Balrama - who was he really

Balarama , also known as Baladeva, Balabhadra and Halayudha, is the elder brother of the divine being, Krishna in Hinduism. Within Vaishnavism Hindu traditions Balarama is worshipped as an Avatar of Vishnu, and he is also listed as such in the Bhagavata Purana.^[1] Within both the Vaishnava traditions and Hinduism generally he is known as being a manifestation of Shesha, the serpent on whom Vishnu rests.

The Bhagavata Purana describes Krishna as the original Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom everything else emanates. As part of this divine 'emanation', Krishna's very first expansion is Balarama, and from Balarama all other incarnations of God then appear. Of the three transcendental elements described in Sanskrit as sat, cit and ananda (eternity, knowledge and bliss), Balarama is in charge of eternity and knowledge. Hence he is worshipped as the supreme teacher or Adiguru

In the Kuruk?etra war of the Mahabharata

Balarama famously taught both Duryodhana of the Kauravas and Bhima of the Pandavas the art of fighting with a mace. When war broke between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, Balarama was equally affectionate to both parties and so decided to be neutral. Eventually when Bhima (of greater strength) defeated Duryodhana (of greater skill) by dealing a blow below the navel with his mace (a move against the rules of mace combat), 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.^{[citation needed]}

Death

In the Bhagavata Purana it is described that after Balarama took part in the battle that caused the destruction of the rest of the Yadu dynasty, and after he witnessed the disappearance of Krishna, he then sat down in a meditative state and departed from this world.^[3] In some accounts it is described that a great white snake left Balarama's mouth at this point in reference to his identity as Ananta-Sesha. And the place where he departed from this world is situated about 1 km far from Somnath Temple in Gujarat. There is one cave at that place and the white snake who came out of Balarama's mouth got into that cave and went back to Paatal Lok as the local people of Veraval say

Significance and importance of the divinity of Lord Balrama

The ninth Avatar of Lord Vishnu has a very great significance to humanity, as it denotes the victory over evil. Lord Krishna guides the war of Mahabharata, the clash between Dharma and sin, or between good and evil. Lord Krishna, being the Lord of Preservation, protects Dharma and annihilates Evil, as a part of his divine duty. Balarama, who is in charge of eternity and knowledge, plays a key role in destroying the evil spirits in the world. That is the reason why the Hindus worship Lord Balrama as the supreme teacher or Adiguru, which literally means the first teacher.