Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.79.23
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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vārayiṣyan
—
intending to stop
Future participle of √vṛ (causative vāraya), 'about to restrain.' The grammar tells us Balarāma's intent on the road: He goes not to watch and not to fight, but specifically to interrupt. The verb form holds the disappointment of the next verses in tension — He arrives intending; they refuse.
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vinaśanam
—
to the battlefield
Accusative of vinaśana, 'the place of destruction' — a standing name for Kurukṣetra in the epic. The word's literal meaning (perishing) tells the reader what kind of ground He is walking onto.
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yadu-nandanaḥ
—
the beloved son of the Yadus
Compound: Yadu + nandana (delighter, beloved son). The verse names Balarāma by His clan-relation precisely as He approaches a battlefield where He has refused to be the Yadus' representative on either side. The epithet softens the politics — the warriors will receive Him not as a partisan but as the family's elder.
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gadābhyām yudhyatoḥ
—
of the two fighting with clubs
Phrase: gadā (club, dual instrumental) + yudhyatoḥ (genitive dual of one fighting). Both warriors are using the very weapon Balarāma taught them to wield. The grammar quietly insists on the irony: the guru arrives to the climactic exam of His two pupils.
He went to Kuruksetra (vinasanam) to stop Bhima and Duryodhna from fighting.
While Bhīma and Duryodhana were fighting with clubs in the arena (mṛdhe), he wanted to stop them or he wanted to stop the two fighting (mṛdhe), because the two were equally related to the Yadus. Or he wanted to stop the fighting (yudhayoḥ) in the arena. Balarāma was a joy of the Kurus (kuru-nandanaḥ) because he gave them joy by coming from Prabhāsa. Or having been absent a long time he should have gone to Dvārakā, to give them joy, but he came to Kurukṣetera.
- Where in my schedule am I too rigid to interrupt for a person who needs me?
- What signals would tell me a particular moment calls for diversion?
The pilgrimage that began at Naimiṣa with a club striking a demon's head ends at Kurukṣetra where two clubs are about to strike each other. Balarāma turns toward the battlefield not to fight but to stop the fight — the protector of yajña arriving to halt a duel between His own students, both of whom He had trained in gadā-yuddha.
The Mahābhārata records that Lord Balarāma had personally trained both Duryodhana and Bhīma in the art of the club (gadā-yuddha). Both were His direct students; both had drunk His pedagogy.
That is why He alone could arrive at the duel with the authority to call it off. He had not joined either army — indeed His tīrtha-yātrā in this very chapter is His chosen mode of staying out — but as guru of the two combatants He retained the standing to ask them to stop. The next verses will record that even that authority was not enough.
My note
Source: vedabase.io