“Hearken, Râma; I dealt craftily with my lord; today, guilty as I am, I obtain, sire, at my death a place in heaven.”
When Râma heard this most tender speech, he touched Bali’s head with his hands: “I restore the soundness of your body; retain your life.” Said Bali: “Hearken, All-merciful; the saints are born again and again and labour throughout their life, and yet even to the last Râma never comes near them. But he, the everlasting, by the virtue of whose name Sankara at Kâsi bestows heaven upon all alike, has come in visible form before my very eyes; can I ever, my lord, have such a chance again?
He has become visible to my eyes, whose praises the scriptures are all unequal to declare, to whom scarcely the saints attain after profound contemplation accompanied by laborious suppression of the breath, abstraction of soul, and control of the senses. Seeing me the victim of excessive pride, the Lord has told me to retain my body. But who would be such a fool as to insist upon cutting down the tree of paradise and watering a wild babul tree? Now, my Lord, look upon me with compassion and grant me the boon I beg; whatever the womb in which it be my fate to be born, may I ever cherish a special devotion to the feet of Râma. O my Lord, take this my son Angad and grant him like discretion, power and prosperity; grasp him by the hand, O king of gods and men, and make him Your servant.”
When Râma heard this most tender speech, he touched Bali’s head with his hands: “I restore the soundness of your body; retain your life.” Said Bali: “Hearken, All-merciful; the saints are born again and again and labour throughout their life, and yet even to the last Râma never comes near them. But he, the everlasting, by the virtue of whose name Sankara at Kâsi bestows heaven upon all alike, has come in visible form before my very eyes; can I ever, my lord, have such a chance again?
He has become visible to my eyes, whose praises the scriptures are all unequal to declare, to whom scarcely the saints attain after profound contemplation accompanied by laborious suppression of the breath, abstraction of soul, and control of the senses. Seeing me the victim of excessive pride, the Lord has told me to retain my body. But who would be such a fool as to insist upon cutting down the tree of paradise and watering a wild babul tree? Now, my Lord, look upon me with compassion and grant me the boon I beg; whatever the womb in which it be my fate to be born, may I ever cherish a special devotion to the feet of Râma. O my Lord, take this my son Angad and grant him like discretion, power and prosperity; grasp him by the hand, O king of gods and men, and make him Your servant.”