Lord Vaman is one of the 24 Avatars of Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu reincarnated as Lord Vaman-ji to help his devotees. Each of the four main avatars came to destroy demon kings who gained immense powers. These avatars are: Lord Ram avatar – he came to destroy the evil of Rawan Lord Krishna avatar - he came to destroy Kansa Lord Narsingh avatar - he came to destroy Hiranyakshipu Lord Vaman avatar - he came to stop Raja Bali Raja Bali, the grandson of the great Bhakt Prahlad, had amassed great powers through completing 99 of 100 Ashwamegh Yagnas that gave him three indestructible weapons and powers greater than some of the Gods. It was while Raja Bali was enacting the 100th yagna, that Lord Indra went to his mother to tell her of his concerns that Raja Bali would overtake him in power if he completed this final yagna. To help protect the Gods including her son, Aditi, Lord Indra’s mother undertook a 12 day vrat called Payovrat which earnt her a boon to fix her problem. As a result of this boon Aditi gave birth to the 5th incarnation of Lord Vishnu, Lord Vaman. Lord Vaman-ji was born on12th day of Ashadra month - the day after deoshani ekadasi - when it is believed Lord Vishnu goes into Isolation for four months. Lord Vaman-ji who appeared in a tiny child like form as a priest, approached the powerful Raja Bali as he was distributing land to the demons, and asked him to allocate just a little land for the Devas. Lord Vaman-ji asked for the amount of land equal to just three of his strides. Raja Bali thought all this to be very humorous as Lord Vaman-ji appeared to be among the smallest of men, and three strides worth of land could surely cause no loss to the demon king. Shukracharya, the guru of the devas, warned the self-assured Raja Bali that he was dealing with the Lord himself , who would take everything back from him, but Raja Bali would not listen, and in fact was cursed by Shukracharya for this. At the agreement of the deal between Lord Vaman-ji and Raja Bali, Lord Vaman-ji turned into a giant form bigger than all the worlds and with his first step he took the whole of the Earth. Repost from @kartikaa.1