhruva was blessed with a visit from the Lord Vishnu himself. You can read the Bhagavata Purana's description of that encounter here, in chapter 9 of Canto Four. If you prefer to watch this story as a video, you can see that embedded below in a version made for children, to whom this episode from the Puranas is still told to this day.

One of the blessings that Vishnu gives to Dhruva during this visit is the promise that, after ruling wisely as a king for the benefit of the people, Dhruva would ascend to the heavens and be fixed in a place where all the stars and constellations would circle around him like bulls circling around a central pole, turning it to grind out the grain (see verse 21). This amazing promise is usually taken to mean that Dhruva is going to become the pole star, but as I write in end note number 443 on pages 855 and 856 of my 2019 book, The Ancient World-Wide System (which explores the celestial foundations of many of the myths of ancient India, among the Star Myths of other cultures around the globe):

The descriptions here seem to indicate Ophiuchus once again, as the great central "churning stick" around which everything else revolves -- and which is certainly the "seat of Vishnu" as well, as we have discussed in this volume in the examination of the celestial correspondence between Vishnu and Ophiuchus. This action of Dhruva raises the possibility that Ophiuchus was sometimes envisioned as "standing on one leg" -- perhaps because one leg of the constellation is within the Milky Way and hence more obscured than the other.

As with so many of the world's ancient myths, the reader might be forgiven for thinking, "This story is about some extremely blessed and gifted child, who lived thousands of years ago in a place and time far removed from my own -- what can it possibly have to do with me? It is all very good that Dhruva was so enlightened that he could seek out and gain a vision of the Infinite, but that is because he was very special, a child unlike anyone who has ever lived before or since!"

However, we can see beyond doubt that the ancient myths are esoteric and metaphorical in nature -- beyond doubt because we can see that they are based upon an ancient world-wide system of celestial metaphor. This story is not about someone who lived in literal and terrestrial history: as with all the other myths given to the cultures of the world in remote antiquity and for our benefit, this story is about you.

Note that this story dramatically illustrates an episode of childhood trauma -- specifically a type of psychic trauma known to psychologists today as "attachment trauma," in which the child is neglected when he seeks attachment with the parent. And note that, as Dr. Gabor Maté explains in many of his talks and writings (see for example here), trauma is not something that happens outside of us, but rather it is something that happens inside of us -- it is our reaction to something that happens, and that reaction can be described as a separation from our own Self.

And note what the ancient myths tell us is the means of recovery from this type of internal injury: it is to seek out the Infinite, one way of which is through meditation, and which I am convinced is an illustration of our recovery of our own Self, from whom we have become alienated due to trauma but who is in fact always present and always available to us (and the research and experience of some of the most respected voices in recovery today, including Dr. Maté and also Dr. Richard Schwartz, who has developed the Internal Family Systems approach to therapy). As I have explained at some length in my most recent book, Myth and Trauma, the myths teach very clearly that it is through our recovery of Self that we recover our connection to others and to the wider universe, and even to the realm of the Infinite.

Thus, I believe this story has much to tell us for our benefit today, and that it is worthy of careful consideration for our lives, wherever we are right now.