Srimad-Bhagavatam 8.22.11
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · London · 2023
Chapters
Verse reading on Bali's surrender
Omna mo Bhagavate vaya, Omnamo Bhagavate vasude. Omna Bhavate su devaya Janya Sayaton Vayataratascharti Shwabiaswarate ni Brahmahridaya Dikavaya Muchyanti Yat Suraya, tey varim ridam Yathini Vayat Ratri Sargom Risha, Damnas Vina sadani rasta kuhakam, sattyamampardi Mahi, Satyamparamhi, Yamprava Jandamano Petamatakrityam Dvipa Virahakatara Juhava putreit myotrav beidus, tam sarva hridayam unima, tos me, Naray namskritya Naramcheva narotama, sva, devim saraswati yasam, tato ja mu diraje, nashta praje Badrish, nityam Bhagava Ta Sevaya, Bhagavaty dama sloki, Bhakti Bhavatina Stiki, Bhakti Bakti.
So today on this auspicious day of Rama Navami, we will read the 11th verse from the 22nd chapter of the 8th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bali Mahārāja surrenders his life.
life Atha Aham Api At Maripoho Tava Antikam Divena Nitaha, prasabham, tajita shrihi, shri, idam, kritaritanta Antikad, Kritam, Vartiam, Jivitam, Jivitam, Ya Adruvam stabdamati nabudyate, Mahammatari postavantikam, stavtikam. Dai venaita prasabham tjajita srih. Dai Venani tahasabham tjajita shri, nita prasabam, Idam kritanttikavarti jivitam, kritantitamartiam, hidam kritantitavitam, kritanttikamatti jikam. Yayadruvam stabdhamatirna buddhate, Yayadruvam stabdhamatirna buddhyate, budyate, attahama praat maripostavantikam, tikam. Dai Venani tahham tia jita sri, jita sri. Yayadruvam stabdhamati na buddhya te, na buddhyate. Atha therefore Aham I alsoso At Maripoho the traditional enemy of the family of the family of y your good self self antikam the shelter by providence Nitaha brought in Prasabham Rasabham by force Tyajita bereft Srihi Sri All Opulence Hidham
this philosophy of life this philosophy of life krita anta antikavarti Always given the facility for this. Always given the facility for this. Jivitam Ji Vitam. The duration of life. Yaya by such material opulence.
Adhruvam as temporary Stabdha Matihi Sabdha Mati such an unintelligent person. Such an unintelligent person. Nabuddhyate can cannot understand.
Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Only by providence have I been forcibly brought under Yolotus' feet and deprived of all my opulence.
Because of the illusion created by temporary opulence. People in general who live under material conditions, facing accidental death at every moment do not understand that this life is temporary.
Only by providence have I been saved from that condition. Bali Mahārāja appreciated the actions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Although all the members of demoniac families, except Prahlāda Mahārāja and Bali Mahārāja, considered Viṣṇu their eternal traditional enemy.
As described by Bali Mahārāja, Lord Viṣṇu was actually not the enemy of the family, but the best friend of the family. The principle of this friendship has already been stated.
Yasyaham anugrihnami harishie tadhanam shanai. The Lord bestows special favor upon His devotee by taking away all His material opulences. Bali Mahārāja appreciated this behavior by the Lord.
Therefore he said, daivenā nītāḥ prasaṁbhaṁ tyājitāḥ śrīḥ—it is to bring me to the right platform of eternal life that you have put me into these circumstances.
Actually, everyone should fear the so-called society friendship and love, for which he works so hard all day and night.
As indicated by Bali Mahārāja by the words jānat-pīṭhaḥ from the previous verse, every devotee in Krishna consciousness should always be afraid of the common man engaged in pursuing material prosperity. Such a person is described as Pramatta, a madman chasing the will of the wisp.
Such men do not know that after a hard struggle for life, one must change his body with no certainty of what kind of body he will receive next.
Those who are completely established in Krishna conscious philosophy and who are, and who therefore understand the aim of life will never take to the activities of materialistic dog race.
If a sincere devotee somehow does fall down, the Lord corrects him and saves him from gliding down to the darkest region of hellish life.
Adanta Gobhir Vishatam Tamishram punah punascharvitacharvananam. The materialistic way of life is nothing but the repeated chewing of that which has already been chewed.
Although there is no profit in such life, people are enamored of it because of uncontrolled senses Nunam Bramata Kurutevi Karma.
Because of uncontrolled senses people fully engage in sinful activities by which they get a body full of suffering. Bali Mahārāja appreciated how the Lord had saved him from such a bewildered life of ignorance.
He therefore said that his intelligence had been stunned. Stabdhamatir Nabuddhyate. He could not understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead favors his devotees by forcibly stopping their materialistic activities.
Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ki jaya! Adhām apy ātma-pari-poṣavāntikaṁ daivenīta prasa-bhaṁ tajitaḥ śrīḥ, idam kṛtāt-antika-vartī jīvitaṁ yayā-dhruvaṁ stabdha-matir na budhyate. Idam Kritatantika Varti Jivitam Yayadruvam Subdhamatir Nabuddhyate.
Only by providence have I been forcibly brought under the shelter of Your lotus feet and deprived of all my opulence. Because of my illusion created by temporary opulence, people in general,
of the illusion created by temporary opulence, people in general who live under the material conditions facing accidental death at every moment do not understand that this life is temporary.
Only by providence have I been saved from that condition.
True spirit of celebrating Vāmanadvādaśī
Namaḥ oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine. Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī- प्रचारिणे, nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe. Śrī-Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya Prabhupānanda-sadvaita, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Hari Ram Ram Ramhari. So today we are celebrating the
surrender of Bali Mahārāja.
Even though this is Vāmanadvādaśī or Śravaṇadvādaśī, the day of the bright half of the months of Bhadra, when the moon resides at Shravana Nakshatra, very auspicious day by astrological calculations. Even though we call this day as appearance day of Vāmanadeva, the most significant uh celebration which uh
we are doing today is to remember how to how Balimaraj surrendered completely everything which he had to the lotus feet of Vamanadev. So that's the festival of surrender and the result of uh festival of this festival.
As much as when we're celebrating Krishna Janmashtami, this festival signifies that Krishna should be born within our heart.
That the remembrance of beautiful charming boy Krishna should be firmly established within our heart.
As much as this day of the year, when we're celebrating, the proper celebration is to achieve the same spirit of self-surrender.
If we don't achieve the same spirit of self-surrender, and for that we're telling this story, for that we're trying to meditate on this pastime described in
the Eighth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This is the real celebration of Vamanadeva's appearance.
How by understanding that God is there, we at the same time understand that we belong to God. And nothing belongs to us. Nothing in reality belongs to us.
That's the understanding which Bali Maharaja obtained by Lord Vamanadev's mercy on this day and that's the understanding which we should strive or aspire to acquire through meditating on this pastime.
That's the real celebration of Vamanadvadasi.
Universal themes of the Eighth Canto
And of course, today also is the appearance day of Srila Jiva Goswami, who by his life of complete surrender and dedication to his spiritual master Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, also exemplified the same spirit of self-surrender.
So the whole story, as you probably know, is very beautiful and it is described in the Eighth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is according to meditation on the form of the Lord.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is nothing but living representation of the Lord, literary incarnation of the Lord. So Eighth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the lotus hands of the Lord. Seventh and Eighth Canto, the Seventh Canto is his arms by which he fights the demons and eradicates the demonic element from our heart as well.
But the Eighth Canto is his lotus hand by which he gives and takes, or rather first takes, then gives. So that's the essence and the essential message of the Eighth Canto.
The Eighth Canto is describing how different people in different or different heroes of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in different conditions they become desperate.
Krishna apparently very cruelly takes away their of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, or in case of demigods, in case of of Srimad Bhagavatam, or in case of demigods, in case of
the second story of the Samudra-manthana and of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or of course in case of Bali Maharaj. So first Krishna takes away snatches cruelly, really cruelly, and then gives.
But in between, what happens when Krishna takes away everything, the devotee at this moment of time, when Krishna mercifully takes away everything from him, the devotee feels immense gratitude.
And by expressing this immense gratitude, he melts the heart of the Lord. And the Lord, reciprocating with this gratitude, after taking away everything, gives so much that the body cannot hold.
This is what Śrīla Prabhupāda explained. He said that you know Krishna has ten hands and if he wants to take away from you with his ten hands what you can hold with your two hands.
But then when he wants to give with his ten hands, what you can hold with your two hands, you know. He will give much more than you can even hold or imagine to hold.
So this verse which we read today is the heartfelt prayers of surrender by Bali Maharaj. And this is the culmination of the whole story.
Again, the dynamic of the story is that first Krishna deprives his devotee of everything, then the devotee completely surrenders.
Bali's conquest under Śukrācārya's guidance
Or rather, he surrenders even before by the encounter with the Lord in a form av his mercy and then he expresses visible his surrender and then the Lord gives. So let's remember the story because it's proper.
On these days, we have to deeply meditate on different details of the story to understand it to really try to establish this whole story within our heart. We all know how the story began, how first
Bali Mahārāja was killed. He was killed in the battle with demigods and Śukrācārya, who uh had the art of Sañjīvanī, who had the art of who had special mantra and special herbs, he revived him back.
Together with so many other demons.
Despite the problems which demons encountered in this fight, Shukracharya saved the day. He really revived everyone. And being very grateful to Shukracharya, Bali Maharaja surrendered to him and accepted him as his spiritual master.
And because he was a very obedient disciple, following very strictly to his spiritual master, under the guidance of Shukracharya, he performed Vishvajit yajna.
This is a very special Vedic ceremony which is meant to help somebody who performs this yajna to conquer over the whole world. So yajna was extremely successful, and as a result of this, the demons became very strong. And they launched the war with the demigods.
And when Indra in fear desperately approached Brihaspati and said, what shall we do? Brihaspati told him, just run away from your kingdom.
There is nothing else you can do because you are very weak and Bali Maharaja is very strong.
He has such a dedication and devotion to brāhmaṇas, he serves his guru Maharaja and brāhmaṇas so nicely that you will never be able to do anything uh against him because you are a proud fellow.
Your pride made you completely weak. So there is no other recourse, you have to just retreat to some retreat center from your heavenly planets.
Kaśyapa Muni instructs Aditi in Payovrata
And so that was the beginning of the story when Bali Maharaja established himself as the king of the heavenly planets and was ruling there very nicely
and then Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describes that how Aditi mother of Indra and other demigods became very depressed and morose.
And when Kashyapa Muni, her husband, came back home, he saw that the whole household is incomplete darkness. He just enters into this gloomy atmosphere.
You know, when somebody is depressed, you know, he's sitting somewhere in his little apartment and he doesn't even lead the light and it's dark and everything is dirty.
And you enter into this room and you become depressed yourself. So the same happened with Kashyapa Muni.
Kashyapa Muni enters his ashram and instead of entering ashram, he's entering into a depressed loka, into the loka of depression. He sees this, you know, complete disorder everywhere
and he sees his wife and his wife is uh gloomy and sad and and he asks what happened? Did you not feed the guest? Did you uh transgress some dharma? Because what else could be the reason for your depression?
It's actually a very important teaching of this story because Kashyapa Muni wants to teach us that when we are depressed, we shouldn't blame the circumstances, we shouldn't blame the fate, the providence, we should blame ourselves, we should look into ourselves and see what wrong did we do.
Did we do something wrong which caused such depressed condition of our consciousness?
Because the depression means that the tamas gun the mode of ignorance took over our mind and our heart, and because of this we find ourselves in this desperate condition of life.
So he describes different possibilities how this could come up to Aditi. But she said, no, no, my dear Lord, this is not the reason.
The reason is that my sons, my little cute sons like Indra, they are deprived of their possessions. And Kashyapamuni hears this and he says, Oh my goodness, my of the Lord is so strong. It's unbelievable.
You know, you're supposed to know better. You're such an intelligent lady, uh you're supposed to know that nobody is your son.
It's just temporary relationship which has nothing to do with your eternal constitutional position. It has nothing to do with reality. It's just an illusion created by the Lord and you fell the victim of this illusion.
And you know, Aditi, when you're depressed, philosophy doesn't enter your ears, you know. There's some blockage there. And it is she was crying and crying and crying, yes, maybe I'm an illusion, but still please save me.
This is how it usually works, you know. Philosophy can only be understood when you're okay, but when you're not okay. And philosophy doesn't uh uh uh rings the bell, doesn't uh reverberate within your heart.
It means that you are a that you actually don't know the philosophy. Śrī Rādhā Gokulānanda ki jaya, Śrī Sītā-Rām-Lakṣmaṇa-Hanumān ki jaya, Gaura-Nitāi ki jaya.
So Kashyapa Muni mercifully gives the procedure, the special ritual which Aditi is supposed to do to fulfill her desire. And actually, the real purpose of Vedic rituals is to purify the heart.
Fulfilling of the desire is just insignificant side effect of the ritual. Yes, you will fulfill your desire by performing certain ritual, by following it strictly.
He explains in all details how she should do this payovrata. For twelve days, she should only take milk and in this way purify the body and the mind and the heart and everything.
But the real purpose of all these rituals is to make you pure. So much so that you know you forget about your desires, you forget about the smalls. So he gives this uh ritual uh as the way of uh kind of cheating uh Aditi.
And Aditi performs this ritual very strictly, and it is said
that at the end of her ritual, when she was successful by performing this tapasya of drinking only milk and worshiping the Lord with all her heart, at the end of her ritual, Krishna enters the mind of Kashyapa.
So he was rewarded by the presence of Krishna in his mind, and from his mind Kashyapa transformed Krishna
Appearance and beauty of Lord Vāmanadeva
into the womb of Aditi and she became pregnant. And in an auspicious day, this day of the year, Rama-navami,
the Lord appeared in all his glory with four hands, with all his weapons and all his dress and everything, which is a part of his svarūpa.
You know, when he appears, he always appears with his weapons because weapons is not you cannot really deprive him from his weapons.
And then you know after giving for a short while the darśana of his complete four-armed form, he took the form, the shape of little cute boy, Vāmanadeva.
Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the third chapter where he describes different incarnations of the Lord, that Vāmanadeva represents the beauty of the Lord.
Usually dwarfs are not really beautiful to look at. They have ugly faces with all kinds of wrinkles. But when Krishna appeared, he became the personification of beauty.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that Mohinī, it's actually from Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta by Rūpa Gosvāmī, Mohinī-mūrti, Balarāma and Vāmanadeva, they are manifestations of the opulence of beauty of the Supreme Lord.
So this beauty personified Vāmanadeva appeared in front of Kashyapa and Aditi in this beautiful form, because they wanted to see him in such a form.
He first appeared in forearmed form, but then very quickly changed his form because reciprocating was their desire.
It is said in the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that the Lord accepts the form, the rūp, which according to the desire or according to the meditation of the devotee. Yatyaddiya, how you meditate on the Lord, He will take this particular shape.
Therefore, it's very important to know upon which form of the Lord we should meditate. Our meditation should be very concrete and direct.
So he took form of this beautiful boy, and after you know pompous celebration of his first birthday, when
When Sun-god Himself gave him upanayana and ceremony, dīkṣā ceremony, the Sun-god himself chanted Gāyatrī mantra into his ear: oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ, savitur and so on and so forth.
So you know, of course, Balimaharaj, Vāmanadeva doesn't need, you know, Gāyatrī mantra from Sun-god. But nevertheless the ceremony was performed properly.
Vāmanadeva requests three steps of land
Bṛhaspati himself put the brāhmaṇa thread on his body, and you know, Kaśyapa Muni gave him kuśa grass belt. So he was fully equipped, he was dressed nicely, and he
went to Bali Maharaj, because in the meantime Bali Maharaj decided to become even stronger. He's already the ruler of the whole universe, but he knows that this position is vulnerable.
No matter how strong you become, sooner or later you may lose this.
So to make sure that he keeps this position, he performs aśvamedha-yajña to establish himself very firmly on the bank of Narmada River under the expert guidance of Śukrācārya and so many other priests of Bhrgu family.
So he is there, and all of a sudden, this effulgent little boy appears there, and everyone just is amazed.
Some brahmacārī with daṇḍa and brahmacārī clothes and kuśa grass belt and, you know, pakka brahmacārī, and uh Bali Maharaj, he looks at him, and this is the most important moment. Because actually, even though he expresses his Atmanivedana, his self-surrender in these verses, in these prayers, but uh
the uh the actual act of his self-surrender took place when he saw Vāmanadeva. When he saw his beauty and he was completely enamored by his charm and beauty.
And at that moment he decided, I'm ready to give to him everything. So at that moment he was so pleased, and he said, you know, please take something, please take something from me.
Of course, there was a little pride involved in this, and for that Krishna is punishing him later. But there was very little pride. Actually, Balimarach was mostly was overwhelmed by this emotion.
Yes, I want to give something. You're so beautiful. Take something from me. But of course, you know, this ahaṅkāra's still a little bit there. Take something from me.
Later, Krishna will tell him: I punished you because of this fault. Which fault? The fault was? I will give something to you. That was the fault. What's wrong with this? I is wrong. Who am I to give?
