This is the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even if the Lord takes away a devotees material opulences, the Lord immediately offers him a position of which the demigods cannot even dream. There are many examples of this in the history of devotional service. One of them is the opulence of Sudama Vipra. Sudama Vipra suffered severe material scarcity, but he was not disturbed and did not deviate from devotional service. Thus he was ultimately given an exalted position by the mercy of Lord Krsna. Here the word mad-asrayah is very significant. Because the Lord wanted to give Bali Maharaja the exalted position of Indra, the demigods might naturally have been envious of him and might have fought to disturb his position. But the Supreme Personality of Godhead assured Bali Maharaja that he would always remain under the Lords protection (mad-asrayah).