Sutala, the Abode of Bali Mahārāja
After donating the three planetary systems to Vāmanadeva, Bali Maharaja was reinstalled as the king of Sutala, where he continues to worship the Lord while living in great material opulence.
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Sutala, the Abode of Bali Mahārāja
“Below the planet Vitala is another planet, known as Sutala, where the great son of Mahārāja Virocana, Bali Mahārāja, who is celebrated as the most pious king, resides even now. For the welfare of Indra, the King of heaven, Lord Viṣṇu appeared in the form of a dwarf Brahmācārī as the son of Aditi and tricked Bali Mahārāja by begging for only three paces of land but taking all the three worlds. Being very pleased with Bali Mahārāja for giving all his possessions, the Lord returned his kingdom and made him richer than the opulent King Indra. Even now, Bali Mahārāja engages in devotional service by worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the planet of Sutala.” (SB 5.24.18)
Ultimately, the Lord creates the material universes to provide an opportunity for the conditioned souls to regain their original nature of service to Him. To fulfill this purpose, He sends His pure devotees to take birth here and spread the culture of love of Godhead.
Pure devotees are free to take birth anywhere, and some of them, such as Prahlāda Maharaja and Bali Mahārāja, are sent on special missions to give association to the demons living in the lower planetary systems.
Prahlāda Maharaja became the king of Sutala after Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva killed Hiraṇyakaśipu. Later, the throne was passed to Virocana and then to Bali, who eventually became the king of the three worlds after defeating the demigods. After donating the three planetary systems to Vāmanadeva, Bali Maharaja was reinstalled as the king of Sutala, where he continues to worship the Lord while living in great material opulence. Since he desired to control the celestial planetary system, he was blessed by the Lord to become the next Indra (in the 8th manvantara), reigning over the celestial sphere without opposition for an entire manvantara, before going back to Godhead. Meanwhile, the Lord stays continuously with him, serving him as his doorman.
Prabhupāda describes it beautifully in his purport:
“Bali Mahārāja offered everything to the Lord — his wealth, his kingdom and even his own body (sarvātma-nivedane baliḥ). The Lord appeared before Bali Mahārāja as a brāhmaṇa beggar, and Bali Mahārāja gave Him everything he had. However, Bali Mahārāja did not become poor; by donating all his possessions to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he became a successful devotee and got everything back again with the blessings of the Lord. Similarly, those who give contributions to expand the activities of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and to accomplish its objectives will never be losers; they will get their wealth back with the blessings of Lord Kṛṣṇa.”
Before progressing to the description of Talātala, the next planetary system, Śukadeva Goswami dedicates nine verses to describe the glories of Bali Maharaja, who spreads the glories of the Lord amongst the demons, giving them the opportunity to also come to the platform of devotional service to the Lord.
“My dear King, Bali Mahārāja donated all his possessions to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāmanadeva, but one should certainly not conclude that he achieved his great worldly opulence in bila-svarga as a result of his charitable disposition. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the source of life for all living entities, lives within everyone as the friendly Supersoul, and under His direction a living entity enjoys or suffers in the material world. Greatly appreciating the transcendental qualities of the Lord, Bali Mahārāja offered everything at His lotus feet. His purpose, however, was not to gain anything material, but to become a pure devotee. For a pure devotee, the door of liberation is automatically opened. One should not think that Bali Mahārāja was given so much material opulence merely because of his charity. When one becomes a pure devotee in love, he may also be blessed with a good material position by the will of the Supreme Lord. However, one should not mistakenly think that the material opulence of a devotee is the result of his devotional service. The real result of devotional service is the awakening of pure love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, which continues under all circumstances.
If one who is embarrassed by hunger or who falls down or stumbles chants the holy name of the Lord even once, willingly or unwillingly, he is immediately freed from the reactions of his past deeds. Karmīs entangled in material activities face many difficulties in the practice of mystic yoga and other endeavors to achieve that same freedom.” (SB 5.24.19)
Bali Maharaja was a disciple of Śukrācārya, the seminal guru of the demons. Śukrācārya certainly instructed him in politics, fruitive activities, and so on. However, Bali Maharaja understood that everything should be offered to Lord Viṣnu. When the Lord appeared before him as Vāmanadeva, Śukrācārya revealed his true face, telling Bali to withdraw his promise of giving Him three steps of land and justify it politically. Bali, however, was determined to surrender everything to the Lord and rejected the so-called guru. Bali Maharaja became thus a perfect devotee, accepted as one of the twelve Mahājanas.