I have nothing in my possession. That's the main point of the whole story. The main point when you become sane and when you become yeah,
when you lose this pramata, the madness, uh the intoxication of the wealth, as Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in this puport, then there's no I, there is no mine. You know, you cannot give anything. You can only give yourself and even this you cannot do because you know that you don't belong to yourself anyway.
You already are his. So that's uh so little pride was there, but he was very pleased, and uh of course Vamanadev says, so give me just three steps of land.
I don't need much, you know, only three steps, you know, it's mm, it's usual Krishna's trick. You know, give me one fruit, one leaf, you know, patrampushpampalamtayam. And that Yatkaroshi Yadasnasi give me everything.
So that's his usual behavior. You know, I don't need much. Just a little bit, no problem.
And Balimara says, well, you if you you're not intelligent, you know you look very intelligent, but uh it appears from your actions and your from your words that you're not very intelligent. I can I can give you so much.
And again, this pride. I can give you so much. Krishna says, no, no, no, I don't need much from you. Just give me little. Just give me three steps. And Balimarach says, okay, if you want to take three steps, take three steps.
And Krishna says, yes, you promise to me. And Balmaraj says, yes. If you promise to me, you have to do the ritual, you have to do sankalpa because the promise without sankalpa is just empty words.
Like we know perfectly well in our own example. You know, we promise so many things, but we don't do sankalpa. Sankalpa means the determination was in the heart.
I gave this promise and I will stick to this promise no matter what. No matter what happened with me, I will stick to this promise, I will do it. So Bamadev is not in a hurry to accept the promise of Balimaraj.
And he said, do it properly. And Balimara said, No problem, of course I'll do it properly. And he takes the bowl to do achamana and to do sankalpa. Sankalpa you have to uh pour some water on your heart or on your hand and
and then uh pour it down on the earth and uh by doing this, making sankalpa, making determination, chanting some mantras.
Śukrācārya warns Bali against surrendering
This is yours, I'm giving it to you. And then Shukracharya, who is standing next to Bali Maharaj, he became completely hysterical. He starts panicking. What are you doing? Stop it. He will cheat you.
He will take everything from you. Don't do it. And Bali Maharaj looks at him and says, no, no, I already promised. How can I take my word back? He said, no, no, you promised, but you didn't say om. You know.
If you promise something, you first have to say om, om means God. Then you have to fulfill your promise. But you didn't say om, so no problem, there is no transgression of dharma.
So Shukracharya very elaborately describes to him all different kinds of tricks you know. I know Dharma, you don't know dharma. You you will not really transgress any dharma if you don't
fulfill this promise because you need money for yourself. How you can perform dharma without money? You know you are so pious, you know how you can, you know, and he will take everything from you.
You know, you need money for yourself, and he will take everything from you. You should divide very carefully your money into five parts, and you know, one part is for me.
And then for performing your dharma and so many other important things and you have your wife and your children and your home and uh you have to pay the bills and taxes and uh you know, don't do it, don't do it. And then Bali Maharaj looks at him.
And there is a pause. And this is a very significant pose where some struggle is there. Actually this is another point, the first point of surrender when Bali Mahārāja sees the beauty of the Lord.
And he is overwhelmed and charmed and feeling some irresistible attraction to the Lord. The second point is this. Now he is in dilemma. He should either reject his guru or follow what his heart tells him to do.
And it's a very difficult choice because you know especially for people in Vedic culture, it's extremely difficult to make this choice. To reject Guru. To reject Guru means to reject everything.
Means to reject the prospect of happiness. You know, it's nowadays of course it's no problem. People are used to it. But in proper culture, people know that you cannot reject your guru. You cannot reject your guru.
Because by rejecting guru, you are violating the most essential principle. You're violating this because Guru represents God.
You know, by rejecting Guru, by rejecting guru-jana, you cannot reject it to said, you cannot reject your father, you cannot reject your mother, you cannot reject your elder brother, you cannot reject your guru, they are all guru-jana.
You can only be happy. There is, you know, there is very strict condition. You can only be happy if you strictly follow and surrender to these principles.
And you know, most of all you can't reject your guru, your spiritual master. Because this is following them, surrendering to them, is the key to success in all areas of life. You cannot do this.
So there is this moment very this suspense, and everyone is looking. And Śukrācārya is there, and he's trying to figure out what is going to happen.
And he's already, you know, already kind of uh sure that yeah he will do he's a nice boy. He always followed me. But then Bali Mahārāja looks at Śukrācārya and says, no, no, I cannot do this. I have to give.
