Word

Bali_Asura_king

Sanskrit

बली

In General

The Asura King Bali is known for his velour and virtues. He dethroned and chased away Indra from heaven. The parallel story goes with his virtues act is that he followed dharma, the Lord Vishnu tested him and qualified him to be the next Indra.

Veda

By three stride Vishnu conquer. This mantra in Veda can be the seed that was developed by puranic poets for Bali story.

Purana

Bali was also called Mahabali for the virtues he have. He is grandson of Prahlada, a famous Asura King and a devotee of Vishnu. Once in a war Bali along with his army was defeated and Bali was killed by Indra. But the Asura guru Sukracharya had has developed the technique of reviving the dead. Bali along with his dead soldiers were brought back to life by Sukracharya.

Bali then became very powerful with the bravery of Asuras as well as by Yaga, yagna and good character. Indra found difficult to beat Bali and the Asura army. Bali in his turn attacked swarga loka, and conquered it. Bali then became unchallenged emperor of three world Earth, Swarga and Pathala. The Devamatha Aditi prayed lord Vishnu for the benefit of her sons, who were chased away from Swarga. The lord Vishnu, pleased by the prayers of Aditi, then to born to her as Vamana.

According to Bhagavata, Bali was a great devotee of Vishnu and he was conducting Yaga to propitiate Vishnu. Vamana avatar of Vishnu entered the yagnasala of Bali where he was conducting a big Yaga and asked for three feet of land for for doing Tapas. Bali treated the young mendicants as Lord and was ready to do anything for the young brahmachari.

As tremor came on every step of Vamana, Sukracharya feared Vamana is playing a trick and tried to prevented Bali doing three feet of land. Bali said, he don’t care if he lose any material possession for the sake of promise he made. He continued, God coming himself to yagnasala is fulfillment of yagna. Then Bali, assisted by his wife Vindyaavali, dropped water in hands as a token of giving gift of three feet of land. Sukracharya become wild and cursed Bali. The Vamana then grow in size measured three world in his two feet and placed third feet on the head of Bali as requested by him.

Lord have two mission, restore the normalcy in Swargaloka and fulfill The Yaga of Bali or testing his integrity, and elevate him to the most lofty place, which only very few can achieve by Karma. Bali got the reward, as he was made Indra in the subsequent age.

People in Kerala believe their place was once ruled by Bali. There are slightly different stories about Bali and the location of his kingdom in other parts of the country. Onam is celebrated in Kerala state to welcome Vamana and Bali.