Princes, I desire you to approach Duryo- dhana tactfully and make peace with him. Let us avoid an armed conflict by all the means in our power. Only that which accrues in peace is worth while. Out of war, nothing but wrong can issue."

Balarama's position was that Yudhishthira knew what he was doing when he gambled away his kingdom and could not now claim it as of right.

The fulfilment of the conditions of exile could only give the Pandavas their personal freedom and not their kingdom, that is to say, they need not serve another term of exile in the forest but it gave them no right to the return of their kingdom.

Dharmaputra could only supplicate for the return of what he had lost and not claim it as of right. Balarama did not relish an armed conflict among scions of the same family and rightly held that war would lead only to disaster.

The poet puts an eternal truth inBalarama's mouth.

Satyaki, the Yadava warrior, who heard Balarama speak thus, could not contain himself. He rose in anger and spoke indignantly: