Balarama

17^th century mural of Balarama from a wall hanging in South Indian temple.

Balarama (Devanagri: बलराम) also known as Baladeva, Balabhadra and Halayudha, is the elder brother of the divine being, Krishna from the Puranic texts of Hinduism. The first part of his name derives from the Sanskrit bala referring to strength, and accordingly, Balarama is often described as being very physically strong. Within Vaishnavism (the branch of Hinduism which worships Vishnu) and a number of South Indian traditions, Balarama is worshipped as an avatar (or incarnation) of Vishnu, the preserver god, and he is also listed as such in the Bhagavata Purana.

Balarama in the Context of the Avatar Doctrine

Krishna is perhaps the most famous of the incarnations of the divine within the physical realm. Since both he and Balarama are sons of Vishnu, they are often considered a joint incarnation, and so Balarama himself is sometimes listed among the dasavataras, the ten most prominent incarnations of Vishnu. Although scriptural lists of these ten divine manifestations frequently differ, the most commonly accepted dasavataras are 1) Matsya, a fish; 2) Kurma, a turtle; 3) Varaha, a boar; 4) Narasimha, a lion-man; 5) Vamana, a dwarf; 6) Parasurama, a man wielding an axe; 7) Rama, a noble man; 8) Krishna, the teacher of the Bhagavadgita; 9) Buddha, a spiritually enlightened being and 10) Kalkin, the final avatar who has yet to arrive. Some sects substitute Balarama for Rama as the seventh avatar. Beyond this list, Balarama is among the twenty-five avatars of Vishnu listed in the Bhagavata Purana, where he is considered to be the nineteenth incarnation. He is also identified as an incarnation of Shesha, the divine serpent upon whom Vishnu rests.

Mythology

Krishna and Balarama meet their parents. Painting by Raja Ravi Varma

The birth of Balarama and his brother Krishna is recorded in the Vishnu Purana. The boys were originally conceived in the womb of of Devaki, wife of Vasudeva. The evil king Kamsa, the brother of Devaki, was intent upon killing all the progeny of his sister because of a prediction that he would die at the hands of her eighth son. Kamsa thus threw his sister Devaki and her husband Vasudeva into prison, and proceeded to kill each of their children as soon as they were born. In order to conceive of Devaki's seventh and eight children, Lord Vishnu is said to have taken two of his hairs, one black and one white, and implanted them in Devaki's womb. Just before their birth the two hairs-turned-offspring were miraculously transferred by way of Vishnu's maya to the womb of Rohini, a woman who had desired a child of her own, so as to save them from Kamsa's tyranny. Rohini gave birth to two boys, one dark in colour and the other one one light. The black child was named Krishna, and the fair child was formally named Rama, but because of his great strength he was called Balarama (Strong Rama). Gargamuni, the family priest who performed the naming ceremonies for Krishna and Balarama, provided the following reasons for Balarama's names:

Because Balarama, the son of Rohini, increases the transcendental bliss of others, His name is Rama, and because of His extraordinary strength, He is called Baladeva.

Balarama has also been called Sankarsana which describes his transfer from one womb to another.

File:Krishna Balarama.jpg

Krishna-Balarama deities at the Krishna-Balarama Temple in Vrindavan

It was Rohini who ended up raising Balarama. Balarama spent his childhood as a cowherd boy with his brother Krishna and friends. The two children would undergo many adventures together as they grew, and even quarrelled with one another from time to time. Just like their contrasting skin colours, their personalities are defined by diametrical opposition: while Krishna's succeeds on account of his effeminate beauty, Balarama thrives by way of his sheer masculinity. Both Balarama and his brother Krishna are the most human of the human incarnations of Vishnu; while figures like Rama are notable for their perfected morality, both brothers exemplified numerous human weaknesses. An example of this is Balarama's weakness for alchoholic beverages. In one instance, an intoxicated Balarama ordered that the River Yamuna, anthropomorphized as a goddess, come closer to him so that she would be more accessible when he wanted to bathe. When the river did not move at his request, he used his plough to pull her until she surrendered to his will and moved closer to him. Despite his apparent abuse of alcohol, it was Balarama who incited the prohibition of intoxicants within the city of Dvaraka.

