I Like the song "brahma kadigina paadamu..." composed by Sri Annamacharya. The song starts with praising vaamana, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Those who are interested to know the story of Vaamana and Emperor Bali, check this link
Few years back, I read some comments that the story of vaamana avatar supports saamraajya vaadam(Imperialism), as is the case with all other stories of dasa avatar. Though emperor Bali followed all Vedic-standards and performed many rituals, because he is a daanav (Asura), Lord Vishnu has to take human form and punish him. Otherwise he would be a threat to Indra (king of smaller Gods - Suras), who is a favorite king for Lord Vishnu.
Well, now I see the story of vaamana in a different way. I see the entire plot of vamana avataar is God's (or Lord Vishnu, if you choose to perceive God in this form) desperate attempt to make one of the fallen souls to realize its true Self!!
As most of the religious texts say (at least I believe that they say) that God has created man and gave him/her a free will. Now it is up to the (wo)man to use their free will to turn towards God.
Emperor Bali was so engrossed within his self that he doesn't want to see true Self, that "he" is nothing but "the image of the supreme God". Though he achieved the immortality, through tapas, he failed to come out of his ego.
Vaamana asks for three paces of land to be measured by his feet, towards his gift. And Bali agrees to it and asks vaamana to measure the land. Now vaamana shows Bali that entire space around him, including earth, sky, all planets, stars etc are made out of His Supreme Consciousness. Then Bali realizes that whatever he possesses (or so far feeling that he possesses) is nothing but made in the Consciousness of the Supreme Lord. There is nothing that he possesses, except his ego and his will. Realizing that, Bali offers himself (and his Will) to vaamana and in turn vaamana suppresses the ego that has been stopping Bali so far from this Self Realization.
Posted by hari at July 7, 2003 04:12 PMHari,
You are offering philosophical (religious) counter-arguments to irreligious interpretations of mythologies. Both are different ways of looking at mythologies and are equally fascinating. But one cannot mix the two - one cannot serve as a supporting/contradicting thesis to the other.
Talking of irreligious interpretations of hindu mythologies for historical analysis, D.D. Kosambi's work, summarised by Balagopal as "bhaarata dESa prAchIna caritra - D.D. KoSaMbi parichayaM", is an interesting read.
cheers
prasad