• muṣala-arditau — tormented by the club
  Compound: muṣala (Balarāma's club) + ardita (afflicted). The muṣala is Balarāma's signature weapon, paired with His plough (hala). Gauḍīyas read the muṣala as the implement of the ādi-guru striking down ignorance at its root.
• petatuḥ — the two fell
  Perfect dual of √pat (to fall). The same root that gives 'patita' — fallen. The asura-generals fall in the literal sense the conditioned soul falls in the figurative; Balarāma's club ends both falls when wielded with grace.
• hata-nāthāni — whose leaders were killed
  Compound: hata (slain) + nātha (lord, protector). The asura army's nātha is mortal; the bhakta's Nātha is eternal. The verse contrasts the two protections without naming the contrast — the reader is meant to feel it.
• dudruvuḥ — they fled
  Perfect of √dru (to run). When the false shelter falls, the dependents scatter — the inverse picture of śaraṇāgati, where the true Shelter never falls and the surrendered never need to flee.

• What 'leader' habit, if dismantled, would scatter many smaller ones in my life?
• Where am I working on symptoms when the root commander is still standing?

A tree falls and the birds in its branches scatter. When Kumbhāṇḍa and Kūpakarṇa drop under Balarāma's club, the soldiers who had been roosting on their leadership take wing in every direction. Bhakti-grounded leadership stands; tāmasa-leadership collapses underfoot.