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Skandha 8, adhyayas 15-19 · Saptah day 4
To a demon emperor who has conquered heaven comes a radiant brahmana boy with umbrella and waterpot, asking only for three paces of earth.
In the fifteenth chapter of the eighth skandha (`8.15.1–2`), King Parikshit asks the sage Shukadeva a puzzled question: Why did Lord Hari, the master of every sacrifice, go like a poor beggar (`kripana-vat`) to solicit three steps of land from Emperor Bali, and why did he bind the demon king even after receiving what he asked for? To answer this, Shukadeva introduces the key figures who converged on that sacrificial hall: Bali Maharaja, the noble son of Virochana and grandson of the great devotee Prahlada; Shukracharya and the Bhrigu brahmanas, Bali's hereditary preceptors; Indra, king of the gods, and his guru Brihaspati; and Aditi and Kashyapa, the parents of the devas (`8.15.3–36`).
Earlier, during the battle that followed the churning of the Milk Ocean (`8.11`), Indra had struck Bali down. Yet the Bhrigu brahmanas, delighted by Bali's devotion to his teachers, sprinkled him with sacred restoratives and brought him back to life (`8.15.3–4`). Grateful and humble, Bali surrendered himself entirely to the Bhrigus and asked them to help him win heaven (`8.15.4`). Knowing his aspiration, the Bhrigu priests bathed him according to Vedic injunctions and conducted the great Vishvajit sacrifice (`8.15.5`). Right out of the blazing sacrificial fire rose a golden chariot yoked with four green horses matching Indra's own, a lion-emblazoned banner, a gold-bound celestial bow, two inexhaustible quivers of arrows, and divine armor (`8.15.6–7`). His grandfather Prahlada placed around Bali's neck a garland of lotuses whose flowers never faded, and his guru Shukracharya presented him with a thunderous conch shell (`8.15.7`).
With this brahmanical power behind him (`8.15.8–22`), Bali marched at the head of a vast Daitya army to Indra's capital, Amaravati, and blew his conch so fiercely that the hearts of the heavenly women trembled (`8.15.22`). Seeing Bali's dazzling aura, Indra realized he was no longer facing the same opponent he had defeated before (`8.15.23–27`). He turned to his preceptor Brihaspati and asked how Bali had acquired such irresistible energy (`tejas`, `8.15.26–27`). Brihaspati answered plainly (`8.15.28–32`): "O Maghavan, I know the source of the elevation of your foe. The Bhrigu disciples, endowed with mystic brahmanical power, have infused their own spiritual energy into their disciple Bali (`8.15.29`). Neither you nor any god—indeed, no one except Lord Hari himself—can stand before him now, just as no mortal can confront Death (`8.15.30`). Therefore, abandon heaven with your kindred and wait in hiding until your enemy's fortune turns; for riding high on the strength of the brahmanas, he will soon fall by offending those very brahmanas (`8.15.31–32`)." Taking their guru's advice, Indra and the devas vanished in disguise (`8.15.33`), and Bali became emperor of the three worlds, cherished by the Bhrigu priests as they performed a hundred horse sacrifices (`ashvamedha`) to secure his permanent seat as Indra (`8.15.34–36`).
In the sixteenth and seventeenth chapters (`8.16–17`), Mother Aditi sat weeping in her lonely hermitage while her sons wandered in exile. When her husband, the great Prajapati Kashyapa, returned from a long *samadhi* and asked why her face was pale (`8.16.1–10`), Aditi poured out her sorrow (`8.16.11–18`): as a mother, she loved all creatures equally, yet her heart broke seeing her sons stripped of their home and splendor by their cousins, the Asuras. Smiling at the persistent power of Vishnu's *maya*—which binds even the mother of the gods with maternal attachment (`8.16.19–20`)—Kashyapa advised her to worship Vasudeva, the merciful inner shelter of the poor (`8.16.21`). He taught her the sacred twelve-day *Payovrata* vow (`8.16.25–59`), observed during the bright fortnight of the month of Phalguna by subsisting solely on milk while bathing with wild-boar-dug earth and worshipping Keshava. When Aditi completed the vow with one-pointed devotion, the four-armed Lord appeared before her (`8.17.1–20`), told her that Bali was presently unconquerable by arms because the Bhrigu brahmanas protected him, and promised to be born from Kashyapa's seed in her womb to protect her children (`8.17.21–24`).
