Text 28
maitreya uvāca
niśamya vaikuṇṭha-niyojya-mukhyayor
madhu-cyutaṁ vācam urukrama-priyaḥ
kṛtābhiṣekaḥ kṛta-nitya-maṅgalo
munīn praṇamyāśiṣam abhyavādayat
maitreyaḥ uvāca — the great sage Maitreya said; niśamya — after hearing; vaikuṇṭha — of the Lord; niyojya — associates; mukhyayoḥ — of the chief; madhu-cyutam — like pouring honey; vācam — speeches; urukrama-priyaḥ — Dhruva Mahārāja, who was very dear to the Lord; kṛta-abhiṣekaḥ — took his sacred bath; kṛta — performed; nitya-maṅgalaḥ — his daily spiritual duties; munīn — to the sages; praṇamya — having offered obeisances; āśiṣam — blessings; abhyavādayat — accepted.
The great sage Maitreya continued: Mahārāja Dhruva was very dear to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When he heard the sweet speeches of the Lord’s chief associates in the Vaikuṇṭha planet, he immediately took his sacred bath, dressed himself with suitable ornaments, and performed his daily spiritual duties. Thereafter he offered his respectful obeisances to the great sages present there and accepted their blessings.
We should mark how dutiful Dhruva Mahārāja was in his devotional service, even at the time he left this material world. He was constantly alert in the performance of devotional duties. Every devotee should take his bath early in the morning and decorate his body with tilaka. In Kali-yuga one can hardly acquire gold or jeweled ornaments, but the twelve tilaka marks on the body are sufficient as auspicious decorations to purify the body. Since Dhruva Mahārāja was living at that time at Badarikāśrama, there were other great sages there. He did not become puffed up because the airplane sent by Lord Viṣṇu was waiting for him; as a humble Vaiṣṇava, he accepted blessings from all the sages before riding on the plane brought by the chief of the Vaikuṇṭha associates.