Day 5, July 28, Vamanavatara
A Vamana (dwarf) dressed up in ochre robes walked up to few men. Though he was small, he was radiating in high splendor.
King asked: who are you?
Vamana: I am ancient and primitive.
King: where do you live? Where is your house? Where are you coming from?
Vamana: there is no specific place. I am present everywhere.
King: who are your parents, who is your Guru, what is your story?
Vamana: I am anaadha – an orphan. Anaadha also means that there is none superior to Him. Neither did anyone tell me about my parents nor do I know about them.
King: What do you want? Tell me your desire?
Vamana: thinking for a moment Vamana asks three footsteps of land. Giving three steps of land is an insult to king Bali. Vamana thought inside “Bali you don’t realize but these three steps will cover all the three worlds. You do not realize this.”
Let such Vamana incarnation, which thought such thought in mind, bless all.
All of you must remember Vamana incarnation. In Ramayana, it is said that Jambhavanta playing Mrudangam circumambulated Vamana three times. While doing so an edge of mountain brushed against his knee, from then on Jambhavanta hops a bit while walking. At this time Keertanas were born.
In Vamana Purana, it said that a demon called Dundu with an intention to occupy the heaven or kingdom of Gods asks his Guru Sukhracharaya to show him a way.
Sukhracharaya asks him to do 100 yagas and homas. Dundu immediately commences doing it. The smoke from the homas reached the demi-Gods kingdom. Dundu did so many homas. Seeing this, the demi-God prayed Vishnu to save them. They were of the opinion that Dundu who is not compassionate should not become the king. Maha Vishnu decided to take Vamana incarnation. He came down as a small boy and purposefully stood in Devika River with His head upside down. Homas were being conducted near by the place. The water drove the Vamana to the shore. Dundu saw this and asks his servants to bring the boy out. Dundu conversation with Vamana begins
Dundu: What are you? Why are you getting drowned in the river?
Vamana: My father’s name is Prabhasudu. My brother name is netrabhasudu. My name is Gatibhasudu. Until my father was alive, all was good. My father did not divide the property when he was alive. Later after his demise there was a quarrel in sharing of property. It is told in some scriptures that property should not be given to people who are short and tiny, blind, and suffering from deadly diseases. Hence, my share of property was not given to me. They thought that later I might stake my claim to my share of property so to ensure that does not happen, they threw me in the river. That is why I am here. No one cares for me. They say this is righteous in the material world. One should take proper care of people like me, instead they did this to me.
Dundu: I am doing Homa and Yagna. I will give you whatever you ask for. Go ahead and ask.
Sukhracharaya hints to Dundu that this boy is not a normal boy. He is Trivikrama. Dundu was adamant that he would keep up the word given. Here also Vamana asked three footsteps of land. All laughed.
Vamana: what will I do with the riches? Can I build the house or can I live in that house? I am fine with three footsteps of land. I cannot earn. So three footsteps of land is good enough.
Dundu: agrees to give three steps.
Vamana immediately transforms into Trivikrama. Trivikrama pushed the demon Dundu into the patala loka – the underground world and with His hands covered that place with sand.
In such way, Vamana Swami removed the difficulties of demi-Gods.
Pulastya tells this episode to Narada Maharshi.
To remove, the curse of Guru on king Bali, Vishnu incarnated as Vamana.
King Bali and Deepavali are very closely related. Trivikrama pushed King Bali to patala loka and gave us a reason to celebrate. Later Krishna killed demon Narakasura.
The Lord will be pleased with you when you serve orphans. Let us all share the food among the hungry people. In this Kaliyuga, which one is greater? Donation or penance? Your penance cannot be given to anybody. Donation is greater. Donating the hard-earned money is not easy and hence donation is greater. In the run for money, our life takes back seat. So donating such money is not easy. Hence, sage Vysa decided that donation is greater than penance in Kaliyuga.
Vamana incarnation is an amazing incarnation. It depicts Vedic knowledge in a very subtle form. In the creation, God takes both atom size and gigantic size. He is higher than the Mount Everest and broader than the sea. He is in them and He is bearing them.
How and where is Paramatma? He is residing in our heart. In coming mantras, Vamana Swami will Himself enumerate the leelas in His incarnation. Purusha suktam says, mother earth is very huge in size. We still have not seen many places on earth. Leave alone earth, be it planets or innumerable galaxies, God measures 10 fingers more in length beyond the entire creation that you show to Him. The same God, equal to the size of your thumb resides in our heart. The only intent in doing many spiritual practices, is to have darshan of God inside us. Seeing the form or power of god outside, we close our eyes and try to visualize the same form and power in our mind. Such beautiful and amazing incarnation is the Vamana incarnation.
