SB 8.21.34
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 34
- vipralabdho dadāmīti
- tvayāhaṁ cāḍhya-māninā
- tad vyalīka-phalaṁ bhuṅkṣva
- nirayaṁ katicit samāḥ
SYNONYMS
vipralabdhaḥ — now I am cheated; dadāmi — I promise I shall give you; iti — thus; tvayā — by you; aham — I am; ca — also; āḍhya-māninā — by being very proud of your opulence; tat — therefore; vyalīka-phalam — as a result of cheating; bhuṅkṣva — you enjoy; nirayam — in hellish life; katicit — a few; samāḥ — years.
TRANSLATION
Being falsely proud of your possessions, you promised to give Me land, but you could not fulfill your promise. Therefore, because your promise was false, you must live for a few years in hellish life.
PURPORT
The false prestige of thinking "I am very rich, and I possess such vast property" is another side of material life. Everything belongs to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and no one else possesses anything. This is the real fact. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ samaṁ yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat. Bali Mahārāja was undoubtedly the most exalted devotee, whereas previously he had maintained a misunderstanding due to false prestige. By the supreme will of the Lord, he now had to go to the hellish planets, but because he went there by the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he lived there more opulently than one could expect to live in the planets of heaven. A devotee always lives with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, engaging in His service, and therefore he is always transcendental to hellish or heavenly residences.
Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Eighth Canto, Twenty-first Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled "Bali Mahārāja Arrested by the Lord"