Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Story of Prince Dhruva - Symbolic Meanings of the Characters

Sometime back I wrote a small, brief account of Prince Dhruva's life and achievements. Click here to read the article.

Today, I was going through the keywords analysis of my websites & blogs and have come across with a peculiar search phrase " describe uttanapada in hindu mythology". This is a rare search and has prompted me to write this article as I felt that the visitor would have been disappointed by not finding the decription of Uttanapada on this blog.

Without much time being spent on the prelogue, let us get into the thick action and let us decipher the symbolic meanings of the few important characters in the story of Dhruva.

Meanings Of the Characters

Uttana = Upright; Paada = Leg(s)

So, Uttanapada means 'the one who kept legs upright." This disposition can be dubbed as "laid back". Like how we use in the phrase 'laid back attitude'. Similar to this, the word Uttanapada denotes the most common trait of us i.e. laid back attitude. Hence Uttanapada is none other than we!

Such Uttanapada aka laid-back-attitude has got two wives. Here 'wife' means companion. We, as Uttanapada, have got two companions. What are they? Let us extrapolate...

Elder one is Suneeti and the younger one is Suruchi. Let us see what these two names denote:

Su = Correct or Proper; Neeti = Prudence or Morality
SuVery or QuicklyRuchi = Interest or Desire

From the above we can understand that the we (Uttanapada) are married to Morality and Desire. In the story, Uttanapada was loving his second wife more than the first one. It is true in our lives too that the attraction of desire is stronger than morality.

Uttanapada begot Dhruva from Suneeti and Uttama from Suruchi. An apt progeny!

Dhruva = Stables, eternal, unchangeable, firm etc.

Uttama = Best, elevated, greatest, chief etc.

When the morality prevails, we shall become 'stable' if not 'great'. But when desire drives us, we would reach the exalted or pivotal position in life but may not remain 'stable' or 'firm' over there and may stumble down any moment.

At the end of the story we witness that it is Dhruva the Stable, Eternal and Firm character which has prevailed over Uttama the Best, Elevated and Greatest. It is Suneeti who exhibited her undeterred character as against an impulsive Suruchi.

Thus, we the stereo-type Uttanapada must embrace 'morality' even at the fag end of the life to gain the most desirous status of 'stability' and that firmness alone can make us to 'shine forever' even our body departs from this world!

The story of Dhruva is not 'myth' as conceived by many but an on-going story in every community, every family and in every person. Such is the greatness of Hindu Puranas. There is no humbug or gossip or heap of impossible miracles but a true, real and practical knowledge of human psyche.

||Shantihi||