Being reinstalled as the ruler of Sutala, and being scheduled to become the next Indra are not results of Bali having surrendered his possessions. These are just token blessings from the Lord because of his previous material desires, just as in the case of Dhruva Maharaja becoming king after his father. The real result is his pure love of Godhead. This pure love, in turn, makes the Lord never desire to leave his company.
“The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in everyone’s heart as the Supersoul, sells Himself to His devotees such as Nārada Muni. In other words, the Lord gives pure love to such devotees and gives Himself to those who love Him purely. Great, self-realized mystic yogīs such as the four Kumāras also derive great transcendental bliss from realizing the Supersoul within themselves.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead did not award His mercy to Bali Mahārāja by giving him material happiness and opulence, for these make one forget loving service to the Lord. The result of material opulence is that one can no longer absorb his mind in the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” (SB 5.22.21-22)
Material opulence that comes as a result of ordinary karma is often an obstacle to the practice of devotional service, because it tends to make us forget Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, when a devotee is especially sincere, the Lord often takes such material opulence away, so the devotee can advance swiftly. As Prabhupāda mentions, when a neophyte devotee is materially opulent, he forgets the service of the Lord.
There is, however, another type of opulence that is directly given by the Lord for pure devotees who are ready to engage it in His service. By engaging these material facilities, these pure devotees can then expand their devotional service to the Lord. Prabhupāda thus concludes that the material opulences offered to Bali Maharaja, who became even more opulent than the demigods as the ruler of the Sutala planetary system, are not material.
At first, it appears that there is a contradiction in the verse, since the verse says that the Lord did not award His mercy to Bali Mahārāja by giving him material happiness and opulence, when in fact He did, but this apparent contradiction is solved when we examine it from the perspective of these two types of opulence:
a) The Lord, in fact, didn’t give material opulence to Bali; he gave him spiritual opulences.
b) These opulences were not given as a result of his charity, as in ordinary karma. They were given because of his love and devotion.
c) They were not given to Bali to increase his material happiness (which is an obstacle to pure devotional service). They were given to facilitate his devotional service.
d) In this way, Bali’s opulence in Sutala is simply to facilitate his devotional service. This spiritual opulence given by the Lord is free from material inebriety. In other words, this opulence of Bali Maharaja does not manifest from the illusory potency; it manifests from yoga-maya, the spiritual potency that connects us with Kṛṣṇa.
e) Even this spiritual opulence is not the real gift. The real result is pure devotional service. The opulence is just to facilitate that.
“When the Supreme Personality of Godhead could see no other means of taking everything away from Bali Mahārāja, He adopted the trick of begging from him and took away all the three worlds. Thus only his body was left, but the Lord was still not satisfied. He arrested Bali Mahārāja, bound him with the ropes of Varuṇa and threw him in a cave in a mountain. Nevertheless, although all his property was taken and he was thrown into a cave, Bali Mahārāja was such a great devotee that he spoke as follows.
Alas, how pitiable it is for Indra, the King of heaven, that although he is very learned and powerful and although he chose Bṛhaspati as his prime minister to instruct him, he is completely ignorant concerning spiritual advancement. Bṛhaspati is also unintelligent because he did not properly instruct his disciple Indra. Lord Vāmanadeva was standing at Indra’s door, but King Indra, instead of begging Him for an opportunity to render transcendental loving service, engaged Him in asking me for alms to gain the three worlds for his sense gratification. Sovereignty over the three worlds is very insignificant because whatever material opulence one may possess lasts only for an age of Manu, which is but a tiny fraction of endless time.” (SB 5.24.23-24)
The traditional process for testing the purity of gold is to rub it against a testing stone. When gold is pure, it is quite soft, and when rubbed, it would leave a golden mark on the stone. Kṛṣṇa is sometimes compared to a testing stone, because He sometimes tests His devotees to show their devotion. Why does He do that? For two purposes: to show the extent of the devotion of His pure devotees, giving the example to others, and to glorify His devotees, making their fame well known all over the universe. We can see that we still draw inspiration from the stories of the Pāṇḍavas, Prahlāda Maharaja, and so on, devotees who went through this rubbing treatment and demonstrated the depth of their devotion.
