Did Bali M surrender out of devotion or fear of dishonor?

In the pastime of Bali mahraja, it is very clearly visible how he is showing full surrender to Krishna, how he is feeling lowly, how he is glorifying the lord for his mercy etc. One thing however seems to be quite strange… In SB-8.22.2 and 3 when Bali maharaja is asking Lord to place his lotus feet on his head, he is giving reason that Bali is ‘fearful of defamation’ or ‘he can not allow his promise to go false’. According to the teachings of our acaryas a vaisnava simply acts as a puppet in the hands of the lord; he does not fear his own defamation (ex. Bhisma, Gopis, brahmana patnis).

Hare Krishna Question Bali Maharaj is glorified for his complete surrender to the Lord yet the Bhagavatam states that when Bali Maharaj had to surrender he was very afraid of being dishonored of losing his honor of being deemed as of being vilified as not having kept his word and that's why he surrendered now we know a devotee is not concerned about honor and dishonor then why is it said that Bali Maharaj surrendered because of considerations of honor instead of devotion Answer the Bali Maharaj story actually involves depicting his spiritual evolution that means if Bali Maharaj actually appears in the 10th chapter of the 8th Canto atleast in the Bhagavatam in that section and there he is basically a he is the commander of the Asuras and he is fighting a war and he is a Kshatriya, actually he comes before that also in the 5th, 6th chapter only he is there when the demigods are defeated by the Rakshasas at that time Indira goes to Bali and tries to make a truce so that they can churn the milk, so anyway the point is that till the 20th chapter even 21st chapter, Bali Maharaj is primarily depicted as a as a Shivalrao Kshatriya he is from the Asura side but still he is principled and now even when Indira goes unarmed at that time the other Rakshasas want to attack and kill Indira but Bali says no he has come without weapons, we have to treat him respectably according to the codes, so basically for Bali Maharaj is depicted as primarily being a heroic Kshatriya and as such for Kshatriyas honour is very important and in fact in Bali Maharaj, Dhruva Maharaj or Dhruva, Dhruva is not the target Maharaj at that time, Dhruva's sense of honour is glorified by Narada Muni Ahok Kshatriya Tejasam Manabhangam Rishchitam, he says how glorious are the Kshatriyas that they cannot tolerate their honour being dismissed so now we would say the devotee is meant to tolerate honour and dishonour why is Narada Muni glorifying that Dhruva could not tolerate the dishonour that's why he has immediately left home and come to the forest Kshatriyas are actually meant to represent God and they are meant to do God's will in this world and they are, that's why the kings are often called as Naradev, so now the sense of honour which is instilled very deeply within the Kshatriyas is used to inspire them to do honourable things, that means to stick to Dharma no matter how difficult it is so for a Kshatriya to keep one's word is considered to be a great duty, now it may be not necessarily Paradharma, Paradharma is pure devotional activities, Paradharma is material religion, now material religion is also not unimportant, now for Kshatriyas they are brought up in such a way that for them their word is considered to be very important and by that they are actually inspired to stick to the path of duty even when there are difficulties so that's why Krishna also tells Arjuna that for one who has been dishonoured, dishonour is worth, for one who has been honoured dishonour is worth than death, so again the point is what, Kshatriyas live by a sense of honour and that sense of honour enables them to act honourably so at an external level Bali Maharaj is acting just like Kshatriya and his considerations are primarily depicted as being those of a Kshatriya but then Vishwacharya Thakur explains, indicates in his commentary that because Bali Maharaj is the grandson of Prahlad Maharaj and he has always had the devotional impressions coming from his grandfather and those devotional impressions they manifest at a particular time and that is when he surrenders to the lord afterwards if we see till the point of his surrender his mood is mostly of a Kshatriya wanting to keep his word to a Brahmana but thereafter when Brahma and Prahlad offer prayers to the lord, at that time Bali also offers prayers to the lord and at that time he says my dear lord no one but you could have punished like this because you are the greatest well-wisher so the basic point here is that actually this is an evolution so initially he is acting as a Kshatriya but when he does that bhakti act of surrender completely surrendering himself now he may do it because of a Kshatriya sense of honor but then that act of surrender actually stimulates his devotion and then it manifests fully so just like now we can ask whether Dhruva's determination was material or spiritual now and once it was impelled by a material cause he is being dishonored by his step mother but then that was directed towards the supreme lord and he became a pure devotee thereafter so what is important is not necessarily the impetus but what is important is the consequence somehow they fix the mind on Krishna so Bali Maharaj's calculations initially may be those of a honorable Kshatriya and not necessarily of a pure devotee but because those calculations of Kshatriya inspire him to surrender to the lord in an extraordinary way that surrender is glorified and thereafter his surrender his devotional mood manifests so it is there but it is unmanifest and by that act of surrender which is an extraordinary act his mood of devotion manifests so in that way there is the Bali Maharaj's pastime can be understood in both levels one is that as a Kshatriya he is acting according to Kshatriya code that's why he surrenders he doesn't want dishonor that's why he surrenders but then it is also that the lord he is a devotee although the devotion is not manifest before that and it is his devotion that is glorified through his extraordinary surrender of everything that he has and that's how he is an exemplar of Atmanivedanam thank you Hare Krishna.