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It is believed that Bali Chakravarthy was the ruler of Bharatha Khanda (Indian subcontinent). He was Prahlada's grandson and was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. 

 

Goddess Lakshmi showed her Karuna (kindness) on him, so there was nothing his kingdom lacked. It was prosperous and was extremely wealthy. Bali did not have much work to do in his kingdom. All his citizens were happy and there was luxury all over, but Bali wanted more. He wished to take over the Devaloka or Swargaloka too. Indra, the king of gods felt attacked. Indra was scared about Bali's Lobha (greed). He then went to Mahavishnu seeking for help. Vishnu understood the sensitivity of the situation. He decided to resolve the problem smoothly though Bali was a huge devotee of him. Mahavishnu took his fifth avatar, the Vamana avatar. The avatar of being a dwarf.

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With the guidance of his guru-Shukracharya, Bali decided to perform the Ashwamedha Yaga to conquer more of the universe. Vamana visited the place of the Yaga. Vamana was an eight year old young, smart ascetic. Bali asked Vamana what kind of wealth he wished for. The well-off king was ready to give anything, in the form of cash, gold, lands, diamonds, anything at all. The way Bali asked Vamana showed off his pride. Vamana asked for 3 paces of land to be measured by his feet. Shukracharya knew that something was fishy, he knew that Vamana was Mahavishnu. So he warned Bali to take back his words of gifting the land. But Bali didn't agree with him. Later, Vamana began growing very tall and big. He covered the entire Earth with one foot. He placed his second foot on the sky and covered it completely as well.

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Vamana asks Bali where to place the third foot, Bali then understood it was Mahavishnu. He says "Dear Lord, please place your third foot on my head. It's my pleasure being your Mahabhaktha (devotee)." According to Vishnu Purana, it's said that Vishnu placed his foot on Bali and pushed him down to Patala Loka (underworld, the hell). But since Bali was a Mahabhaktha of Vishnu, he granted him a boon to visit his erstwhile kingdom, the Earth, once a year to check upon his citizens. This day is celebrated as Bali Padyamai, the first day of Karthika Maasa. This is why we light lamps welcoming our king Bali. But according to some historians, Bali was sent to today's South America with the demon architect Mayasurya. They together started the Mayan dynasty there.
 

 

What can we learn from this story? 

On Karthika Padyami, Lord Vishnu destroys Bali's ego and greed. But destruction of bad qualities isn't sufficient. A new start is necessary. And that new start should happen with the knowledge of past learnt lessons. Hence, Vishnu takes away the cash-rich kingdom of Bali on Bhooloka (planet earth), pushes him to down to Paatala and gives him a new chance to start a new life, a new kingdom.

 

There is a 'Bali' in all of us, as in, there are qualities of Bali in all of us. We all have greed, selfishness and many such personality ruining qualities. So let's celebrate Deepavali to become better humans, to destroy all the unwanted qualities in us and get better with a new start just like Bali. These festivals offer us an opportunity to become better and lead us on to the righteous path.

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