Ep.59 : Balaram’s Dilemma: Choosing Peace Over War

Narrated by Kumar Varun. Balarama, the brother of Krishna, visited the Pandavas at Kurukshetra. He expressed his sorrow over the failure of peace talks and the impending war. Balarama, who loved both Bhima and Duryodhana equally, chose to remain neutral in the conflict, as he could not support one against the other. He decided to leave and embark on a spiritual pilgrimage, seeking peace through devotion to God. Balarama’s neutrality in the war teaches us about the difficult moral choices faced by good and honest individuals when caught between two opposing paths.Sources, Bibliography and Suggested further readings:Vyasa, Maharishi. Mahabharata. Translated by C. Rajagopalachari, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1951.Vyasa, Maharishi. The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa. Translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli, 1883–1896. Available in public domain.Narayan, R.K. The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic. University of Chicago Press, 1978.Pattanaik, Devdutt. Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata. Penguin India, 2010.Menon, Ramesh. The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering. Rupa Publications, 2004.Buck, William. Mahabharata. University of California Press, 1973.