SB 8.22.16

Devanāgarī

श्रीप्रह्लाद उवाच त्वयैव दत्तं पदमैन्द्रमूर्जितं हृतं तदेवाद्य तथैव शोभनम् । मन्ये महानस्य कृतो ह्यनुग्रहो विभ्रंशितो यच्छ्रिय आत्ममोहनात् ॥ १६ ॥

Text

śrī-prahrāda uvāca tvayaiva dattaṁ padam aindram ūrjitaṁ hṛtaṁ tad evādya tathaiva śobhanam manye mahān asya kṛto hy anugraho vibhraṁśito yac chriya ātma-mohanāt

Synonyms

śrī-prahrādaḥuvāca—Prahlāda Mahārāja said;tvayā—by Your Lordship;eva—indeed;dattam—which had been given;padam—this position;aindram—of the King of heaven;ūrjitam—very, very great;hṛtam—has been taken away;tat—that;eva—indeed;adya—today;tathā—as;eva—indeed;śobhanam—beautiful;manye—I consider;mahān—very great;asya—of him (Bali Mahārāja);kṛtaḥ—has been done by You;hi—indeed;anugrahaḥ—mercy;vibhraṁśitaḥ—being bereft of;yat—because;śriyaḥ—from that opulence;ātma-mohanāt—which was covering the process of self-realization.

Translation

Prahlāda Mahārāja said: My Lord, it is Your Lordship who gave this Bali the very great opulence of the post of heavenly king, and now, today, it is You who have taken it all away. I think You have acted with equal beauty in both ways. Because his exalted position as King of heaven was putting him in the darkness of ignorance, You have done him a very merciful favor by taking away all his opulence.

Purport

As it is said, yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ ( Bhāg. 10.88.8 ). It is by the mercy of the Lord that one gets all material opulence, but if such material opulence causes one to become puffed up and forget the process of self-realization, the Lord certainly takes all the opulence away. The Lord bestows mercy upon His devotee by helping him find out his constitutional position. For that purpose, the Lord is always ready to help the devotee in every way. But material opulence is sometimes dangerous because it diverts one’s attention to false prestige by giving one the impression that he is the owner and master of everything he surveys, although actually this is not the fact. To protect the devotee from such a misunderstanding, the Lord, showing special mercy, sometimes takes away his material possessions. Yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ .

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