Sunīti
Sunīti · su-nīti, “good conduct, right guidance”
Sunīti was one of the two queens of King Uttānapāda, the son of Svāyambhuva Manu, and the mother of Dhruva. The king loved her co-wife Suruci, the mother of Uttama, far more, and Sunīti lived in his house less honoured. When Suruci’s harsh words sent the five-year-old Dhruva weeping to her, Sunīti, though burning with grief, told him to wish no one ill and to take refuge in Śrī Hari, the only one who could remove his sorrow; it was her counsel that sent him to the forest. When he came back, having won Śrī Hari’s grace, she embraced him with tears of joy, and when at the end Dhruva rose to the abode of Śrī Hari, he saw her going before him on a divine vimāna. Nārada Maharshi calls her the pativratā to whom her husband was her deity.
In Uttānapāda’s house
Maitreya Maharshi, telling Vidura the account of Dhruva, says that Uttānapāda had two wives, Sunīti and Suruci. His love for Suruci was very great; he did not have as much love for Sunīti. Sunīti’s son was Dhruva, and Suruci’s son was Uttama.
One day the king had Uttama on his lap and would not let Dhruva sit there too, and Suruci, very proud, told Dhruva that he was not born of her womb and must worship Parameśvara to be born of her in his next birth if he wanted the king’s seat. Weeping loudly, Dhruva left his father and went to his mother. Sunīti took the boy, sighing, his lip trembling, onto her lap. When she heard from the people of the antaḥpura (inner palace) what her co-wife had said, she was deeply pained. The innocent Sunīti withered in the forest-fire of grief like a creeper in the middle of a forest fire; losing her composure, she wept, and as she remembered her co-wife’s words tears flowed in streams from her lotus-like eyes. Sighing long, seeing no end to her sorrow, she spoke to him.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 8
Her counsel to Dhruva
Her words, in order:
- “Child, do not wish ill to others, for one who causes sorrow to others suffers that same sorrow himself.”
- “What Suruci said is true: you were born from the womb of unfortunate me and grew up on my milk. The king is ashamed even to accept me as his wife.”
- “Though Suruci is your stepmother, she has spoken the truth. Give up hatred and do as she said. If you wish to gain a high place like Uttama, worship the lotus feet of Śrī Hari, who is beyond the reach of the senses.”
- “The Parabrahma, taking sattva as his upādhi, bears the name Vishṇu and protects the world. Great yogīs, conquering the mind by prāṇāyāma, worship him, and Svayambhū Brahmā, by serving his lotus feet, attained the place of Creator.”
- “Your grandfather, the revered Svāyambhuva Manu, worshipped Śrī Hari with one-pointed mind by yajñas with great dakshiṇās, and gained the happiness of the earth and of svarga and the bliss of moksha too. Such a fruit cannot be gained except by the ārādhana of Īśvara.”
- “Śrī Hari is full of tender love for his devotees; those who seek moksha search for his lotus feet. Keep no other thought and no attachment to saṃsāra; practise your sva-dharma, purify your mind, fix the Pūrṇa (the complete one), Bhagavān Śrī Hari, firmly in it and serve him.”
- “However much I think it over, I see no one but Śrī Hari who can remove your sorrow. While everyone runs after Lakshmī, she herself, a lotus in her hand, runs after the lotus-eyed Śrī Hari.”
Maitreya calls these, spoken through her tears, words that bring success. Dhruva heard them, steadied his mind and left his father’s city. Nārada, who knows the three times, heard of Sunīti’s counsel and of Dhruva’s going and met him on the way. The king himself later confessed to Nārada that he had pushed the boy away under a woman’s sway and had neglected his mother too.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 8
Dhruva’s return
When Dhruva came back from Madhuvana with Śrī Hari’s grace, the chief queens Sunīti and Suruci adorned themselves with golden ornaments, mounted a palanquin with Uttama, and went out with the king to meet him. Dhruva bowed to both his mothers. Sunīti embraced her son, dearer to her than her own life; touching him, she gained great joy, and the grief in her mind went away. From the breasts of Sunīti, the vīramātā (mother of a hero), wet with the auspicious tears of joy flowing from her eyes, milk flowed.
The people praised Queen Sunīti: “Your son was lost for a long time and has been found again by divine grace. He will remove the sorrow of us all and protect the earth. Surely you have worshipped Bhagavān Śrī Hari well, who removes the sorrows of the devotees who bow to him; steadfast men devoted to his dhyāna conquer even death.”
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 9
She goes before Dhruva
At the end of his reign, as Dhruva was about to rise on the divine vimāna to the abode of Śrī Hari, he remembered his mother Sunīti and thought: “Am I going away to svarga, so hard to win, leaving my poor, afflicted mother behind?” Nanda and Sunanda, the best of devas, knew his thought and showed him Sunītī Devī going ahead on a divine vimāna along the path of the devas.
Nārada Maharshi, singing of Dhruva’s greatness at the satra-yāga of the Pracetas, called him “Dhruva, son of Sunīti, to whom her husband was her deity”, who gained such a fruit by the greatness of his tapas.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 12
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapters 8–9, 12