• mada - unnaddhāḥ — puffed up with passion
  Mada = the same intoxication named in verse 29; un-naddha = puffed up. A doubly intensified description — pride layered on intoxication.
• asādhavaḥ — scoundrels
  A-sādhu — 'not saintly.' Balarāma's verdict on the Kuru elders gathered in their own court is severe. Coming from the kali-mala-apaha (the remover of Kali's filth), this is not insult but diagnosis.
• daṇḍaḥ — physical punishment
  Daṇḍa-nīti is one of the four arms of statecraft. When sāman (conciliation), dāna (gift), and bheda (sowing division) fail, daṇḍa remains. Balarāma has tried the first; the fourth is what comes next.
• paśūnām laguḍaḥ — a stick for animals
  Laguḍa — herdsman's staff. The cowherd-Lord's natural tool. Balarāma was raised on Vraja staffs; now He will use one shaped like a plough.

• Where have I avoided imposing necessary consequences in the name of being nice?
• What does loving firmness require of me that mere niceness does not?

When a herd of bulls grows too proud to come home at evening, the cowherd takes a stick — not from hatred, but because language has stopped working. Balarāma reaches for the stick that has worked since creation began.