Canto 31

The Paramathma’s compassion for devotees is extensive.  Bali has committed many acts of aggression and plunder, for no reason. Yet he is not destroyed by the Paramathma.  In fact,  as long as we are performing our assigned roles with Bhakthi in the Paramathma,  there will be no infringement of any Dharma.  But if we perform adharmic activity,  while chanting the name of the Paramathma, then we cannot escape the consequences.

Although Bali is devotional and follows custom and tradition, as applicable to asuras, he does perform a lot of adharmic looting and plundering.  However his devotional service and his humility in front of the gods, earns him the goodwill and blessings of the Paramathma. 

Bali has love and respect for the saintly,  although he himself does not practice sainthood or dharma.  This may seem like a conflict,  and contradiction.  If we look internally,  the asura within us is the motivator of action.  But the deva within us applies the brakes on the asura,  so the adharma does not get out of hand.

Bali does the same thing.  He uses spiritual practices to eliminate any papam that he accumulates because of adharmic deeds. When we do our daily puja, we do the same thing that Bali does, although our adharmic activity may be much less.

Being born as an asura,  Bali, by nature,  cannot help but conquer and plunder,  simply because that is the assigned role of an asura.  An asura gets complete satisfaction only from destroying and plundering “enemies”.  All those that do not fall at his feet and surrender are considered “enemies”.  Loyalty is only to himself.  An asura basically usurps the rights of everyone else.  He does not harm them only as long as they cater to his wishes and serve his needs.  His needs of self justification of his action are very high.  Self justification in the asuric sense means elevating himself while downgrading everyone else.

The need for self glorification is the barrier to surrendering to the Paramathma.  Bali has both asuric nature and  Bhakthi. A rare combination that resulted primarily from belonging to the lineage of Prahalada. 

The asura within us has the urge to override others, put down everyone,  and also keep away the influence and teachings of the Paramathma,  simply because these don’t generate the same kind of sense pleasures. So the asura needs “lesser beings”  around him to keep him in good humor.

The deva within us lives in self satisfaction. He does not depend on gratification from others.  His commitment to the Paramathma is undiluted.  He only sees the Paramathma in all people, creatures and objects around him.  The asura controls others under the threat of physical violence.  The deva concentrates only on developing self control so that the mind does not sway away from the Paramathma.

Most of us are like Bali.  We clearly separate our professional, social and spiritual lives.  To us the three are different aspects of our self and are not to be mixed up.  So we are an asura at work and social gatherings.  We are devas when it comes to spiritual practice time.   

Like Bali,  we break ourselves into different beings.  However,  the Paramathma wants us to practice dharma, in all aspects of life and live like the drop of water on a lotus leaf.  When we drop off from the leaf at the end of our life, we should not leave behind a trail of attachment. 

An asura who garners a lot of wealth from the world can never drop the bond of attachment.  When we split our lives into segments,  and the asuric segment develops an attachment to this world of objects,  the other dharmic aspect cannot detach itself to attain the feet of the Paramathma, because the influence of the asuric aspect will override our dharmic nature.  So by the time we advance in life to  reach the point at which we are ready to consume amrutham,  we should have already completely disbanded our asuric nature.

The wonder of Prahalada and Bali is that, although these are asuras, they are able to completely surrender to the service of the Paramathma without any reservation.

Ultimately we should be able to discard our asuric nature and allow our dharmic nature to surrender to the Paramatha