Dhruva decided to earn the love and affection of the whole universe. He wanted to pray until he met God himself. So he went off to the forests to do intense prayer, contemplation and meditation (tapasya). He was not afraid of anything. The loneliness, the wild animals, the dark night, nothing scared him.

The tradition says that he stood on one leg and meditated for five months. During the first month he ate only fruits. During the second month he lived on grass. During the third he survived only on water. He survived only on air during the fourth month. He meditated on God in the form of Lord Narayana. Nothing else existed in his awareness.

Eventually Lord Narayana descended to the world, and blessed little Dhruva. He also returned Dhruva to his father's palace, where he was received by Uttamapada and eventually ruled after him. Narayana also granted Dhruva a boon by which he would be honoured even by the sun and the moon, as well as by the seven great sages of the constellation now known as the Great Bear. Dhruva was placed in the heavens as the unwavering Pole Star, and all celestial bodies still travel around him.

Adapted with permission from the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, from Down Memory Lane, Volume Two, 1998, by Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari, and Teachers' Guide for Value-based Spiritual Education. Curriculum for Classes I to X, 2000, Sahaj Marg Research and Training Institute, both published by and copyright Shri Ram Chandra Mission, CA, USA. For information contact Santosh Khanjee, Secretary of International Affairs at info@srcm.org.

Q: There are many principles and values described in this story. Can you explain any of them in your own words?

Q: Have you ever felt rejected or treated unjustly by others, as Dhruva was, especially by those close to you? How do you react? What did Dhruva's mother teach him when he was sad that he could not be close to his father?

Maxim Number Five: "Be truthful. Take miseries as divine blessings for your own good and be thankful."
Maxim Number Seven: "Be not revengeful for the wrongs done by others. Take them with gratitude as heavenly gifts."

Q: How did little Dhruva live out these principles?

Q: Dhruva decided to turn his attention towards God and was able to live the principle of Maxim Number Three: "Fix your Goal, which should be complete oneness with God, rest not till the ideal is achieved". Do you think this will be a useful maxim for you in today's world as you grow older? Do you think it means giving up everything else in life?

Q: What qualities did Dhruva show in his time in the forest?

Maxim Number Four: "Be plain and simple to be identical with Nature."
Maxim Number Eight: "Be happy to eat in constant Divine thought, whatever you get, with due regard to honest and pious earnings."
Maxim Number Nine: "Mould your living so as to arouse a feeling of love and piety in others."

Q: Do these describe Dhruva's way of living?

Q: Can you imagine what it would have been like for Dhruva living alone in the forest?

Q: Can you think of situations in your life that would allow you to develop some of the principles lived out by little Dhruva? It is OK if your life is very different from his - it is not necessary to go to the forest alone to do so.

O, Master!
Thou art the real goal of human life,
We are yet but slaves of wishes
Putting bar to our advancement,
Thou art the only God and power
To bring us up to that stage.