Dhruva, the Boy Who Became a Star

Dhruva was a little prince, and one day he did what any small child might do. He tried to climb up onto his father the king’s lap, as his father sat upon the throne.

But his stepmother stopped him with cold, sharp words. “That is not your place,” she said. “You were not born to me, so you have no right to your father’s lap, nor to his throne. If you wished for such honour, you should have been born my son.” And little Dhruva, his heart aching, climbed down and went away.

He found his mother and told her, his lip trembling. She held him and said gently, “Do not be sad, my love. There is a place higher than any throne, higher than the lap of any king. It belongs to those who seek Lord Vishnu with a true and steady heart. Seek that, and no one can ever take it from you.”

And Dhruva, small as he was, made up his mind. He walked out into the deep forest, all alone, to find the very highest place of all. There he sat, and he closed his eyes, and he turned his whole little heart toward Lord Vishnu, and he did not waver, not for hunger, not for fear, not for anything. Day after day, his devotion grew steadier and stronger, until at last Lord Vishnu himself appeared before the child, moved by such a steadfast little heart.

And Vishnu gave Dhruva a gift that no stepmother and no king could ever take away. He gave him a place in the sky so high and so unshakeable that he shines there to this very night: Dhruva became the Pole Star, the one still, steady star around which all the others turn, forever and ever.