Tales of balarama

Krishna eats Mud

This Balarama story happens when Krishna is an infant and in the crawling stage. Once, little Krishna was crawling outside his home. He sees his brother Balarama and his friends playing in the front of the house. He sits there and watches them in joy. Then, he feels naughty and bored. Little Krishna takes a handful of mud and keeps chewing it.

Balarama, who is a responsible brother, always had an eye on Krishna. He knows he has to take care of him when his mother is busy with housework. So, Balarama sees that Krishna is eating something. Balarama runs to Krishna. He asks Krishna to open his mouth, but Krishna won’t. Being observant, Balarama finds mud in his brother’s hands.

Immediately, Balarama rushes to his mother and tells her that Krishna is eating mud. Then Maa Yashoda rushes to Krishna. She asks him to open his mouth, but Krishna being naughty, won’t.

Then she threatens to beat him and then Krishna opens his mouth. She could see the whole universe in his mouth. She gets astonished and does not understand what is happening. She recognizes that her child Krishna is no other than a divine form.

But, Krishna plays his Maya on his mom. So, she soon forgets all just happened and gets back to her work.

Thus, Balarama plays an important role in Krishna’s feat to show the whole universe to Maa Yashoda.

Pralambasura

One day, while engaged in a playful past-time, Krishna and Balarama saw the demon, Pralambasura, enter the fields in the hope of kingdom Krishna wondered how to kill the demon. Instead of attacking him, he welcomed Pralambasura into their game.

Krishna decided to form two teams, one led by him, the other by Balarama. He would then invite a member from each team to fight a duel. Afterwards the winners would be rewarded with a ride on the decided to purposefully lose the game. Meanwhile, Pralambasura, thinking Balarama to be weak, decided to carry him on his shoulders. He carried him far into the jungles and there changed into an enormous giant who nearly touched the skies. Balarama, seeing Pralambasura's changing form, also grew in size. Like a mountain, he rose up on the demon's back and struck his neck. Pralambasura died on the spot.

Revati

Revathi is the wife of Balarama, the elder brother Krishna. There is an interesting story that narrates the marriage of Balaram and Revati. Revati was born when human beings on earth were of huge size. Reva, father of Revati, wanted the best groom for his daughter. For this purpose, both father and daughter went to Brahma, the creator. The journey, the meeting and the return journey took thousand years. It must be noted here that one human year is one day for the Devas.

Reva and Revati returned to earth and found that the earth has undergone sea change. Human beings were no longer of giant size. The father and daughter found themselves odd amongst human beings of shorter stature.

No man was ready to marry Revati. This made the father and daughter unhappy. The father and daughter moved away from civilization and started leading a rustic life. It is said that Revati used to wrestle with animals and drink large amount of wine.

Balarama too was a huge figure and he was also not happy to marry any ordinary woman. He was also on the look out for a woman who could match his strength and figure.

Balarama once happened to see Revati and he was impressed by her height and strength. She was a match to the rustic Balaram.

They both decided to get married. There are stories of Balaram and Revati competing each other before marriage in some stories.