Balarama forgives Bhima¹³

Balarama, Sri Krishna’s brother, was a great fighter. He had three principal weapons. Of the three, his favourite was the ploughshare. The other two were the mace and the club.

Bhima, of the Pandavas, and Duryodhana, of the Kauravas, learned how to use the mace from him. When the Pandavas and Kauravas fought, Balarama remained neutral. Once, Bhima adopted foul means while fighting with Duryodhana. This offended Balarama’s sense of fair play terribly. So he immediately seized his club to punish Bhima.

But Sri Krishna restrained him. Sri Krishna said, “True, this time Bhima was wrong, but Brother, many, many times Bhima was innocent when Duryodhana showed tremendous hostility towards him and his brothers. You know, Brother, right from his boyhood, Duryodhana treated Bhima badly. So please forgive Bhima for this misdeed. It is only once he has done this, whereas he has been treated mercilessly so many times by Duryodhana.”

So Balarama forgave Bhima.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Great Indian meals: divinely delicious and supremely nourishing, part 8, Agni Press, 1979
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/gim_8