Vamana incarnation highlights the importance of charity. When asked if charity is greater or penance, Sage Vyasa said that charity is greater than penance. The reason being charity is a difficult job. Even though intellect permits charity, the mind does not permit. The mind tries and postpones the charity to a later time or day. Due to the course of postponement, we forget about the charity. When the beneficiary enquires about the promised charity, we hit a satire saying, is it so? Did I say? Sacrifice is a job of the brave, and not many practice it. Doing charity to the needy be it donation of food, clothes, and medical, it is always appreciated by God.
The Vamana in His charitra, proves this instance. Possessing the power of discrimination, it is essential to understand the Vamana charitra completely. Discrimination between the temporary and permanent things is a must. We see many things come and go. Only the time of their stay varies. Some things vanish in a day and some in year and some in 1000 years. Be it trees or planets, time takes away all, but where do they go? They are going and merging in the permanent God. Only God is permanent and rest all is temporary. This is the eternal truth. Only when we believe in such truth, understand, and install it firmly in our mind, we will be able to understand the story of God completely. Otherwise, the stories of God will seem to us as imaginative. We must listen to these stories and comprehend on them. Only then, the story of God expounds the vedantic meaning.
While reading the stories of God, we get doubts like, did these stories really happen? Did the instance in the story happen just like this? If they happened, then why is the world like this? This are the normal doubts raised in our mind while reading the stories of God. Saying so, we must not be drowned in the sea of doubts. Someone said there is Manidweepa in the sea. Listening to him, we jumped into the sea. Therefore, our real purpose is to reach Manidweepa and not to swim. Swimming is like getting doubts, but we must cross these doubts and reach the Manidweepa. Nobody said that getting doubts is wrong. One must get doubts.
One of the Upanishads is named as Prashnopanishad. In this Upanishad, six questions came up. The entire vedantic shastra came up in the process of answering these questions. We need questions but that should not be our main intention. Ask someone and get the question answered. This body is full of questions we must come out of this body and try to have darshan of God. Listening to Vamana charitra is a part of process to have darshan of God. All these are spiritual practices. Be it yoga practice, devotional practice or knowledge practice or whatever sadhana you do, they are part of the process to have darshan of God. We need all spiritual practices.
It is not appreciable to look down upon anyone’s spiritual practice. We do not know which spiritual practice will help to have darshan of God. It will depend on our previous life’s karmas. Who knows what kind of spiritual practice you pursued in your previous lives? You might have on the practice of yoga or bhakti – devotion or jnana – knowledge. Even you do not know it. A warrior going for battle is shielding his body parts in all possible ways. We are spiritual soldiers. We are battling with illusion and ignorance. Illusion is always there. Both before and after creation. Neither the illusion nor the creation will cease. They are here to stay. Will they cease in my case? Yes, they will go away only in your case. When you merge with the Self, then you will not have any feelings in this world. There is no more illusion for you. All those who surrender to God, listen to Guru, and practice His words, only they can win illusion in this world. Illusion is very strong. Normal people cannot win over it. But with spiritual practices like listening to God’s stories and comprehending on them, makes the normal person strong enough to cross the illusion. This is the reason why we are listening to these stories of incarnations. All of you listen to earn the power of discrimination between permanent and temporary. This is the story of king Bali. This story tells us about the greatness of charity, satisfaction, happiness, bliss, and tells the consequences of having ego while doing charity. All these points are there in the story.
We must pray God to protect us from illusion and becoming egoistic. “I will do your bhajans as long as I will live, but as time of my last breath in not in my hands, maybe I forget to chant your name. When the death arrives, the body shivers. I may get scared and not chant Your name in conformity with swara or grammar. Maybe I chant Your name or maybe not, no assurances are given here. However, o God, please be brave enough to listen to my chanting of Your name.” King Bali always made this prayer.
