Diwali meditation 3 – Bali Pratipada – Surrendering everything fills our heart with the Lord of everything
Hare Krishna.
One of the festivals in Diwali is Bali Pratipada. This is the day when the concealed devotee who was externally a demon, Bali Pratipada, he surrendered to the Lord in the form of Baman. This is a story of external impoverishment and internal enrichment.
The story is found in the Bhagavata Purana the Srimad Bhagavatam which describes beautifully how even the adversities of life can become great prosperities if we persevere in devotion through them. So the day when Bali Maharaj surrendered to Vishnu is the day when throughout history devotees have inspired to offer their life and soul, their everything to the Lord. The story is that Bali Maharaj was a demon, a powerful king and a very charitable person.
After he had conquered the three worlds had bested even the gods and was presiding over the universe. At that time the Lord in the form of a dwar, Vamana came to him as a small young brahmachari and he this Brahmin brahmachari asked for charity and he said I just want three steps of land. When Bali Maharaj agreed readily then Vamana became Trivikram.
His three steps just his two steps actually pervaded the whole universe and there is no place to give the third step. That was the time when Bali Maharaj offered his own head to put that foot on. Now this act has multiple significances.
When we surrender to the Lord at one level giving our resources to him is extremely important. It is difficult to give in charity. Often we want to give God what is left but we need to give God what is right.
Give God what is left means after all our needs are fulfilled we want to give God some small portion. But actually we understand that everything that we have comes from him and we offer everything to him in a mood of devotion. That itself is an extraordinary level of surrender but more important than our possessions what God wants is our heart and what stops our heart from being offered to him is our ego.
So our sense that we are independent controllers, independent enjoyers independent shapers of our destiny that is our ego and that blocks us in our surrender. So when Bali Maharaj bowed down before the Lord and offered his head to him this supplication the Lord placing his head on his, placing his foot on his head signifies Bali Maharaj removing this obstacle of the ego so that the Lord could enter his heart, reign supreme in his heart and enrich his heart with the supreme wealth of undistracted uninterrupted devotion. So similarly for us in our own ways our ego obstructs our devotion.
We think we are great and even when we acknowledge God's greatness sometimes we become filled with our own greatness because we are acknowledging God's greatness. But when we offer our whole being to the Lord just as Bali Maharaj did that is the ultimate surrender that is the pinnacle of surrender and that surrender which Bali Maharaj did is something which we can meditate on and seek inspiration from and thereby take our baby steps in our journey towards surrender and thereby while such surrender might seem to externally demean us, externally impoverish us but it will internally enrich us supremely just as Vaman became indebted to Bali Maharaj for his surrender to him so indebted in fact that he became the eternal protector and door keeper of Bali Maharaj similarly the Lord when we place him on the throne of our heart by giving ourselves to him by putting our ego aside in our surrender to him and he becomes our supreme protector supreme benefactor. He is always our protector and benefactor but we let him become that by our cooperation and our surrender and through that surrender we find the supreme enrichment.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.