In the eighteenth chapter (`8.18.1–11`), after Kashyapa meditated upon the Supreme Person entering his mind and passed that seed into Aditi (`8.17.22–28`), Brahma came and praised the unborn Lord inside her womb (`8.18.1–4`). Then, on the twelfth day of the bright fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada, under the star Shravana at the auspicious *Abhijit* midday hour (`8.18.5`), the Lord appeared in his eternal four-armed Vaikuntha majesty (`8.18.1–11`). While the directions cleared, rivers ran pure, and celestial musicians sang, Kashyapa and Aditi gazed in wonder as the newborn Lord—armed with conch, mace, lotus, and discus, wearing yellow silk, sparkling earrings, and the Kaustubha gem (`8.18.9–11`)—transformed right before their eyes into a small dwarf brahmana boy (`batu-vamana`), just as a dramatic actor changes costume (`8.18.12`).
As great rishis rejoiced (`8.18.13–19`), the Sun god Savita himself chanted the Gayatri mantra at Vamana's sacred thread ceremony (`upanayana`); Brihaspati gave him the sacred thread (`brahma-sutra`), Kashyapa the girdle of *munja* grass, Mother Earth the black buckskin, the Moon god Soma the *palasha* staff of a celibate student (`brahmachari`), Mother Aditi the loincloth, Heaven the umbrella against rain and sun, Brahma the waterpot (`kamandalu`), the Seven Sages the *kusha* grass, Goddess Sarasvati the rosary of *aksha* beads, Kubera the begging bowl after his ordination, and Mother Uma (Bhavani) the very first alms of food (`8.18.13–17`).
Fully equipped and outshining the assembly of brahmana sages with his brahmanical luster (`brahma-varcasa`, `8.18.18`), Vamana heard after lighting his sacrificial fire that King Bali, guided by the Bhrigu priests, was conducting mighty horse sacrifices (`ashvamedhas`) at the field called Bhrigukachchha on the northern bank of the Narmada River (`8.18.20–21`). Carrying his umbrella, staff, and waterpot filled with water, the dwarf boy set out for the sacrifice (`8.18.21`), bending the earth at every step of his small feet (`8.18.22`).
When the Bhrigu priests on the northern bank of the Narmada saw the dwarf boy approaching like the rising sun (`8.18.23–27`), eclipsing the sacrificial fires and every priest in the pavilion, they rose from their seats in awe, wondering whether he was the Sun god himself, Sanatkumara, or Agni in person (`8.18.24–25`). As Vamana stepped into the arena (`8.18.28`), Bali and his priests welcomed him with bowed heads. Rejoicing inside, King Bali offered him a seat of honor, washed his lotus feet with his own hands (`8.18.28–29`), and sprinkled that foot-water—which purifies the entire world and which Shiva himself carries on his moon-crested head—upon his own royal crown (`8.18.29`).
"Welcome, O noble brahmana, my respects to you!" Bali said (`8.18.30–32`). "Command us what we may do. Today it appears to me that the great asceticism of the brahmana sages himself has walked into our hall in person (`8.18.30`). Today my pitris (ancestors) are satisfied, my dynasty is purified, and this sacrifice has reached perfection because you have accepted water for your feet (`8.18.31`). Whatever you wish, O brahmana boy—a milch cow, gold, a furnished palatial house, delicious food and drink, a brahmana bride, prosperous villages, horses, elephants, or chariots—accept it from me, for I understand from your face that you have come to ask for something (`8.18.32`)."
In the nineteenth chapter (`8.19.1–17`), Vamana smiled at Bali's generous words and began by praising the Daitya king's extraordinary family line (`8.19.2–15`). "Your statement, O Lord of men, is entirely worthy of your family, true to dharma, and builds your fame (`8.19.2`)," the boy said, "for the Bhrigu brahmanas instruct you in religious duty and your venerable grandfather Prahlada—whose mind is peaceful like the clear autumn sky—is your counselor (`8.19.2`). In what descendant of his could stinginess or lack of faith ever arise (`8.19.3`)? It was from his noble father Hiranyakashipu that your father Virochana was born, who knowing well that the demigods had come disguised as brahmanas to beg his own lifespan, still gave away his very years on earth (`8.19.15`)! Because you walk in the footsteps of those householders, brahmanas, and glorious ancestors—and of Hiranyaksha, who wandered the earth club in hand finding no equal in battle until Lord Vishnu carried the earth on his tusks (`8.19.3–14`)—I ask from you, the foremost of givers, just a tiny strip of land: three paces (`padani trini`), measured by the stride of my own foot (`8.19.16`). I desire no other gift from you, O noble king, for a learned man incurs no sin when he accepts only as much as he truly needs (`8.19.17`)."