We face difficulties both at our time of birth and death. One who realizes bliss in between this journey of birth and death, he is always happy. This middle time is present time. You can control the efforts that you want to put in this time. Both the past and future are not in your hands. Bali had egoistic charitable nature, but he possessed many good qualities. Generally, in normal life, we ask, “Please look at my good qualities and ignore my bad qualities.” When we have more good qualities and less bad qualities, then the helper covers the bad qualities and promotes your good qualities, because you may be useful to society. Such persons are encouraged by saying that even the moon has spot on him. But Shiva has placed him on his head. Rama always looked only at good qualities of a person and ignored his bad qualities, especially in Mothers, Gurus, and people younger to Him, and older people. We must learn this aspect from Rama. The overlooking of bad qualities works in the material world, but on the spiritual path, God will completely purify you and transform you into a gem. He puts you in a pearl in His garland that He wears. This is His primary nature.
We have one common doubt in the Bali story. Bali is egoistic in his charitable nature, but barring this, he has many good qualities for e.g. he helped in the churning of sea etc. Then why did Vishnu stamp him down to patala loka? Here we must think in the perspective of God. It is His plan. What is god’s plan then? He has a desire that His devotee should be a replica of His image that He sees in the mirror. Sadguru willingly cleanses us for the same reason. To grant us such status, God removes all the sins from us. To earn such status, we have to put great efforts to get rid of our sins. The Vamana incarnation happened to remove the ego in Bali’s charitable nature. In this incarnation, earth became the throne, sky became the umbrella, the demi-gods became servants, the Vedas are chanting His praise, the entire galaxy became His home, Sri Laxmi is His wife, Brahma became His son, and Ganga became His daughter. “O god, this is Your glory! Please stay in our heart like this. Let my heart be Your seat, my sahasrara let it be the umbrella, the knowledge in me, let it be Your wife. O Narayana, please engulf by heart, throat and sahasrara.
Maha yogamurthy vai vyapinchu.
Please grant me eligibility to see such wonderful form of Yours inside me.” We must pray Narayana in this way.
In Narada purna, we see the emergence of Ganga.
Sanaka maharshi told bhakti upadesha to Narada. Demons waged war on Gods and won. Devathas lost their kingdom. Mother of Gods, Aditi Devi, prayed Vishnu to incarnate as her son and solve the problems of the Gods. Aditi Devi prayed Kashyapa muni to show her a way. On the instructions of Kashyapa, maharishi, Aditi Devi did the payo Vratam or sravana dwadashi vratam. While doing this Vratam, the doer can only drink milk. Consumption of other foods is prohibited during the duration of the Vratam of one year. Kashyapa maharshi told that on successful completion of the Vratam, Lord Vishnu will incarnate as your son. On successful completion of the Vratam, Vishnu incarnated to Aditi Mata as Vamana. Then He walked up to Bali. We know the rest of the story.
The conversation between King Bali and Vamana.
Bali: What you want?
Vamana: Land equal to three footsteps of mine. Vamana Swami conceived each step of His to be each world and engulfed the worlds.
Bali: O Vamana, please tell me your tattva.
Vamana: Bali, realize that I am present in all. Due to ego, Bali could not realize this tattva of Vamana at the time of charity.
What does ego mean? I am doing this. This is happening because of me. If I do not do, it will not happen. These are ego feelings. Egoistic behavior is wrong. Seeing and believing that God is there everywhere is the correct behavior.
Vamana: All the galaxies are dwelling in me. What is it that you and I are contributing? Are you the one who is doing charity or I am the one who is receiving it? I am omnipresent. Vamana explained His tattva clearly, but Bali did not understand.
Upanishads are the head of Vedas. It means that the Upanishads are the essence of Vedas. Such upadesha has not been done anywhere in the world. What upadesha did Upanishads do? They said just as you respect yourself, decorate yourself, love yourself, maintain yourself, you must have the same thought and behavior dealing with others. Does anyone in the world do this kind of upadesha? Someone asked Vyasa what is your intention behind composing so many slokas in Maha Bharatha? Vysa clarified his intention “just as someone’s behavior, talk, or deed pains or hurts you, realize that your behavior, talk or deeds hurts others.”
Head is very important. No matter how strong your body is, without a head it is of no use. There is person called Stephen Hawking. He cannot move or eat. He applied for mercy killing. Doctor gives an injection and the person dies. Who gave this right to the doctors? However, his wife interrupted and assured the doctors that she will take very good care of him. Stephen has good head above his shoulders. Head is important among all the body parts. Head means discretion or knowledge. It should always be in our control.
Seeing God in all does not mean you call others by your name, which is not the intention. On deeply pondering, we understand that intention of upadesha is to enable the world and society to run smoothly. In such atmosphere, will anyone have difficulties? Even if a person suffers, others will surely help him. That is major intention of doing the upadesha.
