Dhruvaloka

Dhruvaloka · dhruva-loka, “the world of Dhruva”

Kalpa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kalpa.

Dhruvaloka, also called the Dhruva-maṇḍala, Dhruvapada and Vishṇupada, is the abode of Śrī Hari that lies above the three worlds and above the circle of the Saptarshis. Śrī Hari granted it to the boy Dhruva, son of King Uttānapāda, when Dhruva pleased him by his tapas, and Dhruva dwells there still, a great bhakta of Bhagavān Vishṇu. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa calls it the head of svarga and the supreme dhāma of Vishṇu. It is self-luminous, and the three worlds shine only in its light. Īśvara made it the pillar round which the whole wheel of the luminaries turns: Sūrya and Candra, the grahas, the nakshatras and the stars, and the Saptarshis themselves go round it in pradakshiṇa, as cattle tied to a post go round the threshing floor. The Gaṅgā, flowing from the foot of Bhagavān Vāmana, reaches it first, and there Dhruva bears her on his head three times a day. Only those of pure heart, compassionate to all beings, reach it, and one who reaches it is not born again.

The vara to Dhruva

Maitreya tells Vidura that when the child Dhruva, wounded by his stepmother’s words, performed tapas and praised Śrī Hari, Śrī Hari said to him: “O prince, firm in excellent vows, I know the resolve in your heart. Though what you desire is hard to attain, I will give it to you. The loka you will attain shines brightly, and others cannot ascend to it. You will live there eternally. The grahas, nakshatras and stars are bound to that loka, like oxen that go round the post when grain is threshed. Puṇyātmās return from the higher lokas within a kalpa, but this loka of yours will remain till the end of the kalpa. Dharma, Agni, Kaśyapa, Śukra and the Saptarshis, who earned great puṇya by the dharma of vānaprastha, in the form of stars, together with other groups of stars, go round that loka in pradakshiṇa without end.”

He told Dhruva that he would rule his father’s kingdom for thirty-six thousand years, worship him with yajñas rich in dakshiṇā, and remember him well at the end. “Then you will reach my loka, to which all the lokas bow. It is above the Saptarshi-maṇḍala. Only the great yatis reach it. Once one reaches there, there is no being born again.” So Śrī Hari, Garuḍadhvaja, granted Dhruva his dhāma and went to his own.

Later, when Dhruva had made war on the yakshas to avenge his brother, his grandfather Svāyambhuva Manu reminded him that Śrī Hari is hard to worship, yet Dhruva had worshipped him seeing all beings as the ātmā and had won his supreme abode, which surpasses all and is famed in the Vedas.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapters 9, 11

Dhruva’s ascent

When the time came, Sunanda and Nanda, the chief attendants of Padmanābha, came to Dhruva in a great vimāna sent by Śrī Hari and said: “We have come to take you to the abode of Śrī Hari. The Vishṇudhāma is very hard to win, but you have won it by your puṇya. Even the Saptarshis cannot reach it and only look on it from afar. Around it the Sun, the Moon, the grahas, the nakshatras and the stars move in pradakshiṇa. No one before you, neither your fathers nor anyone else, has attained this abode of Śrī Hari, to which the worlds bow. Take your seat in it now.”

Dhruva bathed, did his daily rites, put on auspicious ornaments and received the blessings of the maharshis. He worshipped the vimāna and went round it, bowed to the two attendants and took on a radiant form. When Death came before him in bodily form, he placed his foot on its head and mounted the vimāna, while drums sounded, Tumburu and the chief gandharvas sang and flowers rained down. Remembering his mother Sunīti, he was shown her going ahead of him in a divine vimāna. Along the path of the devas he saw the grahas one after another, and travelling steadily he passed beyond the three worlds and beyond the Saptarshi-maṇḍala and reached the abode of Śrī Hari that lies above it. So Dhruva attained the eternal place.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 12

Who reaches it

That abode of Śrī Hari is self-luminous. It shines everywhere of itself, and these three worlds shine only in its light. Only puṇyātmās who show compassion to beings and do auspicious deeds can reach it; the cruel-minded, who have no compassion for beings, cannot. Those of serene mind and purified heart, who see Parabrahman in everything and bring happiness to all beings, for whom Śrī Hari and his bhaktas alone are dear kin, become dear kin of Śrī Hari and easily reach that eternal abode.

Maitreya tells Vidura that, as a herd of bullocks tied to a post in the middle of the threshing floor goes round it at a deep, steady pace, so the wheel of the jyotir-maṇḍala, bound to Dhruvaloka, goes round it at a deep, unwearying speed. Nārada Maharshi, seeing this greatness of Dhruva, sang at the satra of the Pracetas that no king, even by tapas for many years, could reach the abode that Dhruva reached at five or six years of age.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 12

Its place among the worlds

Śuka tells Parīkshit that when Bhagavān Vāmana’s left foot broke open the shell of the brahmāṇḍa and the waters from beyond it flowed in as the Gaṅgā, after a thousand mahāyugas that water reached the Dhruva-maṇḍala, which may be called the head of svarga. The mahātmās say the Dhruva-maṇḍala is also called Vishṇupada. In Dhruvaloka lives Dhruva, firm of resolve, son of Uttānapāda. Because the Gaṅgā came forth from the lotus feet of Śrī Hari, his kuladaiva, Dhruva even today bears her on his head three times a day with ever-growing reverence, his eyes half-closed and streaming with tears, the hair of his body standing on end, for his bhakti grows day by day.

In the chariot of Sūrya, the axle runs from the peak of Meru to Mānasottara, and fixed to it is a second axle, a quarter of its length, whose upper end Īśvara has placed on the Dhruva-maṇḍala. The wheel of time turns keeping Meru and the Dhruva-maṇḍala on its right, and Sūrya and the grahas turn with it. Eleven lakh yojanas above Śani, in the north, the Saptarshis, wishing only the happiness of beings, go round the Dhruva-maṇḍala, the paramapada of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Thirteen lakh yojanas above the Saptarshi-maṇḍala is the Dhruva-maṇḍala. The mahātmās say it is the supreme dhāma of Vishṇu. There dwells Dhruva, a great bhagavad-bhakta, the support of the beings who remain until the end of the kalpa. Agni, Indra, Kaśyapa Prajāpati and Dharma, in the form of stars, all at one time reverently go round it. For the turning maṇḍalas of the grahas and nakshatras, whirled by kāla, the śakti of Bhagavān Śrī Hari, Īśvara made the Dhruva-loka a support like a pillar, and it shines at all times. As a farmer ties cattle to a post with long, short and middle ropes, so the grahas and nakshatras are set in their places, and driven by vāyu, with the Dhruva-maṇḍala alone as their support, they revolve until the end of the kalpa, like clouds driven by the wind and eagles wheeling by their own effort. In the form of the Śiśumāra that the stars make, the Dhruva-maṇḍala is at the tip of the tail.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapters 17, 21–23

In the words of others

Brahmā tells Nārada that when the child Dhruva pleased Śrī Hari and praised him, Śrī Hari gave him the Dhruva-pada, the fixed station, whose glory is praised by the devarshis beginning with Bhṛgu, who are above it, and by the Saptarshis, who are below it. Maitreya tells Vidura that Dhruva, though a small child, heard the glory of Śrīhari from Nārada, and by the power of that upadeśa conquered death and gained the Dhruvapada, the abode of Śrīhari.

Vṛtra, praying to Śrī Hari on the field of battle, said that apart from him he desired neither the station of svarga, nor the place of Dhruva, nor the station of Brahmā, nor any other rank, nor even moksha. Hiraṇyakaśipu, resolving on his tapas, said that even dhāmas like Vishṇuloka and Dhruvaloka merge into the womb of time at the end of the kalpa, and he had no use for them.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 7; Skandha 3, Chapter 14; Skandha 6, Chapter 11; Skandha 7, Chapter 3

Sources

• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 7; Skandha 3, Chapter 14; Skandha 4, Chapters 9, 11–12; Skandha 5, Chapters 17, 21–23; Skandha 6, Chapter 11; Skandha 7, Chapter 3