suddhabhakti

Sometimes people ask who is Lord Balarama? And the answer is that He is the brother of Lord Krishna. However, He does many things besides that.             How we understand this is to first recognize that, according to Vedic scripture such as the  Srimad Bhagavata Purana , it is described that Lord Krishna is the primeval Lord, the original Personality of Godhead, so He can expand Himself into unlimited forms with all potencies. They are no different from Him, but may exhibit differences in form and function.             He first expands Himself into Baladeva, or Balarama, who is considered Krishna’s second body and brother. Balarama assists in Lord Krishna’s innumerable spiritual pastimes in both the spiritual and material realms.             Lord Balarama is also Lord Sankarshana, the predominator of t...

  More Pastimes of Lord Balarama After defeating the king Jarasandha several times, Krishna decided to move His family from the city of Mathura to an unconquerable fortress in the sea, known as Dwarka. After moving His family, Krishna and Balarama pretended to be afraid of Jarasandha and fled to mount Pravarsana. Jarasandha chased the Lords up said mountain, but unable to find them he set the mountain on fire. In order to avoid the fires, Lord Krishna and Balarama jumped some eighty-eight miles to the ground.(Krishna Book Vol. I, pg 348) In another instance Lord Balarama was challenged to play chess with a demoniac in-law of His, Rukmi. On the advice of the King of Kalinga, Rukmi challenged Lord Balarama to play chess for various wagers. Knowing that Lord Balarama, in this particular rasa, was not the most adept of chess players, the two sought this opportunity to make fun of Lord Krishna and Balarama. The first two games were played for 1,000 and 10,000 gold pieces re...

  Accompanied by the cowherd boys and Balarama, Krsna brought forward the cows and played on His flute through the forest of Vrndavana, which was full of flowers, vegetables, and pasturing grass In this way, Sri Krsna, along with His elder brother Balarama, passed the childhood age known as  kaumara  and stepped into the age of  pauganda,  from the sixth year up to the tenth. At that time, all the cowherd men conferred and agreed to give those boys who had passed their fifth year charge of the cows in the pasturing ground. Given charge of the cows, Krsna and Balarama traversed Vrndavana, purifying the land with Their footprints. Accompanied by the cowherd boys and Balarama, Krsna brought forward the cows and played on His flute through the forest of Vrndavana, which was full of flowers, vegetables, and pasturing grass. The Vrndavana forest was as sanctified as the clear mind of a devotee and was full of bees, flowers and fruits. There were chirping birds and cle...