Vamana: I am seeing all the creation as part of my “Self”. What can you give? However, since you are asking, it is said that donating the land is greatest charity. Give me three steps of land.
Bali was surprised.
Vamana: I am conceiving each step to occupy one loka.
When the land is donated for temple, hospital, orphanage, old age home or for a good cause, it gives merit of tremendous value. The benefits of the merit will extend to many generations down the lane. They all will be redeemed with that merit.
Vamana Swami tells the story of Bhadramathi to Bali.
Bhadramathi is very poor man to an extent that he could not afford one meal a day. One person wanted to donate land. He came to Bhadramathi and enquired how land would be sufficient?
Bhadramathi says donate the land that is enough to sit comfortably. That would be enough. In olden days maybe there were such people. Who could live out in such a small piece of land?
The charity of land is done and Bhadramathi accepts it. Then he re-donates the land. This re- donation of land earned him huge merit, and he went to higher worlds.
Then Bali makes the charity of land. Vamana accepts the land and grows in form. This form is called “Tripatha Narayana”. He grows, grows, and breaks open the lining of the galaxy. Ganges flowed down from the opening and did ablutions to the lotus feet of Lord Tripatha Narayana. Seeing this, Brahma came running with His Kamandalam, and did ablutions to the lotus feet of Tripatha Narayana. That is why the bhajan “brahma kadigina padamu” came into being.
Jai bolo Venkateshwara swami ki jai.
Ganges is the pride of India. The rivers are important. The Lord had made this creation using water. Hence, we must save and conserve water. We must save nature. Since water is born from the Lord’s lotus feet, we must respect water. We throw all the puja waste in water. Puja means cleaning. Without cleaning, there is no puja. What does river worship mean? Cleaning all the dirt accumulated on the shore of the river is important, and then do puja. Such puja will give us fruit. We must not contribute to the dirt or un-cleanliness at the sacred places. When we go to sacred places, we must not eat the outside snacks. Our purpose of going there is not eating those snacks. Ok even if you eat, please do not no throw the covers in open. Air takes them to different places. We must save and maintain the sacred places just as we save and maintain ourselves. We can invoke Ganga in tumblers in our home. Just chanting the name of Ganga cleans us.
Let us speak about Vamana Swami according to Bhagavatam.
What made God come down and beg? It is a very low thing. Why did God accept to do this low thing? Narayana is omnipresent. Narayana is present in beggars also. Help beggars seeing Narayana in them. The beggars are often called “Daridra Narayana”. This name reiterates God’s omnipresence. God is also called Adibhikshu. (Lord Siva). He is the beginning to all these beggars.
Beggar gives us wonderful upadesha. What upadesha does he give to us?
Here he is teacher and not a beggar. He is telling us that “In previous birth I was not generous with charity, so I am a beggar in this birth.” You be generous in this birth and enjoy the same stature in future births.
Therefore, God took the Vamana incarnation to teach us a lesson. Yudhishtira asked Vyasa, which one is greater between charity and penance. Vyasa answered it as charity. With good efforts, we can find people doing penance. To find people dong charity is very difficult. Charitable minds and people are rare. We must practice charity. Even though we may not do much charity, Sri Swamiji has shown us the Datta biksha way. Datta biksha means keeping aside a fistful of rice aside in a basket before you cook food. You can donate this rice to orphanage or old age home or hospitals or if none is close by you can deposit the rice in the ashram. It will be used for annadanam. This trick helps your mind also. Your mind is not pained because the amount of charity is small and money expended is less.
A child was born to Aditi. His name is Upendra. Bali on the instruction of Sukhracharaya fought a battle with the demi-gods and took over their kingdom. Bali took the demi-god’s kingdom in an unrighteous way and now to maintain or keep up the kingdom, he is doing charity. Now Bali’s charity is righteous or unrighteous? Who should decide it? He is ruling the kingdom righteously, which he earned in an unrighteous way. This is wrong and God has taken notice of it. Meanwhile Aditi mata prayed Kashyapa to give a son who would remove the difficulties of her children. Kashyapa then instructed Aditi mata to do Payo Vratam.
