Ethical absolutism and neutrality
Ethical absolutism and neutrality BALARAMA in the Mahābhārata SWOT of BALARAMA S ober and neutral W ithout manipulating for O utcomes with T actics. Balarama (also called Baladeva, Halayudha, and Rohiṇeya) appears in the Mahabharata less frequently than Krishna, yet he functions as a crucial moral and pedagogical reference-point: the archetypal strong man who prefers clarity of rule, loyalty of kinship, and the visible grammar of “fair” combat over strategic ambiguity. Because he refuses to become a partisan in the Kurukshetra war and repeatedly tries to preserve social balance without tactical manoeuvring, Balarama becomes an understated philosophical presence—useful for reading the epic’s central tension between ethical absolutes (fixed dharma) and situational ethics (dharma as applied strategy). Balarama is a major figure in Hindu tradition and an important character in the Mahābhārata . He is the elder brother of Krishna , born to Vasudeva...