I'm really sorry. Please forgive me. I you know. And he gives his counter-arguments. He actually argues with his guru and defeats his guru. He says, no, no. Under no circumstances should we, no matter what.
Even if we will be deprived of all our possessions, we cannot, uh, lose our dignity. We have to follow what we promised, we have to do, uh, we have to give and I have to give and I will give.
And I promise to when shall I eight thirty, so should finish the class now. No, okay. Let me go a little bit more. It's so otherwise it's not fair because we still didn't start the verse. It was the prelude.
So he says, I cannot do this. No, I cannot do. I cannot really do this. I have to give. So he said, yes, I'm promising to you. And he takes his bowl, special bowl, ācamana bowl, to do saṅkalpa,
and Shukracharya trying to save the situation, and he takes the shape of a fly. It is not described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but it is described in Nṛsiṁha Purāṇa and some other Puranas.
He turns into a fly and he enters into this bowl, ācamana bowl, and he sticks into the—into this little, how you call this, nose, Nose hole. Yeah.
Nose hole of the ācamana bowl, uh, as a fly, and he is just there and the water is not coming. And Bali Maharaj is trying to put water and Shukracharya is there, and he's holding the fort.
You know by all his strengths and mystical power. You know water is not coming.
And then, then little Vāmanadeva he sees the difficulties and he comes to the help of Bali Maharaj, he knows what is happening, so he takes a little blade of kuśa grass. Kuśa grass is very sharp. And he pokes the eye of Shukracharya. He pokes one eye of Shukracharya and pushes him in. And Shukracharya is just, you know, since then he has only one eye.
And basically the explanation of this is that Vamanadeva wants to say that you only see the scriptures with one eye. You anyway only see the scriptures with one eye. You already blind with one eye.
Let me, you know, establish it firmly that you are anyway blind with one eye. You only see the material side of the scriptures. In the scriptures, you only see how to get the prosperity and you don't know anything else.
So let me poke on the eye.
Revelation of the universal Trivikrama form
And so Sukracharya is the impediment is removed by Vamanadeva and Bali Maharaj puts water and he said, Yes, take three steps of land, this is yours.
And of course, we know then at this moment of time, Vamanadeva all of a sudden becomes trivikram. He takes this by the first step he covers the whole earth, and by the second step he covers the heavenly planets, and by his body, by expanding his body, he becomes the universe.
But the reality is that even though we say, and for the sake of the story, for the sake of the flow of the story, it's like this. But what's happening in reality, Krishna is already the whole universe.
The very first word, the very first name of Krishna in Vishnu Sahastranam is Vishva. He is a universe. He is the whole world. So he is there, but we don't see it.
So at this moment of time, when the critical moment came, when Bali Maharaj confirmed, yes, I want to surrender. When Vamanadeva asked him, are you sure you want to surrender?
And Bali Maharaj said, yes, I'm sure, I want to surrender. I promise to you, I am surrendered soul to you. So at this moment of time, actually what happened?
Bali Maharaj got real eyes to see. He saw the universal form of the Lord.
And everyone else also saw it because of the influence of Bali Maharaj, the surrender of Bali Maharaj, when he relinquished completely his false ego revealed to him the reality which was hidden from him till this moment of time.
What happens with us because we have false ego, the false ego doesn't allow us to see reality as it is. Doesn't allow us to see that God is everywhere, that everything belongs to God, that everything is God's.
So this is a beautiful description of this in uh in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Bhāgavatam and the Eighth Canto, how he sees that Lord is everything and nothing belongs to me. There is no possession of mine. Nothing really is mine.
So he sees it very clearly and he becomes immensely pleased. So this is the dynamic of surrender.
First, there is initial attraction by the beauty of the Lord, by the beauty of the philosophy of the Lord, you know, we have some initial attraction. Then the Lord tests us: Are you sure?
Are you sure you want to surrender? Are you sure that this is what you want to do? And when they confirm, yes, yes, my Lord, I'm yours. Yes, I understood. I belong to you.
And this moment of time, then the Lord, by giving his mercy, can reveal to us the reality. And this is how it is described in the Eighth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The reality was revealed.
This trivikram form of the Lord, which is very famous in the Vedas. In Rig Veda, he is called trivikram because he made these three big steps. So this form was revealed to Bali Maharaj, and Bali Maharaj
became in this moment of time he understood. I was wrong. And this moment of time, he understood. I was wrong when I told that I'm giving to you because there's nothing I can give to him. Everything is already his.