We must take the teertha of the panchamurta that we offer to god. It will increases your radiance, energy, and strength. This is very good for health. Science is hidden in every spiritual deed we do. We may not know the science. In olden days, people would keep the God idols in copper bowls filled with water and then they would go to work. On returning in the evening, they would clean the God idols and the water from those vessels would be taken as teertha. It is very good for health. We get sound sleep. We have so many such rituals in our shastras. Nowadays even before we have enjoyed eating the food, they say some uneatable substance is mixed in the food you have eaten. We must be very careful with our food habits. It would be nice to know and practice our customs and practices. Most of the festivals are based on food. Specific foods have been specified for different festivals. There is some hidden science in that food.
Aditi mata completed the Payo Vratam. Vishnu entered the womb of Aditi mata. Brahma did Stotra of that fetus while he was still in the womb. This Stotra is called Garbhasta Shishu Stotra. Swami incarnated in the afternoon. In Sravana star, in Abhijit lagnam. Aditi mother has done a lot of merit and hence Swami incarnated.
Jai bolo Vamana swami ki jai
Both mother and father were very happy seeing their son. We must believe that our progeny is result of your penance. In the thread ceremony function of Vamana, the Sun did the initiation of Sri Gayatri mantra to Vamana, Brihaspati gave Yagna sutram, Kashyapa gave the waist band, earth gave Krishnajeenam – the seat, Soma gave the dandam – stick, mother Aditi gave cloth to cover the lower part of His body, the Gods of heaven gave umbrella, Brahman gave Kamandalam, Saptha rushis gave sacred grass, Saraswati mata gave aksha mala, Kubera gave biksha patra. Bhavani Devi came forward and gave Vamana Swami His first biksha. This program enhances the love and affection between parents and child. Vamana Swami was radiating with Divine splendor.
The entire Gods prayed to the child that it is time to go to Narmada shore. Bali is performing yagna there. Vamana murthi walked like a very small child and reached the place where the Yagna was being performed by Bali. With His arrival, Vamana attracted all the people at that venue. This is called Vishnu Maya. All the people there were guessing who this boy is. Is He Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, sun or fire? All the people at the venue were inquisitive to know who this child is? The child was radiating Divine splendor.
We do not know where and how atman is. Atman is taking everything and leaving everything. It is in all and it is not there in anything. This is the strange thing about atman. You are very inquisitive to know about it. It is believed that atman could not be spoken about in words. Here atman has taken form of Vamana. Atma is the word which applies to all and still cannot be none. With the arrival of God, the non-believer in God will turn into a firm believer in God. God does this miracle.
Bali king walked up to the child and said, “You look as if Brahma has taken form. Welcome.”
Tapas and Nama smarana increases radiance in everyone.
“Ask whatever you want.” Ego always comes out unnoticed. You are keen to donate but the feeling that “I am donating this” is ego. Bali was famous as a charitable person. Such fame now resulted in ego. Never be inflicted with ego. ‘I’ is more dangerous than death. Bali even offered young girls for marriage. This particular offering shows the ego of Bali.
Vamana asked: What will a small boy do with young girls? Is it the time for marriage?
Bali: Alternatively, if you want an island, ask. I will give it.
After Bali makes these offers to Vamana Swami, Vamana Swami was fully aware that Sukhracharaya would come and stop Bali from making donation. Hence, Vamana Swami asks Bali to give his word. “Bali, is it true that everyone in your dynasty has fulfilled the word they gave? I hope you also are like that.”
Bali said yes.
Bali is Prahalada’s grandson.
Vamana swami tells Bali the story of Prahalada. Hiranyakasipa and Hiranyaksha were your ancestors. They did not understand the tattva of Hari and hated Him. Hiranyakasipa searched for Hari in all the places. One friend who follows us all the time is death. He eats, drinks, wanders, and sleeps with us. Hiranyakasyapu searched for Hari outside all the time and hence Swami was sitting in the heart of Hiranyakasyapu. Ignorant Hiranyakasyapu did not realize it. Hence, he had to be redeemed. You are born in such dynasty. Prahalada did wonderful Stotra of Narasimha Swami and got a very nice kingdom. You are born in such a dynasty. Will you keep your word?
Bali nodded yes.
Vamana asks: “I desire land equal to three footsteps of mine.”
Bali felt insulted, prompted, and forced Vamana to ask for more.
Vamana responds and says that satisfaction is the main thing for a Brahmin. Desire destroys a Brahmin. The qualities earn great status.
