Verse 7
What he asked for instead· Verses 7–12
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7Choose freely, king, whatever is in your mind. Ask a boon of me, son of Uttanapada, and do not hesitate. You deserve one, and we have heard, dear one, that you stand next after the feet of the lotus-navelled one. 8Urged to take a boon by the king of kings, Dhruva, great among the Lord's own and great in mind, chose an unshaken remembrance of Hari, by which a man crosses without effort the darkness that is so hard to cross. 9The son of Idavida gave it to him gladly, and then vanished while he watched; and Dhruva went back to his own city. 10Then he worshipped the lord of sacrifice with rites of ample fees: he who is the work of the offerings, the acts and the gods, and who gives the fruit of work.
11Carrying a devotion that ran in a hard flood toward the Unfallen, the self of all, who is not any one thing, he saw that same all-pervading one standing in himself and in all beings. 12So well made in his conduct, so good to the brahmins, so tender toward the poor, a guard on the dykes of dharma, he was taken by his people for a father.