Bali Maharaj – Surrender doesn’t have to wait

Hare Krishna on the occasion of Bali Daitya Raj Pooja let us meditate on the distinctive and unique position of Bali Maharaj as a devotee Bali Maharaj is one of the twelve Mahajanas twelve extraordinary persons who teach us how to practice devotional service not only that he is also one of the exemplars of devotional service as regards the nine limbs of devotional service so to be present in both these illustrious lists there are not many people like that Prahlad of course is another person who exemplifies Smaranam and who is also a Mahajan but there are not many like that so Bali Maharaj is the person who exemplifies Atmanivedanam now the pastime of Bali Maharaj which is described in the eighth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam is quite mysterious Bali Maharaj makes his appearance from the sixth chapter in the eighth canto and there he seems to act like a typical demon he is a principled demon when Indra comes to seek armistice, peace agreement the other demons want to attack the defenseless Indra but Bali Maharaj says no we have to follow principles and then they together do the churning of the milk ocean and then after that when the devatas get the nectar because of the trick of Mohini Murthy demons start attacking again there is a fierce fight in which Bali Maharaj is unstoppable till Indra’s hundred volt fells and almost kills him then by the arrangement of Shukracharya he is revived and he serves Shukracharya very faithfully and then he conquers Indra and then after that Vamandeva appears as a result of the prayers especially of his mother Aditi the as per the direction of her husband Kashyapa leads to the appearance of this dwarf incarnation and then Vamana comes to beg charity from Bali Maharaj so till this point Bali Maharaj is acting like a demon. Now in Vedic culture even the demons are religious they may not be devotional but they are religious.
Religious in what sense? They also believe in the power of the truth of the Vedas and the power of the sacrifices. That’s why even Bali Maharaj performs sacrifices, respects Shukracharya and tries to increase his power by giving charity, daan. So when this Brahmana comes at that time Bali Maharaj is ready to give charity to him and whatever charity he wants and then Shukracharya denies it to Vishnu.
Don’t give charity. So now just think about this. Bali Maharaj he was practically dead and he was given back life by Shukracharya after that it was by Shukracharya’s guidance under which he performed yajnas by that he was able to conquer Indra and it was by Shukracharya’s guidance that he has the power through yajna to rule the whole universe.
So everything that he has Bali Maharaj that has come by the grace of Shukracharya. So to reject the counsel of Shukracharya is the greatest suicidal danger that one can court. To defy and disobey a Brahmana itself is dangerous but to defy and disobey a Brahmana who has given everything to one that is even more dangerous and yet Bali Maharaj does it.
For what sake? For the sake of the Supreme Lord. So generally Bali Maharaj surrendered Atma Nivedanam as I said that is talked about how when Lord Vamana asked for three steps so with two steps Vamana covered the whole universe and then the third step Bali Maharaj said please take my head and the Lord put his foot on his head. So his surrender is often considered to be putting even his own head, offering his own body, everything to the Lord.
That is true, that is surrender but equally if not more important is the fact that Bali Maharaj was ready to sacrifice the best of this world for the sake of the best beyond this world. The best of this world is Dharma and the power that comes by following Brahmanical Dharma. So he followed Brahmanas and through that he gained power but he gave it all up.
So not only did he give up martial power and martial prestige in terms of the giving up the kingdom and giving up his own body but he also gave up obedience to Shukracharya and that is great renunciation and how the Bhagavatam describes and Vishwanatha Chakravartinath’s commentary explains how is it that he was able to do it, that how is it that before he was just acting as a power hungry but pious demon and suddenly he became a surrendered devotee, he was ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of the Lord. It is because of the connection with Prahlad Maharaj. The seed of devotion was given through Prahlad Maharaj and the infatuation with wealth was temporarily covered over that seed but when he got darshan of Vamandev at that time the seed blossomed and the infatuation with wealth fell away and Bali Maharaj surrendered.
So surrender is what we can learn from Bali Maharaj. Now we may not have such dramatic situations where we have to give up everything for the sake of the Lord but everyday we face situations where we have to give up small small things. Our mind likes to think of so many other things but we give up the pleasure of thinking of those things and think of Krishna, think of the holy name when we are chanting.
We give up the small small pleasures of this world so that we can serve Krishna better and this moment to moment surrender is extremely important if we want to change the trajectory of our life. We don’t have to wait for some dramatic moments of life changing surrender to occur. Those sort of moments may come and if we get the intelligence at that time to surrender rightly that’s glorious but even if those moments don’t come and even if they come we’ll be able to tap those moments when we make moment to moment surrender and that is what we can pray to Bali Maharaj for that by remembering his example and by meditating for his mercy and for the mercy of the Lord we too can surrender and offer ourselves to Krishna.