Because Vāmanadeva wanted Bali to show the real extent of his devotion, He didn’t become satisfied when Bali surrendered his possessions and even his own body. To show the extent of Bali’s devotional sentiments, he bound him with ropes and threw him inside a mountain cave, just as an ordinary prisoner. Bali, however, didn’t protest. He felt fortunate for receiving the reciprocation of the Lord and instead felt pity for Indra, who, instead of asking the Lord for pure devotional service, engaged Him in getting the three planetary systems back.
The first verse mentions that Kṛṣṇa could see no other means of taking everything away from Bali Mahārāja. What does it mean? When Hiraṇyakaśipu took heaven away from the demigods and threatened Prahlāda, Kṛṣṇa appeared as Nṛsiṁhadeva to kill him. However, Bali is a pure devotee; therefore, Kṛṣṇa can’t fight him, due to affection. The only way left to give back the three planetary systems to the demigods was to appear in the form of brāhmana and beg it from him.
As Vāmanadeva, the Lord appeared as the son of Aditi, the brother of Indra. Instead of asking for pure devotional service, however, the demigods engaged him in getting the three words back from Bali Maharaja. Even Bṛhaspati, their spiritual master, did not protest. Bali Mahārāja thus pities both, considering them unintelligent and unaware of the true goal of life. Even bound in ropes inside the cave, he is satisfied, being situated in his pure devotional sentiments.
In His Śikṣāṣṭakam, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu prays, “I know no one but Kṛṣṇa as my Lord, and He shall remain so even if He handles me roughly by His embrace or makes me brokenhearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything and everything, for He is always my worshipful Lord, unconditionally.”
These prayers reveal the platform of ātma-nivedana, of surrendering everything to the Lord, unconditionally. Bali Maharaja is situated on this platform, and the Lord appeared to act roughly with him by binding him with ropes, etc., to demonstrate it. Rubbed against the testing stone, Bali Maharaja showed his true value, and purchased the Lord by his devotion. Indra got back his temporary material possessions, as he desired, but Bali Maharaja gained the eternal company of the Lord.
As Prabhupāda mentions in his purport to text 24, “The demigods own their material possessions only within the limits of time. Therefore Bali Mahārāja lamented that although Indra was very learned, he did not know how to use his intelligence properly, for instead of asking Vāmanadeva to allow him to engage in His service, Indra used Him to beg Bali Mahārāja for material wealth. Although Indra was learned and his prime minister, Bṛhaspati, was also learned, neither of them begged to be able to render loving service to Lord Vāmanadeva. Therefore Bali Mahārāja lamented for Indra.”
Bali then contrasts the attitude of Indra with that of his grandfather, Prahlāda, but in his humility, refuses to acknowledge that he is also following the same path of perfect devotion.
“Bali Mahārāja said: My grandfather Prahlāda Mahārāja is the only person who understood his own self-interest. Upon the death of Prahlāda’s father, Hiraṇyakaśipu, Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva wanted to offer Prahlāda his father’s kingdom and even wanted to grant him liberation from material bondage, but Prahlāda accepted neither. Liberation and material opulence, he thought, are obstacles to devotional service, and therefore such gifts from the Supreme Personality of Godhead are not His actual mercy. Consequently, instead of accepting the results of karma and jñāna, Prahlāda Mahārāja simply begged the Lord for engagement in the service of His servant.
Bali Mahārāja said: Persons like us, who are still attached to material enjoyment, who are contaminated by the modes of material nature and who lack the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, cannot follow the supreme path of Prahlāda Mahārāja, the exalted devotee of the Lord.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: My dear King, how shall I glorify the character of Bali Mahārāja? The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of the three worlds, who is most compassionate to His own devotee, stands with club in hand at Bali Mahārāja’s door. When Rāvaṇa, the powerful demon, came to gain victory over Bali Mahārāja, Vāmanadeva kicked him a distance of eighty thousand miles with His big toe. I shall explain the character and activities of Bali Mahārāja later [in the Eighth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam].” (SB 5.24.25-27)
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