ONAM

This day is celebrated as the day when Emperor Bali was both humiliated and blessed by God, in the Form of Vamana, Sovereign of the Three Worlds. Bali called himself so, for he had Bala or power, more than anyone else. He was saturated with egoism. God came to him, while he was busy with a Yaga, in the form and guise of a Brahmin boy, and asked for a gift of just three foot-measures of land. Bali told him that he could ask for infinitely more riches and lands; but the Boy insisted on that tiny gift only. The preceptor of Bali warned him about the identity and bonafides of the strange mendicant; he mentioned that he may be God Himself. This made Bali happier, for if it was true, he was so mighty that even God came to his door as a mendicant. Such was the measure of his conceit.

But, when Vamana drew Himself up to cosmic proportions and measured the entire earth with one foot and the vast expanse of space with another foot, Bali was humbled; he offered his own head as the third foot measure, and let himself be trodden into the nether-world. This day marks the day when the incarnation of Vamana happened, in order to teach this lesson that pride meets with doom. Once the ego was thus suppressed, Bali became cleansed and God blessed him with various boons. He assured him that He would ever be his guardian. He permitted him every year, on Onam Day, to come up into the world and see for himself his empire and receive therefrom the homage of his people. So, this is the Festival of Vamana’s advent as well as Bali’s Transformation.