As an adult, Balarama married Revati, the daughter of King Raivata, ruler of the Anarta province. The king believed that his daughter was so beautiful that mortal men were not worthy of her hand in marriage. In an attempt to find Revati a worthy husban, Raivata sought the advice of Lord Brahma, the creator god. Brahma suggested that Balarama was the most suitable suitor, although he took many thousands of years to reveal this. When Raivata and his daughter finally did return to the physical realm, they found that humankind had grown much shorter over the centuries in which they had been gone. When Revati was presented to Balarama, he promptly used his plough to wittle her down to an adequate size.

Balarama was a weapon expert, and is famous for his ability as an instructor of combat tactics. He taught both Duryodhana of the Kauravas and Bhima of the Pandavas the art of fighting with a mace. When war broke between the corrupted Kauravas and the dharma-abiding Pandavas, Balarama was equally affectionate to both parties and so decided to be neutral. Eventually when Bhima, a warrior of greater strength, defeated Duryodhana, a warrior of greater skill, by dealing a blow below the navel with his mace, Balarama threatened to kill Bhima. This was only prevented when Krishna reminded Balarama of Bhima's vow to kill Duryodhana by crushing the very thigh he exposed to his wife Draupadi.

In the Bhagavata Purana it is described that after Balarama took part in the battle that caused the destruction of the remainder of the Yadu dynasty, and after he witnessed the disappearance of Krishna from the earthly realm, he then sat down in a meditative state and departed from this world by producing a great white snake from his mouth, that is, the demon Shesha, and he was carried into the ocean by the serpent.

Depiction

Balarama is almost always depicted as being fair skinned, especially in comparison to his brother, Krishna, who is shown as dark blue or black in hue. He is commonly depicted with two arms, in which he holds his traditional weapons, the plough and the mace. His hair is tied in a topknot and he has earrings, bracelets and armlets. Traditionally Balarama wears blue garments and a garland of forest flowers.

Significance

In the tradition of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, a lineage which originated from Caitanya Mahaprabhu, it is believed that Balarama is the Supreme Personality of Godhead himself. He is worshipped in this tradition as equal in supremacy to Krishna. While Krishna is considered the Creator, Balarama represents his creative potency; of the three transcendental elements (sat, cit and ananda), Balarama is in charge of sat (Sanskrit: eternity or truth). Hence he worshiped as the supreme teacher or adiguru. For the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a modern continuation of the Gaudiya lineage, Balarama is a particularly important character. Balarama significance also streches as far as the Jain tradition, where he appears alongside his brother in a number of important mythological texts such as the Hiravamsa Purana.

Despite the recognition of their mutual godhood, Balarama has never equalled his brother Krishna in popularity. Balarama is constantly serving Krishna in every respect in all of Krishna's incarnations and manifestations. In the Ramayana, which tells the story of Lord Rama, Balarama serves the titular character as his younger Brother, Lakshmana. In the Kali-yuga, the current age in the cyclical cosmology of Hinduism, Balarama spreads the 'Sankirtan movement' of Caitanya Mahaprabhu as his close friend Nityananda.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Bassuk, Daniel E. Incarnation in Hinduism and Christianity: the myth of the god-man. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, 1987. ISBN 0391034529
• Knappert, J. Indian Mythology. London: Diamond Books, 1995. ISBN 0261666541
• Mitchell, A.G. Hindu Gods and Goddesses. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1982. ISBN 011290372X
• Parrinder, Geoffrey. Avatar and incarnation: the Wilde lectures in natural and comparative religion in the University of Oxford. London: Faber, 1970. ISBN 0571093191
• Rao, Velcheru Narayana. "Balarama." Encyclopedia of Religion. Edited by Mercia Eliade. New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1987. ISBN 0029098505

See also

• Krishna
• Lakshmana
• Nityananda
• Shesha

External links

• Who is Lord Balarama (Overview)
• 1000 names of Lord Balarama
• Vedic Encyclopedia - Sri Balarama's Pilgrimage
• Balarama avatar - Bhagavata Purana
• Krishna-Balarama Temple
• Krishna & Balarama Deity Gallery - Vrindavan.com
• Krishna & Balarama Deity Gallery - Vrindavan-dham.com

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Balarama  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Balarama"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.