Devanagari
विद्ध: सपत्न्युदितपत्रिभिरन्ति राज्ञो
बालोऽपि सन्नुपगतस्तपसे वनानि ।
तस्मा अदाद् ध्रुवगतिं गृणते प्रसन्नो
दिव्या: स्तुवन्ति मुनयो यदुपर्यधस्तात् ॥ ८ ॥
Verse text
viddhaḥ sapatny-udita-patribhir anti rājṣo
bālo ’pi sann upagatas tapase vanāni
tasmā adād dhruva-gatiṁ gṛṇate prasanno
divyāḥ stuvanti munayo yad upary-adhastāt
Synonyms
viddhaḥ
—
pinched by
;
sapatni
—
a co-wife
;
udita
—
uttered by
;
patribhiḥ
—
by sharp words
;
anti
—
just before
;
rājṣaḥ
—
of the king
;
bālaḥ
—
a boy
;
api
—
although
;
san
—
being so
;
upagataḥ
—
took to
;
tapase
—
severe penances
;
vanāni
—
in a great forest
;
tasmai
—
therefore
;
adāt
—
gave as a reward
;
dhruva
—
gatim — a path to the Dhruva planet
;
gṛṇate
—
on being prayed for
;
prasannaḥ
—
being satisfied
;
divyāḥ
—
denizens of higher planets
;
stuvanti
—
do pray
;
munayaḥ
—
great sages
;
yat
—
thereupon
;
upari
—
up
;
adhastāt
—
down .
Translation
Being insulted by sharp words spoken by the co-wife of the king, even in his presence, Prince Dhruva, though only a boy, took to severe penances in the forest. And the Lord, being satisfied by his prayer, awarded him the Dhruva planet, which is worshiped by great sages, both upward and downward.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Pierced by the arrows of the words of his step-mother, Dhruva, only a boy, left the King and went to the forest to perform penance. Being pleased with Dhruva who offered prayers, the Lord gave him Dhurva-loka, which the seven sages situated above and below in the sky praise.
Purport
When he was only five years old, Prince Dhruva, a great devotee and the son of Mahārāja Uttānapāda, was sitting on the lap of his father. His stepmother did not like the King’s patting her stepson, so she dragged him out, saying that he could not claim to sit on the lap of the King because he was not born out of her womb. The little boy felt insulted by this act of his stepmother. Nor did his father make any protest, for he was too attached to his second wife. After this incident, Prince Dhruva went to his own mother and complained. His real mother also could not take any step against this insulting behavior, and so she wept. The boy inquired from his mother how he could sit on the royal throne of his father, and the poor queen replied that only the Lord could help him. The boy inquired where the Lord could be seen, and the queen replied that it is said that the Lord is sometimes seen by great sages in the dense forest. The child prince decided to go into the forest to perform severe penances in order to achieve his objective.
Prince Dhruva performed a stringent type of penance under the instruction of his spiritual master, Śrī Nārada Muni, who was specifically deputed for this purpose by the Personality of Godhead. Prince Dhruva was initiated by Nārada into chanting the hymn composed of eighteen letters, namely
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya,
and Lord Vāsudeva incarnated Himself as Pṛśnigarbha, the Personality of Godhead with four hands, and awarded the prince a specific planet above the seven stars. Prince Dhruva, after achieving success in his undertakings, saw the Lord face to face, and he was satisfied that all his needs were fulfilled.
The planet awarded to Prince Dhruva Mahārāja is a fixed Vaikuṇṭha planet, installed in the material atmosphere by the will of the Supreme Lord, Vāsudeva. This planet, although within the material world, will not be annihilated at the time of devastation, but will remain fixed in its place. And because it is a Vaikuṇṭha planet never to be annihilated, it is worshiped even by the denizens of the seven stars situated below the Dhruva planet, as well as by the planets which are even above the Dhruva planet. Maharṣi Bhṛgu’s planet is situated above the Dhruva planet.
So the Lord incarnated Himself as Pṛśnigarbha just to satisfy a pure devotee of the Lord. And Prince Dhruva achieved this perfection simply by chanting the hymn mentioned above, after being initiated by another pure devotee, Nārada. A serious personality can thus achieve the highest perfection of meeting the Lord and attain his objective simply by being guided by a pure devotee, who automatically approaches by dint of one’s serious determination to meet the Lord by all means.
The description of Prince Dhruva’s activities can be read in detail in the Fourth Canto of
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
This verse described Pṛṣnigarbha. Pierced by the arrows of words of Suruci, the co-wife of his mother, Dhruva left the presence (anti) of King Uttānapada and went to the forest for performing austerity (tapase). Pleased with Dhruva who offered him prayers (gṛṇate), the Lord gave him Dhurva-loka, an eternal planet, which the seven sages, situated in the sky (divyāḥ) above and below, praise. Or it can mean, “Bhṛgu, who is situated above, and the seven sages, who are situated below, praise that planet.”
This form is called Pṛśnigarbha, an avatāra of Vāsudeva. He is mentioned in the Tenth Canto:
tvam eva pūrva-sarge ’bhūḥ pṛśniḥ svāyambhuve sati
tadāyaṁ sutapā nāma prajāpatir akalmaṣaḥ
My dear mother, best of the chaste, in your previous birth, in the Svāyambhuva millennium, you were known as Pṛśni, and Vasudeva, who was the most pious Prajāpati, was named Sutapā. SB 10.3.32
adṛṣṭvānyatamaṁ loke śīlaudārya-guṇaiḥ samam
ahaṁ suto vām abhavaṁ pṛśnigarbha iti śrutaḥ
Since I found no one else as highly elevated as you in simplicity and other qualities of good character, I appeared in this world as Pṛśnigarbha, or one who is celebrated as having taken birth from Pṛśni. SB 10.3.41
His birth but not his activities are mentioned in the Tenth Canto.. His activities but not his birth are mentioned in the present verse. By comparing the birth and activities, both can be combined consistently. Laghu-bhāgavatamṛta says:
asyātra caritānuktyā nāmānuktyā ca tatra vai |
parasparam apekṣitvād yuktā caikatra saṅgatiḥ ||
Since the activities of the son of Pṛśni are not mentioned in the quotation from the Tenth Canto and Pṛśni’s name is not mentioned in the Second Canto quote, the two can be taken as the same person because of the need for both name and activities for avatāra descriptions. Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta 1.3.56
One should not say that this verse describes how Nārāyaṇa came from Vaikuṇṭha for Dhruva, and thus this is a separate avatāra called Dhruva-priya. The same scripture also says:
atrāgamana-mātreṇa yadi syād avatāratā |
anyatrāpi prasajyeta yatheṣṭaṁ tat-prakalpanā ||57||
If one were to argue that the Lord could be considered a separate avatāra for just approaching Dhruva, this should apply to other forms of the Lord also. Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta 1.3.57