18. Though I have nothing to do (because I am not a free agent; nor master of my actions); yet I must do the duties appertaining to my station in society. (Doing the duties of one’s station in life, is reckoned by some as the only obligation of man here below. So says the poet: “Act well thy part, there all the honor lies.”). 19. After ascertaining so in his mind, Bali the wisest of the wise, looked upon the demons with complacence, as the sun looketh upon the lotuses. 20. With the nods and glancings of his eyes, he received their homages; as the passing winds bear the odours of the flowers along with them (meaning to say: His cursory glances bore their regards, as the fleet winds bear the fragrance of flowers the rose). 21. Then Bali ceasing to think on the object of his meditation; accosted them concerning their respective offices under him. 22. He honoured the devas and his gurus with due respect, and saluted his friends and officers with his best regards. 23. He honoured with his largesse, all his servants and suitors; and he pleased the attendant maidens with various persons. 24. So he continued to prosper in every department of his government, until he made up his mind to perform a great sacrifice (yajna) at one time. 25. He satisfied all beings with his great gifts, and gratified the great gods and sages with due honour and veneration. He then commenced the ceremony of the sacrifice under the guidance of Sukra and the chief _gurus_ and priests. 26. Then Vishnu the lord of Lakshmí, came to know that Bali had no desire of earthly fruition; and appeared at his sacrifice to crown him with the success of his undertaking, and confer upon him his desired blessing. 27. He cunningly persuaded him, to make a gift of the world to Indra his elder brother, who was insatiably fond of all kinds of enjoyment. (Indra was elder to Vishnu, who was thence called Upendra or the junior Indra). 28. Having deceived Bali by his artifices of dispossessing him of the three worlds, he shut him in the nether world, as they confine a monkey in a cave under the ground. (This was by Vishnu’s incarnation in the form of a dwarf or puny man, who <was> considered to be the most cunning among men; _multum in parvo_; or a man in miniature). 29. Thus Bali continues to remain in his confinement to this day, with his mind fixed in meditation, for the purpose of his attainment of Indraship again in a future state of life. 30. The living liberated Bali, being thus restrained in the infernal cave, looks upon his former prosperity and present adversity in the same light. 31. There is no rising or setting of his intelligence, in the states of his pleasure or pain; but it remained one and the same in its full brightness, like the disk of the sun in a painting. 32. He saw the repeated flux and reflux of worldly enjoyments, and thence settled his mind in an utter indifference about them.