98
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 8, Ch. 20]
brāhmaṇa ;  pratiśrutya —after already having promised;  dadāmi —that I shall give;  iti —thus;  prāhrādiḥ —I who am famous as the grandson of Mahārāja Prahlāda;  kitavaḥ —an ordinary cheater;  yathā —just like.
TRANSLATION
I am the grandson of Mahārāja Prahlāda. How can I withdraw my promise because of greed for money when I have already said that I shall give this land? How can I behave like an ordinary cheater, especially toward a brāhmaṇa?
PURPORT
Bali Mahārāja had already been blessed by his grandfather Prahlāda Mahārāja. Therefore, he was a pure devotee, although born in a family of demons. There are two kinds of highly elevated devotees, called  sādhana-siddha  and  kṛpā-siddha .  Sādhana-siddha  refers to one who has become a devotee by regular execution of the regulative principles mentioned in the  śāstras , as ordered and directed by the spiritual master. If one regularly executes such devotional service, he will certainly attain perfection in due course of time. But there are other devotees, who may not have undergone all the required details of devotional service but who, by the special mercy of  guru  and  Kṛṣṇa —the spiritual master and the Supreme Personality of Godhead—have immediately attained the perfection of pure devotional service. Examples of such devotees are the  yajña-patnīs , Mahārāja Bali and Śukadeva Gosvāmī. The  yajña-patnīs  were the wives of ordinary  brāhmaṇas  engaged in fruitive activities. Although the  brāhmaṇas  were very learned and advanced in Vedic knowledge, they could not achieve the mercy of  Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma , whereas their wives achieved complete perfection in devotional service, despite their being women. Similarly, Vairocani, Bali Mahārāja, received the mercy of Prahlāda Mahārāja, and by Prahlāda Mahārāja's mercy he also received the mercy of Lord Viṣṇu, who appeared before him as a  brahmacārī  beggar. Thus Bali Mahārāja became a  kṛpā-siddha  because of the special mercy of both  guru  and  Kṛṣṇa . Caitanya Mahāprabhu confirms this favor:  guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja  (Cc.  Madhya  19.151). Bali Mahārāja, by the grace of Prahlāda Mahārāja, got the seed of devotional service, and when that seed developed, he