Bhoja Maharaj
King Bhoja, who ruled in the 10th century, was a great Sanskrit scholar. One day, as he went around his capital, he happened to hear a discourse on the Ramayana. The topic that day was Jatayu moksha.
Jatayu is in the throes of death when Lord Rama meets him. Rama's first inclination is to kill the bird, for He thinks the bird is in some way responsible for Sita being lost.
But once He is sure of Jatayu's noble intentions, Rama listens to the bird, who addresses Him, as a father would a child. The bird blesses Rama and then tells Him that Ravana, who is the stepbrother of Kubera, the God of wealth, has abducted Sita. Jatayu then breathes his last. Rama sheds copious tears upon the death of Jatayu, and then performs the last rites for the bird. He then says that Jatayu can go to all the worlds, including the highest. The highest would mean Vaikuntha. No one but Lord Narayana can give one entry into Vaikuntha. How could Rama, a mortal then, grant such a boon to Jatayu? As he listens to the story of Jatayu Moksha, this is the question that comes to Bhoja's mind, for, after all, Rama has throughout maintained the pose that He is not God, but human. So Bhoja asks the person, who was giving the discourse, to explain this anomalous situation.
In the Supreme One's avatar as Rama, He does not admit to being God but pretends that He is human. But such is Jatayu's bhakti, that He forgets Himself, and shows who He is by granting Jatayu the boon of entry into Vaikuntha. That is the explanation that Bhoja is given.
So impressed was Bhoja by the Jatayu episode that he himself then wrote the Champu Ramayana, said V.S. Karunakarachariar in a discourse. When the Lord sets Himself a task or a goal, can He be distracted from it? No human being can ever dream of influencing Him to move away from His path.
And yet, although He was determined not to reveal Himself as the Supreme One to anybody, during the Rama avatar, He inadvertently did so when Jatayu died. That was because He was moved by Jatayu's bhakti. True bhakti makes the Lord forget Himself.
Jatayu is in the throes of death when Lord Rama meets him. Rama's first inclination is to kill the bird, for He thinks the bird is in some way responsible for Sita being lost.
But once He is sure of Jatayu's noble intentions, Rama listens to the bird, who addresses Him, as a father would a child. The bird blesses Rama and then tells Him that Ravana, who is the stepbrother of Kubera, the God of wealth, has abducted Sita. Jatayu then breathes his last. Rama sheds copious tears upon the death of Jatayu, and then performs the last rites for the bird. He then says that Jatayu can go to all the worlds, including the highest. The highest would mean Vaikuntha. No one but Lord Narayana can give one entry into Vaikuntha. How could Rama, a mortal then, grant such a boon to Jatayu? As he listens to the story of Jatayu Moksha, this is the question that comes to Bhoja's mind, for, after all, Rama has throughout maintained the pose that He is not God, but human. So Bhoja asks the person, who was giving the discourse, to explain this anomalous situation.
In the Supreme One's avatar as Rama, He does not admit to being God but pretends that He is human. But such is Jatayu's bhakti, that He forgets Himself, and shows who He is by granting Jatayu the boon of entry into Vaikuntha. That is the explanation that Bhoja is given.
So impressed was Bhoja by the Jatayu episode that he himself then wrote the Champu Ramayana, said V.S. Karunakarachariar in a discourse. When the Lord sets Himself a task or a goal, can He be distracted from it? No human being can ever dream of influencing Him to move away from His path.
And yet, although He was determined not to reveal Himself as the Supreme One to anybody, during the Rama avatar, He inadvertently did so when Jatayu died. That was because He was moved by Jatayu's bhakti. True bhakti makes the Lord forget Himself.
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