Devanagari
एष मे प्रापित: स्थानं दुष्प्रापममरैरपि ।
सावर्णेरन्तरस्यायं भवितेन्द्रो मदाश्रय: ॥ ३१ ॥
Verse text
eṣa me prāpitaḥ sthānaṁ
duṣprāpam amarair api
sāvarṇer antarasyāyaṁ
bhavitendro mad-āśrayaḥ
Synonyms
eṣaḥ
—
Bali Mahārāja
;
me
—
by Me
;
prāpitaḥ
—
has achieved
;
sthānam
—
a place
;
duṣprāpam
—
extremely difficult to obtain
;
amaraiḥ api
—
even by the demigods
;
sāvarṇeḥ antarasya
—
during the period of the Manu known as Sāvarṇi
;
ayam
—
this Bali Mahārāja
;
bhavitā
—
will become
;
indraḥ
—
the lord of the heavenly planet
;
mat
—
āśrayaḥ — completely under My protection .
Translation
The Lord continued: Because of his great tolerance, I have given him a place not obtainable even by the demigods. He will become King of the heavenly planets during the period of the Manu known as Sāvarṇi.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
I have given him a place not obtainable even by the devatās. He will be under my shelter. He will become Indra during the Sāvarṇi Manvantara.
You should not think that I have taken away his wealth. He has attained a place better than that of the devatās. Sutala has become most astonishing now. It should be understood that Sutala became like the palace that Kṛṣṇa gave to Śrīdāma. And one should not think that he has not lost the position of Indra. He will become Indra during Sāvarṇi Manvantara. One should not say that the devatās will give him trouble in Sutala. He is under my shelter. I will be his door keeper, staying awake all the time to protect him.
Purport
This is the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even if the Lord takes away a devotee’s material opulences, the Lord immediately offers him a position of which the demigods cannot even dream. There are many examples of this in the history of devotional service. One of them is the opulence of Sudāmā Vipra. Sudāmā Vipra suffered severe material scarcity, but he was not disturbed and did not deviate from devotional service. Thus he was ultimately given an exalted position by the mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Here the word
mad-āśrayaḥ
is very significant. Because the Lord wanted to give Bali Mahārāja the exalted position of Indra, the demigods might naturally have been envious of him and might have fought to disturb his position. But the Supreme Personality of Godhead assured Bali Mahārāja that he would always remain under the Lord’s protection (
mad-āśrayaḥ
).