Long ago there ruled a king named Bali, grandson of the great Prahlada. He was a king of the asuras, but his heart was famous across all three worlds for one thing above all: he could not turn away anyone who came to him asking.

Every morning Bali sat in his golden hall, and a line of people stretched out the doors and down the palace steps — the hungry, the poor, scholars who needed books, mothers who needed grain. To each one Bali gave. Gold, cattle, land, food, kind words. His ministers worried the treasury would empty. Bali only smiled and said, "What is the use of wealth if it does not flow out to those who need it? A river that stops flowing becomes a swamp."

His fame for giving spread so far that even the gods spoke of it.

One day a small brahmin boy came to the hall. He was tiny, barely taller than Bali's knee, with a wooden water-pot and a soft, steady gaze. This was Vamana — the Lord himself, come in the shape of a child to test the great giver.

"What do you wish for?" Bali asked, as he asked everyone.

"Only as much land," said the little boy, "as I can cover in three steps."

Bali laughed kindly. Three steps! He could give the child a whole kingdom. But the boy wanted only three steps, so Bali poured water over his hands to seal the promise, the way a gift was always sealed.

The moment the water touched the ground, the little boy began to grow. Taller than the hall. Taller than the mountains. With his first step he covered the whole earth. With his second he covered all the heavens. There was nowhere left for the third.

Bali understood at once who stood before him. He felt no fear and no anger. He simply bowed his head and offered it. "Place your third step here, Lord," he said. "On me. I have nothing else left to give, but you may have that too."

The Lord smiled, for this was what he had come to see — not the gold or the cattle, but the giving heart itself. He blessed Bali and made him a ruler of a shining realm, honoured forever.

Bali's generosity was famous. But Krishna says the famous quality was never only Bali's own. The power to give, the openness of that heart — it was a spark of the divine, flowing through one king the way a great river flows through one valley. When you see someone good and generous, you are seeing the source shining through.