King Bali laughed aloud in affectionate wonder (`8.19.18–20`). "Wait, O brahmana's son (`8.19.18`)! Your speech sounds like that of an elder, yet your understanding is like a naive child's! Having pleased me, the sole master of an entire continent, with your sweet words, why does an unripe mind ask for mere three paces of dirt (`8.19.19`)? No man who approaches me should ever have to beg from another again; therefore accept as much land as you wish to live comfortably, O little batu (`8.19.20`)!"
Vamana's reply (`8.19.21–27`) is the Bhagavatam's classic statement on contentment (`santosha`):
> "All the pleasing sense objects of the three worlds cannot satisfy a man of unconquered senses and mind, O King (`8.19.21`). He who is not contented with three paces of earth will not be filled even with a whole island surrounded by nine varsas (`varsha`), for he will immediately crave to possess all seven islands (`8.19.22`). We have heard that great emperors like Prithu and Gaya conquered the seven islands of the earth, and yet could not reach the end of craving (`trishna`) through wealth and enjoyment (`8.19.23`). One should remain satisfied with whatever comes of its own accord, for discontent is the seed of transmigratory bondage, whereas contentment brings freedom (`8.19.24`). A brahmana who stays satisfied with whatever comes by chance grows in spiritual radiance (`brahma-varcasa`); when discontented, that radiance is extinguished like fire doused with water (`8.19.25`). Therefore I ask from you, the greatest of givers, only three steps of land; my purpose will be completely fulfilled by as much as is needed (`8.19.26–27`)."
Smiling and repeating "Take then what you wish (`8.19.28`)," Bali picked up his golden water-pitcher to pour the water that seals a sacred gift. Instantly his guru Shukracharya—who saw through Vamana's disguise—stepped in to stop him (`8.19.28–32`). "Wait, O son of Virochana! Do not do this out of ignorance (`8.19.29`)! This dwarf is the imperishable Lord Vishnu himself (`esa vairocane sakshad bhagavan vishnur avyayah`), born from Kashyapa in Aditi to accomplish the purpose of the gods (`8.19.30`). You have given your promise without seeing the catastrophe ahead; this is unrighteous for the Daityas (`8.19.31`). Taking the disguise of a brahmana boy, Hari will snatch away your sovereignty, prosperity, strength, and glory to hand them all over to Indra (`8.19.32`). With three steps he will cross the three worlds! After giving away your entire wealth to Vishnu, how will you live, you fool? With one step he will cross the earth, with the second he will fill the sky and heavens; where then will his third step go (`8.19.33–34`)?"
Then Shukracharya laid out a pragmatic, householder-centered defense for breaking the promise (`8.19.35–43`). "You will surely be punished in me for failing to fulfill your pledge (`8.19.35`)," the guru argued. "The learned do not praise that charity which wipes out one's own livelihood (`ajivana`), for it is only while standing securely in this world that men practice charity, penance, meditation, and Vedic knowledge (`8.19.35–36`). Notice how a wise householder divides his wealth into five shares (`8.19.37`): one for dharma, one for fame, one for reinvesting in wealth, one for sensory enjoyment, and one for his relatives—so he remains happy both here and hereafter (`8.19.37`). Listen to what the Bahvricha texts of the Vedas say about truth (`satya`) and untruth (`anrita`, `8.19.38–42`): Truth is the blossoming flower and fruit of the tree of the body; if the tree itself does not survive, where is the falsehood whose root is the ego (`8.19.39`)? Just as a fallen tree dries up without its roots, so the bodily life perishes without *anrita* (the practical untruth of identifying with the body to sustain it, `8.19.40`). Whenever a woman says yes or no with Om—which strips away a man's entire fortune—that word cannot bring completeness (`8.19.41–42`). And besides, in courtship with women, in jests, in marriages, when one's livelihood or very life is at stake, or to protect cows and brahmanas, the scriptures say an untruth is no sin (`8.19.43`)!"
Thus stood the crisis in the hall on the bank of the Narmada: on one side a smiling boy holding out his hand for three paces, and on the other side the very guru who had raised Bali from death, ordering him to pull back his hand before the universe was lost.
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