The avtaars of Lord Vishnu were always done with a mission in mind to bring about peace among the denizens of the Earth. We have also seen that in most cases when the Lord donned the guise of an AVTAAR, it also included the vanquishing of an evil creature, like a Rakshasa or an Asura.

Bali, the Asura king was also the grandson of Prahlad, the divine child - a devotee of Lord Vishnu (for whose sake Vishnu took the avtaar of Narasimha). King Bali, had embarked upon performing a Maha Yagna and he was very successful in this venture. By performing such a big Yagna, he was conferred with so much power, wealth and celestial weapons, that he started nurturing desires of usurping the throne of Lord Indra. Finally, Bali did take over the throne of Indra and all the Devas went into hiding out of sheer fear.

Aditi, the mother of the Devas, was heart broken at this and so she consulted her husband, Rishi Kashyap on what could be done to save the situation of her sons, the Devas. Sage Kashyap advised her to seek Lord Vishnu's help.

She set out on a mission to get Vishnu's attention - this could only be done by undertaking some kind of sacrifice, and she took up " Payovrat", where she abstained from eating any kind of food and drank only milk. This moved Vishnu, for he could not bear to see the Divine Mother of the Devas starving herself to death. He appeared before her and told her that he was aware of her predicament and assured her that he would be born to her in the form of a short-statured person called the Vamana.

Meanwhile, Bali was in the process of performing an Ashvamedha Yagna and should he succeed in this Yagna, it was understood that he would become the undisputed "king of the Devas as well as the Asuras on the Earth". It was at this juncture that Vamana the 'midget-man', approached Bali. A common custom in those days was for the King to fulfil any boon requested by anyone when a yagna was in progress. When this Vamana approached Bali, the king was quite stunned to see such a short person. He brushed aside his initial doubts and misgivings, and asked the Vamana what he desired.

Vamana replied that he wanted just three feet of land to call his own. Being of a very generous disposition, Bali, without thinking, acquiesced to this paltry demand put before him. Then Vamana placed one foot on the ground- and it grew bigger than the universe and covered everything. Then he placed the second foot and it covered all of the nether worlds. Then he did not know where to place the third.... For this, Bali offered his head, and so Vamana placed the third step on Bali's head.

Realisation dawned on everyone that this Vamana was no ordinary person, but Lord Vishnu Himself. This avtaar was undertaken to keep the asura power under check. But Vishnu did not kill Bali.

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