Text 46
śādhy asmān īśitavyeśa
niṣpāpān kuru naḥ prabho
pumān yac chraddhayātiṣṭhaṁś
codanāyā vimucyate
śādhi — please order; asmān — us; īśitavya — of those who are subject to being controlled; īśa — O controller; niṣpāpān — sinless; kuru — please make; naḥ — us; prabho — O master; pumān — a person; yat — which; śraddhayā — with faith; ātiṣṭhan — executing; codanāyāḥ — of scriptural regulation; vimucyate — becomes free.
O Lord of all subordinate creatures, please tell us what to do and thus free us of all sin. One who faithfully executes Your command, O master, is no longer obliged to follow the ordinary Vedic rites.
The ācāryas explain Bali’s thoughts as follows. Reflecting on the possibility that his request for immediate deliverance may have been too bold, Bali Mahārāja considers that first he will need to become sufficiently purified. In any case, he thinks, Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Balarāma must have come to him for some specific purpose; if he can receive the Lords’ order and carry it out, that will be his best opportunity for purification. Indeed, as Bali states, a devotee acting under the Personality of Godhead’s instruction need no longer follow the sacrificial injunctions and prohibitions of the Vedas.