Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 8 Chapter 22 Verse 16

Canto 8: Withdrawal of the Cosmic Creations | Chapter 22: Bali Mahārāja Surrenders His Life

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 8.22.16

śrī-prahrāda uvāca

tvayaiva dattaḿ padam aindram ūrjitaḿ

hṛtaḿ tad evādya tathaiva śobhanam

manye mahān asya kṛto hy anugraho

vibhraḿśito yac chriya ātma-mohanāt

SYNONYMS

śrī-prahrādaḥ uvāca — Prahlāda Mahārāja said; tvayā — by Your Lordship; eva — indeed; dattam — which had been given; padam — this position; aindram — of the King of heaven; ūrjitam — very, very great; hṛtam — has been taken away; tat — that; eva — indeed; adya — today; tathā — as; eva — indeed; śobhanam — beautiful; manye — I consider; mahān — very great; asya — of him (Bali Mahārāja); kṛtaḥ — has been done by You; hi — indeed; anugrahaḥ — mercy; vibhraḿśitaḥ — being bereft of; yat — because; śriyaḥ — from that opulence; ātma-mohanāt — which was covering the process of self-realization.

TRANSLATION

Prahlāda Mahārāja said: My Lord, it is Your Lordship who gave this Bali the very great opulence of the post of heavenly king, and now, today, it is You who have taken it all away. I think You have acted with equal beauty in both ways. Because his exalted position as King of heaven was putting him in the darkness of ignorance, You have done him a very merciful favor by taking away all his opulence.

PURPORT

As it is said, yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaḿ śanaiḥ (Bhāg. 10.88.8). It is by the mercy of the Lord that one gets all material opulence, but if such material opulence causes one to become puffed up and forget the process of self-realization, the Lord certainly takes all the opulence away. The Lord bestows mercy upon His devotee by helping him find out his constitutional position. For that purpose, the Lord is always ready to help the devotee in every way. But material opulence is sometimes dangerous because it diverts one's attention to false prestige by giving one the impression that he is the owner and master of everything he surveys, although actually this is not the fact. To protect the devotee from such a misunderstanding, the Lord, showing special mercy, sometimes takes away his material possessions. Yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaḿ śanaiḥ.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness