In plain words
‘See good, hear good, do good’: just three sūtras of Dharma
The supreme devotees seem to suffer, beset by many troubles and losses. But outward appearances do not matter to us. We must recognise the secret of the principle of the Ātma that lies in the inner feeling. Resolving to bestow such a principle of the Ātma, God took the form of Vāmana and came to Emperor Bali. Who is this Emperor Bali? Prahlāda was the son of Hiraṇyakaśipu, king of the rākṣasas. Prahlāda's son was Virocana. This Virocana's son was Emperor Bali. But Virocana's name never comes up anywhere. They call him ‘Prahlāda's grandson’; no one calls him Virocana's son. What is the reason? Emperor Bali's father, Virocana, was a very wicked man. Likewise Prahlāda's father, Hiraṇyakaśipu, was a rākṣasa indeed! He was a hater of Hari. But Emperor Bali loved Hari. His father Virocana too was a hater of Hari. ‘You must not remember Hari,’ he decreed. In such a state, Emperor Bali ruled his land in the way of dharma. He held his people as his own children. Because the king was pure of heart, the whole kingdom prospered. ‘Yathārājā tathā prajā.’ As the king is, so the people will be. That is why, from ancient times, they have taught that kings must grow into embodiments of Dharma. The sūtras of Dharma that Emperor Manu taught have three vital breaths: one, ‘bhadraṃ paśyanti’; two, ‘bhadraṃ śṛṇvantu’; three, ‘bhadraṃ kurvanti’. Bhadraṃ paśyanti: see good; bhadraṃ śṛṇvantu: hear good; bhadraṃ kurvanti: do good. These three alone are the vital breath of Dharma. Merely saying ‘See good, hear good, do good’ is not enough for us. We must do it and show it. When these three are missing, Dharma has no life at all. So Emperor Bali practised such dharmas, lived them, and passed them on to his people. Once, when Hiraṇyākṣa, brother of Hiraṇyakaśipu, Prahlāda's father, died, their mother fell on the body and grieved bitterly.