I cannot give everything to him. So he surrenders completely and the Lord says, okay, my dear Bali, you promised to me to give three steps of land. Two steps I made. Where shall I make the third step?
So and he says, you're actually che aater. You cheated me. You didn't fulfill your promise because you promised to me to give three steps of land, but uh you know it's still not enough.
But by two steps I covered everything. Where should I make the third step? And because you cheated me, because you said I'll give to you, I'll punish you, you will go to hell.
Because you completely violated dharma because you didn't fulfill your promise, because you are your sinner, you know, you will go to hell and you will suffer in hell. So he says this to Balimaraj.
And Balimaraj is just smiling. He's in complete bliss. The Lord Himself says, I'll send you to hell. And Balimaraj says, Oh yeah, really. Thank you very much. So that's that's real surrender. You know.
I know, you're my lord, no matter what you do with me. Āśliṣya vā pāda-ratāṁ pinaṣṭu mām adarśanānmarْمa-hatāṁ karotu vā. Whatever you do to me, I am yours.
I am yours and I'm the happiest today because you showed it to me. So this, is when this is the time when Balimaraj starts his prayers. The verse which we read today, the 11th verse.
Bali's prayers and ultimate self-surrender
So that was the prelude, so the lecture starts now. So the verse which we read today is the last verse of his prayers.
And actually, even though apparently, this is why we need explanations and commentaries, because if we read these prayers, it seems like that Bali Mahārāja is angry at Vāmanadeva. Like here he calls him Atmaripu.
You are the enemy of our family, of our whole tradition. He calls him ātma-druh. You know, if it was not for the commentaries, we would never understand.
And the first verse, the first prayer which he gives, very interesting prayer. Unfortunately, I don't have time to explain all of them. But in the first verse of the prayers, he calls him Uttamaśloka.
You know, here's somebody, you know, who cheated you. Somebody who just pronounced the curse to you. Somebody who really was not honest and did something mean to you.
And Bali Mahārāja stands there and says, You Uttamaśloka, all the poets glorify you with the chosen verses. And actually, he's very sarcastic. Bali Maharaj is very sarcastic. Yes, yes, you're Uttamaśloka.
Your fame spread all over the world. Here you came as a beggar to me.
You know, you are the husband of the goddess of fortune, and you came as a beggar to me. You know, and you disgraced yourself by this and you did so many strange things.
Now you you just pronounce the curse, you want me to go to hell, and I'm ready to go to hell.
You are Uttamaśloka. You know, everyone is glorifying you because you behave in such a strange manner. Nobody can understand and figure out why you're doing what you're doing.
So Bali Maharaj is at the same time, he's he's really enjoying this whole thing, this whole episode, because he knew the reality. He is now.
Now he is the completely surrendered soul because the reality was revealed to you, to him, due to his determination and due to his honesty and sincerity.
So he's saying all these things and calls Krishna initially sarcastically, and here he says, very important, just a few words about this verse.
Atha tarhy aham atma-ripo tvantikam tvantikam yo 'tma-ripur yuyaṁ as Prabhupada translates, you are the traditional enemy of our family.
But atma-ripu also means the implication here, very important implication here is that atma-ripu means, atma means, we all know something which we identify with.
Atma means the body, atma means the mind. When he calls atma-ripu, he says, Oh, you are the enemy of my body and my mind. But not the enemy of my soul, you are a real friend of my soul.
Because you really deprived me from this misidentification,
from this illusory identification with the body and the soul, therefore yu-atma-ripu. And moreover, yu-atma-ripu because you are the enemy of māyā, ahaṅkāra. And thank you very much for being the enemy of my false ego.
You completely crushed my false ego. First, you crushed my false ego by your beauty, then you crushed my false ego by taking snatching away everything from me and showing to me that nothing belongs to me.
And you know you crushed my false ego. False ego should be crushed very sorely, and that's actually the duty of God of spiritual master. You know, because even if you have one thousandth
parts of the false ego. False ego is a very amazing organ. You know, we know that some organs can regenerate. You know you cut some parts of it and then it becomes full.
So false ego is such if you have a little trace of false ego, it will be grown up to the full extent in no time. So you have to be sorely deprived of your false ego. And that's what Atmanivedanam means.
Atmanivedanam means okay I understood. Nothing belongs to me. So here he says: uh, you destroyed my false ego, you completely smashed my false ego. I don't have my false ego. Daivena. Why did it happen, Daivena?