A Mother is teaching her child. “Son you will learn many lessons in college. I am telling you an important lesson. We do all these things only for happiness. We must go on and search for happiness.” Meanwhile examinations were being conducted. A question asked was, what is that you want to do in life? Many people wrote answers like, engineer or doctor etc. but this child who is still not perfect in language wrote, “I want to become happiness”. The teacher saw this, thought that the answer is wrong, and gave him zero marks. Now the children names were called and the necessary suggestions for them are given along with the announcement of marks. Now the teacher called this child. The teacher said “You did not understand the question and wrote the wrong answer.” The child requested the teacher to give the answer sheet and he wrote on the answer sheet, “I did not understand the question but you did not understand life”. Happiness is very important.
The same point is told in Vamana story. These things are told in a very subtle way. They are never told directly. When Vamana Swami has incarnated and is speaking about satisfaction, how much importance should we give to it? Mother goddess took the form of satisfaction. Why did Mother Goddess take the form of satisfaction? Because we will eat too much and spoil our health. That’s why she took the form of satisfaction. Satisfaction should be practiced in your things and not in the help we do to others. Do we want to save all our earning? Nowadays children are very fast. They ask why you store so much at the bank? There are three results of money. The first one is using it for enjoyment. Secondly, use it for charity. When the money is not used either for enjoyment or charity that money gets destructive.
Vamana: I am satisfied with land that measures three-foot steps of mine.
Bali: Maybe you do not know the outside world. Go ahead and ask all you want. I will give it.
Vamana: I am Brahmachari. What I need is an umbrella, a dandam, a sacred thread. If you give me others things, what do I do with them? How can I compare Swakarma Anushthanam and the material enjoyments? A land that measures my three footsteps means a world to me.
Sukhracharaya prevents Bali form going ahead with the charity. He discloses to Bali the real form of Vamana, but Bali is adamant on charity to Vamana.
Bali says he has a chance to donate to God who always donates to everyone. He does not want to lose this chance. O Guru Sukhracharaya, all egoistic kings who had great kingdoms, have they taken it with them, or do we even remember their names? We remember the name of the kings who did great charity like King Shibi. Who donated his body as flesh for a bird. Dadichi maharshi gave away his body for the benefit of Gods. Neither the kingdom nor the charities are permanent. My decision to do charity is firm.
In the process of doing charity, Bali’s wife poured water into Bali’s hand from Kamandalam. Sukhracharaya gets into the Kamandalam and obstructs the way of water. Vamana takes a straw, chants Brahmastra mantra and pokes into the hole. This poke damages one eye of Sukhracharaya. From then on he got a new name, Ekaksha. Sukhracharaya came out of Kamandalam, cursed the destruction of all the demons, and went away. Inspite of this disclosure by his Guru about Vamana’s real form, Bali went ahead and did the charity. After taking the charity, Vamana took the form of Trivikrama and occupied seven worlds with one leg and the sky with His second leg. Trivikrama asked Bali to show the place for His third feet. Bali had no answer. He was silent. Bali incurred the sin of telling a lie. Trivikrama saw towards Garuda. Garuda tied up Bali with nagapasham – serpent as a rope, as the punishment for a lie. Meanwhile Jambhavanta circumambulated Trivikrama three times. While circumambulating Jambhavanta sang bhajans and played Mrudangam. During this process, an edge of Small Mountain hit Jambhavanta’s knee, and from that day, Jambhavanta hopped while walking.
Trivikrama asked Bali to show the place for his third foot; Bali offered his head. Bali is teaching us to see God in Sahasrara chakra. Bali’s wife came and pleaded Trivikrama for pardon. She accepted the mistake that this charity was egoistic charity. She pleaded the realization of the understanding that the entire creation is Trivikrama, and there is nothing one can donate to Him. Prahalada also came forward and begged for pardon.
Vamana spoke slowly. I wanted to demonstrate the greatness of charity to the world and the punishment for egoistic charity. That is why I have taken this excellent incarnation. I wanted to tell Bali about God’s omnipresence, hence I incarnated.
Vamana is saying, “Whomever I want to bless, first thing I do is to strip them of their money, this plan is beyond our understanding. I will strip them of the entire ego associated with money, penance, education, age. I will take back all of them to remove their arrogance. If arrogance is not there in the person, then obviously my blessings are there. When ego is associated with good births, deeds, age, beautiful form, education, and money, these becoming futile. I will not bless such people. I have incarnated to do this work. I am sending Bali to patala loka. Prahalada you also stay there and protect. I will also protect Bali.