Scene 2
(Dhruva enters his mother’s room. He is shaking with anger and, at the same time, crying with sorrow. His mother is all concern for him.)DHRUVA: Mother, Suruchi has badly scolded and insulted me. I was going to my father, but she held me back. She said I had no right to approach my father for affection and love because I am your son. She has insulted me and scolded me. She said it is her son who is going to inherit my father’s throne and not me. She showed me such contempt, Mother, I can’t tell you! She was so mean. She asked me to leave the place, and not to come near my father any more. There were many, many people who saw me being insulted, but my father did not care at all. He did not say a word in my favour. Mother, what am I going to do with such a father and such a mean, cruel, nasty stepmother?
SUNITI (fondling her son): Dhruva, my child, don’t cry, don’t weep, don’t feel sad and miserable. God knows what is best for us. He will one day make us happy. He will really give us what we need most. You pray to God. Today you have been insulted by your stepmother. Well, I have been insulted by her since she came into your father’s life. She insults me at every moment — mercilessly, without any cause. I too suffer, I cry within. And now that you have also been insulted, my dearest son, I feel my heart is broken. But what can I do? What can you do? Only God, the ever-compassionate Father, can put an end to our suffering. Let us pray to Him to give us joy and inner illumination. We shall see that our inner joy will infinitely surpass Suruchi’s pleasure. Let us not enter into the world of competition, my son. I have been praying to God every day and, beginning today, I wish you to join me.
DHRUVA: Mother, I want to pray, I want to meditate, but I don’t know how. I don’t know anything about it.
SUNITI: My son, yonder is a forest. Go there and look around. You will find people praying and meditating. Ask them how to pray, how to meditate, how to invoke God — His Love and Light. They will teach you.
DHRUVA: Mother, is it true?
SUNITI: Yes, my son.
DHRUVA: Mother, I am off. I shall come back only when I have brought for you Joy, Delight and Blessings, all from God.
(Exit Dhruva. Suniti sheds soulful tears, while her only son leaves for the forest to pray to God.)