Because of the providence, but by Daivena, he really means because Prahlad Maharaj saved me. Because I am the grandson of Prahlad Maharaj, and because he is such a surrendered soul.
So, this is the daiva, this is the fortune, this is the reason, this is the cause behind uh this whole episode.
I am only saved and completely freed from this burden of false ego, which is such a heavy burden upon our shoulders, that because of Daiva, and Daiva means my fortune of being Prahlad Maharaj's grandson.
And very soon Prahlad Maharaj will appear on the scene and he will say, Oh, yeah, thank you very much, my dear Lord, that you did this to my nice little grandson. So Daivena Nitek Prasabam uh Tajj na T Tjadyajita Srich.
You you deprived me by this Sri. Sri literally means opulence. Sri means dazzling opulence. Opulence has this dazzling property. It dazzles and it blinds us.
So he says: You deprive me from this opulence and by depriving me by force you deprived me by this opulence and by depriving me of this opulence you made me see the reality.
Because the dazzling effulgence of the opulence does not blind me anymore. And he says that this opulence is so dangerous that it really uh bewilders every living entity.
Every living entity imagines that something belongs to him. Whereas in reality nothing belongs to him. Every living entity tries to enjoy the property little property which he thinks belongs to him.
And as a result of this, because they are stubborn material, because they're completely dull, as the result of this, they cannot understand the impermanent nature of this life.
As a result of this hope that I will become happy by enjoying these opulences which are given to me, they forget that the life can finish at any moment. They forget the reality. They forget that the Lord is behind this. And this is the illusion.
And now I'm completely free from this illusion. Nothing belongs to me. Nothing.
Principles of complete surrender to God
The last thing which I will tell uh because it's late. The very last thing. There is a very important principle in Mimamsa Sutra which actually is illustrated by this particular pastime.
In Mimamsa Sutra it is said that if two things are subordinate to some other things, subsidiary to some then these two things which are subordinate to the main thing do not have relationship to each other.
Do not have independent relationship to each other. Any relationship which they have, which they can have only through this main principle which they belong to or to which they are subsidiary.
So in application to our life, why it is illustrated here, you know, in the pursuit of our life, in the endeavors of our life, in the endeavors to become successful, we are trying to enter into relationship with some other people, and we are trying to enter into relationship with some properties, with some energy, with some things.
But if we understand this principle very well, that we cannot really become satisfied by entering into relationship with something which is subsidiary independently of the relationship with the main principle to whom this whole thing belongs, we will never be satisfied by this relationship.
And that is proven again and again and again in this world. We are trying to enter into some independent relationship. We always feel something is lacking.
The relationship may be nice, but still there is no complete satisfaction. We are trying to enter into relationship with the property, with this, with that, with possession, with name, with fame, with glory.
If we are trying to do it independently without understanding this all belongs to the Lord, this all belongs to God.
And I can only enter into the relationship with all these things if I am related to God then all our attempts will fail. We will fail miserably.
So, the main point of this story: why self-surrender is necessary because by self-surrender you can get everything.
Because by self-surrender, entering into relationship with the Lord, you're entering into relationship with everything else.
Whereas by trying to enter into relationship with everything else independently of your relationship with the Supreme Lord, you will ultimately be frustrated. You will ultimately fail because it's not possible.
It's not possible. You can only, you can have everything. And when Vamanadev hears these prayers and sees how blissful Bali Mahārāja is, he basically wants to show, see how glorious my devotees.
When he becomes real devotee, when reality becomes revealed to him, he understands everything. So he says, okay, you know, yes, you will go to hell, but this hell will be much better than this heaven.
I will make this hell much better than the heaven, and you will be there. And Śukrācārya will be with you, no problem. He's your guru.
He will also enjoy the opulence which I will give. I will give you everything, no problem. Now you can have everything which you want.
Because now you know how to properly enter into the relationship with this through being related to me. And moreover, I will become your bodyguard and I will stay with you all the time.
So, this is, you know, this is the little reward for your complete self-surrender. So that's the beautiful story of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which we celebrating and as I said we are celebrating this self-surrender.
How important it is to understand the dynamic of self-surrender and how the self-surrender is the real key for success in our life.
Understanding reality which is represented by Śrī Rādhā-Gokulānanda altar and coming to them and saying, I am yours, nothing belongs to me, everything is yours.
And I am only entering into relationship with anything else as much as I am related to you. Thank you very much, Hare Krishna.