The Boy Who Went to Madhuvana

King Uttānapāda had two queens. His favourite, Suruci, insulted the young prince Dhruva, son of the other queen, Sunīti, when he tried to climb onto his father's lap: if he wanted a seat there, she said, he should worship the Lord and, by his grace, be born again from her own womb. The boy went to his mother in tears, and she told him to worship the Lord. So Dhruva, five years old, mastered himself and walked out of his father's city.

Nārada heard of it, and knowing what the boy meant to do, he touched Dhruva's head with the hand that takes away sin, and said to himself in wonder, See the fire of a warrior's son, who cannot bear his honour hurt. He is only a child, and he holds his stepmother's harsh words in his heart. Then he said to Dhruva, Little son, at your age, still playing your games, what slight or honour can there be for you? People are set apart by their own deeds. Be content with what fate has given you. The Lord you want to win by the yoga your mother told you about is very hard to win; sages who cling to nothing seek his track through many births and do not find it. Turn back from this. You can try when the time is right.

Dhruva said, This calm you speak of is hard for me to see. I have the hot nature of a warrior, and my heart is pierced by Suruci's words. Show me a good road, brahmin. I want a place higher than the three worlds, a place no one has held before, not my fathers and not anyone else. You go about the world playing your vīṇā for its good, like the sun.

Nārada was pleased, and out of pity he gave him true advice. The road your mother told you is the road to your highest good, he said. Serve the Lord Vāsudeva with your whole heart. Go to the holy Madhuvana on the clean bank of the Yamunā, where Hari is always near. Bathe in the Yamunā three times a day, sit, and with breath held and released purify your breath, your senses and your mind, and meditate on the Lord: smiling, his face and eyes full of grace, dark as a rain cloud, wearing the forest garland, with his four arms holding the conch, the discus, the mace and the lotus, crowned and adorned, dressed in yellow silk. And he gave the boy the secret mantra, the sacred words to repeat in worship, Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Om, I bow to the Lord Vāsudeva, and told him how to worship with water and flowers and forest fruit and tulasī leaves, in silence and at peace, eating little.

The prince walked around him, bowed, and went to Madhuvana. There he did just as Nārada had taught him, and in time the Lord came to him and gave him what he had set his heart on: a fixed and shining place, around which the stars and planets turn, that no one had ever held before.