Jaṭāyu’s Last Rites
After Rāvaṇa took Sītā, Bhagavān Rāma and Lakshmaṇa found the great eagle Jaṭāyu dying in the forest. Jaṭāyu told them what had happened and then died in Rāma’s arms. Rāma did not leave him in the forest. He performed the whole of the antima-saṃskāra (the last rites) with his own hands, as for a father. Jaṭāyu then rose from the pyre in a shining body and went up to Vishṇuloka, the abode of Bhagavān Vishṇu.
Finding Jaṭāyu
Rāma and Lakshmaṇa had come back to Pañchavaṭī after the abduction of Sītā and were searching the forest in growing despair. Then they saw something that made their grief deeper. The great eagle Jaṭāyu lay on the forest floor with his wings cut off and his legs cut away. His body was covered in blood, and he was barely alive. Rāma knew him at once and ran to him. He lifted Jaṭāyu’s great head and wept. He called him by name and held him with grief and tenderness. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 65)
Jaṭāyu’s words
With the last of his strength Jaṭāyu spoke. He told the whole account: how Rāvaṇa came, how he seized Sītā by her hair and feet, the battle in the air, his own attempt to stop Rāvaṇa, and his wounds. He described Rāvaṇa as having ten heads and twenty arms, with a dark body and golden ornaments. He said that Rāvaṇa had flown south.
Jaṭāyu had kept himself alive for this, to give Rāma the news he needed. When he had spoken, he died in Rāma’s arms. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 66)
The funeral rites
Rāma did not leave Jaṭāyu to the forest. He performed the full antima-saṃskāra himself.
Making the pyre. Rāma gathered dry wood from the forest and built a funeral pyre fit for one of the highest honour. He laid Jaṭāyu’s body on it.
Lighting the fire. He lit the pyre and tended the flames.
Piṇḍa-pradāna. He made funeral cakes (piṇḍa) of rice and sesame and offered them with the sacred mantras of the antima-saṃskāra. In the rite he named Jaṭāyu, as he would name a father or a respected elder.
Jala-tarpaṇa. He went down into a nearby body of water and offered jala-tarpaṇa, which is an offering of water to the dead. He spoke Jaṭāyu’s name and the right words.
These are the full steps of a proper funeral in Sanātana Dharma. A prince performed them for a bird, with all the care the moment called for. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 67)
Rāma’s words
Rāma said that Jaṭāyu had died in his service, giving his life to defend Sītā. For this, Jaṭāyu would reach the same Vishṇuloka (the abode of Bhagavān Vishṇu) that is reached by those who fall in battle for dharma, by those who perform great yajñas, and by those who practise extraordinary tapas. Jaṭāyu’s death in Rāma’s service was itself the highest tapas and the highest yajña. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 67)
Jaṭāyu rises
From the funeral pyre Jaṭāyu rose. He did not have the old, wounded body that had fallen there. He had a shining, beautiful divine body, a being of pure light and divine splendour. In this form he rose from the earth and went up to Vishṇuloka, the goal Rāma had named for him. Rāma and Lakshmaṇa watched him go. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 68)
In the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa
In the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Jaṭāyu rises in a shining divine body and goes up to Vishṇuloka. The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa says that Jaṭāyu rose in the form of Vaikuṇṭha-sārūpya, the four-armed form of Bhagavān Vishṇu himself. This is sārūpya-mukti, liberation as sameness of form with Bhagavān Vishṇu, and the Vaishṇava tradition counts it as the highest of the four kinds of liberation.
The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa says that Rāma’s own act of performing the complete antima-saṃskāra gave Jaṭāyu more than the goal of Vishṇuloka. Rāma did it with his own hands, named Jaṭāyu, and offered piṇḍa and jala-tarpaṇa. By this Jaṭāyu received the very form of the highest dweller of that world. In the Tulasī account, Bhagavān Śiva tells this to Devī Pārvatī. He presents it as proof that darśana (sight) of Rāma, and service to him, in the time of his avatāra gives the highest liberation in all the worlds. (Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa)
Jaṭāyu and Daśaratha
Jaṭāyu had been the friend of King Daśaratha for many years.
Sources
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 65–68 (finding Jaṭāyu, Chapter 65; Jaṭāyu’s words, Chapter 66; the funeral rites and Rāma’s words, Chapter 67; Jaṭāyu’s rising, Chapter 68)
- Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa