Dhruva — The Boy Who Became a Star

King Uttanapada had two queens. One evening little Dhruva, only five years old, climbed onto his father's lap — and Queen Suruchi lifted him off it, saying that seat belonged to her own son alone.

Dhruva ran to his mother, Suniti. She did not teach him anger. She said, "If you want a place no one can ever take from you, ask the one who gives every place — Lord Vishnu."

So the child walked into the forest. Sage Narada met him on the road and tried to send him home: the forest is cold, the nights are long, and you are five years old. Dhruva would not turn back. Seeing that, Narada gave him a mantra — Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya — and taught him how to sit still and chant it.

Month after month Dhruva chanted, until the whole forest seemed to grow quiet around one small boy. Then Lord Vishnu stood before him and touched his cheek with the conch. Everything Dhruva had come to ask for suddenly felt small: he had wanted a lap to sit on, and he had found the lap of the universe.

Vishnu gave him a kingdom, and after a long and fair reign, a place in the sky that never moves — Dhruva Tara, the Pole Star. Travellers and sailors have found their direction by it ever since.

Moral: A hurt can push you towards anger or towards effort. Dhruva chose effort — and became the fixed point by which others find their way.