Text 34] Bali Maharaja Arrested by the Lord 153

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. Isavdsyam idarh sarvam yat kifica jagatyam jagat.
Bali Maharaja was undoubtedly the most exalted devotee, whereas pre-
viously 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 God-
head, 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 transcen-
dental to hellish or heavenly residences.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Eighth Canto, Twenty-first
Chapter, of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, entitled “Bali Maharaja Arrested
by the Lord.”
