Bali Rāvaṇa Samāgama

In Chapter 238 of the Poorvārdha, the Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa tells how Rāvaṇa went down to pātāla (the netherworld) and met Bali Cakravartī. Bali showed him two things: the earring of Hiraṇyakaśipu, which Rāvaṇa could not lift, and the dark Purusha who stood at Bali’s door. This Purusha was Bhagavān Vishṇu himself. Bali then warned Rāvaṇa to turn back.

Rāvaṇa reaches pātāla

Rāvaṇa had already won the earth and svarga. After that he went down into pātāla to make himself master of all three worlds. In pātāla he met Bali Cakravartī, who lived there as the ruler of the netherworld, by the gift of Bhagavān Vishṇu himself.

Rāvaṇa came with the pride of a conqueror. He expected to put another realm under his rule.

Bali receives Rāvaṇa

Bali received Rāvaṇa with perfect calm. He was not afraid of the rākshasa king’s strength and fame, and he did not threaten him. Bali had given the three worlds to Bhagavān Vishṇu, and Bhagavān Vishṇu was now his own doorkeeper. So the coming of Rāvaṇa to his court did not trouble him, however grand Rāvaṇa was.

He heard Rāvaṇa tell of his conquests: the devas put down, Svarga taken, the great kings of the earth defeated. Bali listened as one who has already known the height of worldly power and has gone beyond it.

Hiraṇyakaśipu’s earring

Then Bali said to Rāvaṇa: “You have spoken of your power. Let me show you something.”

He brought out a golden earring of great size and weight. It was the earring of Hiraṇyakaśipu, the greatest daitya of the earlier age. In his time Hiraṇyakaśipu was the supreme ruler of the three worlds. His tapas (austerity) shook the cosmos, and his power made Bhagavān Vishṇu take the Narasiṃha form to kill him.

Bali asked Rāvaṇa to lift the earring.

Rāvaṇa had conquered Indra. He had lifted Mount Kailāsa, until Śiva pressed him down with a toe. He had twenty arms and a vara (boon) that made him almost unkillable. Yet he could not lift the earring. It did not move.

Bali’s point was plain. Rāvaṇa could not even move Hiraṇyakaśipu’s earring, and Bhagavān Vishṇu in the Narasiṃha form had killed Hiraṇyakaśipu with ease. Rāvaṇa’s power was less than the power Hiraṇyakaśipu had held, and Bhagavān Vishṇu had destroyed Hiraṇyakaśipu without effort.

The dark Purusha at the door

Bali then turned Rāvaṇa’s eyes to his own doorway: “Do you see that dark figure standing guard there?”

At the door of Bali’s palace in pātāla stood a dark Purusha, huge and splendid, in the stance of a guard. This was Bhagavān Vishṇu himself, as Bali’s doorkeeper for all time. It was the vara he gave Bali after the Vāmana episode, when Bali’s great generosity and calm in the face of total loss moved Bhagavān Vishṇu to serve him in person.

Bali said: “Even Bhagavān Vishṇu himself stands at my door. I did not conquer him. He chose to honour my surrender. He is the one who measured all three worlds with three steps, and still he stands here as my servant by his own choice. Tell me, what do you think of the power of one whom even Bhagavān Vishṇu serves, not by force but by love?”

The most powerful being in creation chose to serve Bali. He did this not because Bali defeated him, but because Bali loved him. The way to that love was not conquest but surrender, as Bali himself had shown.

Bali’s warning

Bali taught Rāvaṇa plainly:

“You have conquered the three worlds through your vara from Brahmā and your great power of tapas. But the one your boon left out, the human born of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s own aṃśa (part), you cannot touch. The one standing at my door is the one whose coming down as a human you will one day face. No asura or rākshasa has ever been able to overcome what stands at my door. I advise you: stop. Go back to Laṅkā. Rule your kingdom. Do not start the events that will lead to your destruction.”

Rāvaṇa heard Bali’s words. He could see the splendid dark Purusha at the door. He had the proof of Hiraṇyakaśipu’s earring in his own failure to lift it. Even so, Rāvaṇa would not be turned back.

Sources

• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Poorvārdha, Chapter 238