Srimadbhagavatam -skandha4-chapters 13 to 16

January 28, 2009

Chapter12- Dhruva attains Vishnupadha

Kubera, pleased with Dhruva wanted to give him a boon and Dhruva wished only for an unbroken remembrance of Lord Hari. Dhruva returned to his kingdom and propitiated the Lord through yajnas and ruled his land as a father to his subjects for 20000 years. Then he gave the throne to his son and left for Badarikasrama where he became engrossed in the contemplation of the Lord, giving up all attachment to the body. Once he saw a divine vehicle descending from the sky and two divine beings, the attendants of Lord Vishnu coming toward him .Dhruva bowed down to them with folded hands chanting the name of the Lord. The two were named Sunanda and Nanda and they told him that he had won the vidhnupadha, which even the nithya suris and the saptharshis could only see but not attain and around which all planets and the Sun and the stars are revolving, attaining which there is no return. They requested Dhruva to ascend the vimana and Yama came towards him and asked Dhruva to put the foot on his head and ascend, which Dhruva did, showing that he had conquered death and to the real devotees of the Lord even Yama is servile. When Dhruva was going up he felt for a moment for his mother whom he was leaving but knowing his thought the messengers of the Lord pointed out to him that his mother was already going to heaven in another vimana before him.

Chapter 13, 14, 15 and 16- Descendents of Dhruva

The seventh descendent of Dhruva was Vena, son of Anga. The mother of Vena was sunithi, the daughter of Mrthyu an asura. Vena had inherited the character of his maternal grandfather and was cruel by nature He used to kill animals and humans just for fun. Seeing his wickedness and not able to correct him, Anga, disgusted, left for the forest one day during midnight. Then Vena was made king. Vena was against religious acts of any kind and forbade all vedic rituals and other religious ceremonies in his land telling the sages who were doing yajna to worship him only. The sages angered by his behaviour cursed him to die. But out of fear for committing the sin of causing anarchy in the land where there is no ruler, and also because the clan of Anga, who was righteous, should not end, they churned the thigh of the body of Vena. From that a short man emerged who was the embodiment of the sin of Vena. He was Baahuka, whose successors were hunting tribes who lived in the forests and mountains engaged in plundering and killing. Then the sages churned the arms of Vena from which Prthu and Archis, the amsa of Vishnu and Lakshmi emerged. Prthu became the king who possessed various noble and great qualities and from whom the earth came to be called PrThvee.