Jaya and Vijaya, Door-keepers of Vaikuṇṭha

Jaya-Vijaya · jaya-vijaya, “victory and triumph”

Kāma has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kāma. Vimāna has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vimāna. Vijaya has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vijaya. Jaya has other meanings too: see all meanings of Jaya.

Jaya and Vijaya are the two door-keepers of Śrī Hari, the attendants (pārshadas) who guard the seventh gate of Vaikuṇṭha. They are four-armed and dark blue like Śrī Hari himself. When they barred the four Kumāras, Sanaka and his brothers, from the darśana of Śrī Hari, the Kumāras pronounced a śāpa (a curse) on them: to leave Vaikuṇṭha and be born in births full of pāpa. The two accepted it with humility and asked only that they never lose the remembrance of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Śrī Hari himself told them that the śāpa was his own will, that they would be born as rākshasas holding a fury of enmity towards him, and that this very enmity would fix their minds on him and bring them back soon.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells of their three births. They were born to Diti as Hiraṇyāksha and Hiraṇyakaśipu; again as the rākshasas Rāvaṇa and Kumbhakarṇa, slain by Śrī Rāma; and last as Śiśupāla and Dantavakra, who merged into Śrī Kṛshṇa. Brahmā tells the devas their account, and Nārada Maharshi tells it again to Yudhishṭhira.

The two door-keepers

Brahmā told the devas of Vaikuṇṭha. The Kumāras, in their eagerness for the darśana of Śrī Hari, passed through six gates in the walls without looking at the beauty around them, and no door-keeper stopped them. At the seventh gate stood two devas of the same age, keeping guard with gadās (maces). They wore costly ornaments, armlets, kuṇḍalas (earrings) and kirīṭas (crowns), and fine dress. Round their necks hung the vanamālā, the forest-garland, which drew bees to it, falling between their four dark-blue arms. On their faces, with knitted brows, swollen nostrils and red eyes, a little irritation could be seen. The gates were of gold, set with diamonds.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 15

The śāpa of the Kumāras

The four Kumāras were digambaras, sky-clad; old as they were, they looked like boys of five, and they knew the truth of the ātmā (the Self). They went in without heeding the two door-keepers, as they had passed the other gates. But the two, of a nature contrary to Śrī Hari, took the radiance of the maharshis for arrogance, mocked them and barred them with a cane before the eyes of the other devas of Vaikuṇṭha. The longing of the maharshis for darśana was broken, and a little anger entered them.

The munis said: “You live here having worshipped Śrī Hari, so his qualities should be in you. He has equal vision, but you have a crooked nature. He is supreme peace; there is no quarrel in him. The whole universe is in him, and he is in all beings as the ātmā. If one sees even a little difference, fear arises. Whence comes this fear in you for him?” Then they gave the śāpa: “Because you hold the vision of difference, leave this Vaikuṇṭha and go to births full of pāpa, where jīvas have three enemies, kāma (desire), krodha (anger) and lobha (greed).”

Hearing it, the two attendants were afraid. At once they fell to the ground in humility and held the feet of the maharshis. “You have rightly punished the offenders,” they said. “By undergoing it our fault will be wholly removed. We now go to a low birth. But let not even a trace of this pāpa bring us a delusion that blocks the remembrance of Śrī Hari.”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 15

Śrī Hari’s words and their fall

In that same moment Padmanābha Śrī Hari knew of his servants’ offence and came there on foot with Lakshmīdevī. He cast his loving glance on the maharshis and on the door-keepers alike, and the Kumāras praised him. Then Śrī Hari named the two: “These two, Jaya and Vijaya, who have come under your śāpa, are my attendants. In mocking you they have mocked me, and I approve the punishment you have given. Not knowing my resolve, they offended you and at once reap its fruit. Bless them that their separation from me ends soon; I bless them that they may come back to me.”

The Kumāras answered that whatever punishment or reward he gave the two, they approved it, and asked a fitting punishment for themselves, for they had pronounced a śāpa on two who were without fault. Śrī Hari said: “These two will at once take birth as rākshasas and hold a fury of anger towards me. That will make their minds one-pointed on me and grow as yoga, and they will soon return to my presence. Know that you gave the śāpa by my own prompting.”

When the maharshis had gone, Śrī Hari said to his two attendants: “Go. Do not fear. May good come to you. I have the power to set aside a brāhmaṇa’s śāpa, but I do not wish to, for this śāpa too is my will. Once, when I was in yoganidrā, you stopped Lakshmīdevī at the door as she came in, and she pronounced this very śāpa on you. By holding anger towards me without break, you will lose the pāpa of having refused the brahmavettās (knowers of Brahman), and in a short time you will return to me.”

Then Jaya and Vijaya, the best among devas, lost their splendour while still in Vaikuṇṭha and fell, and their pride left them. As they fell, those who live in the finest vimānas cried out “hā, hā”. The two entered the garbha of Diti and took on the fearful tejas of Kaśyapa, and as twin rākshasas their tejas darkened the worlds.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 16

Their three births

When Bhagavān Varāha slew Hiraṇyāksha, Brahmā and the others said: “These two, Hiraṇyāksha and Hiraṇyakaśipu, were formerly the Vishṇu-pārshadas Jaya and Vijaya. Through the śāpa of Sanaka and the other maharshis they received this rākshasa birth. After some such births they will again attain their own place.”

At the Rājasūya of Yudhishṭhira, Nārada Maharshi told him the three births in order. The two attendants of Vishṇu were born as the sons of Diti and were killed with Śrī Hari held firmly in their hearts through enmity. Again, by the śāpa of the Sanaka brothers, they were born as the rākshasas Kumbhakarṇa and Rāvaṇa, and mighty Śrī Rāma killed both; when his arrows split their hearts, they gave up their bodies remembering him alone. Then, in this present time, they were born as Śiśupāla and Dantavakra and kept up their enmity towards Śrī Hari without break, and before Yudhishṭhira’s eyes they merged into him. When Śiśupāla was slain, a light rose from his body like a meteor and entered Śrī Kṛshṇa as all beings watched, for he had kept enmity for three births and so meditated only on Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. Śuka recalls there that the Kumāras gave Jaya and Vijaya of Vaikuṇṭha the śāpa, “Be born again and again”.

In the line of Śūra, Śuka names Vijaya as the one under the Kumāras’ śāpa who was born as Hiraṇyāksha, the son of Diti, and was born again from Śrutadevā, the sister of Kuntī and wife of Vṛddhaśarmā of Karūsha, as Dantavakra.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 19; Skandha 7, Chapter 10; Skandha 9, Chapter 24; Skandha 10, Chapter 74

At the yajña of Bali

When Bhagavān Vāmana had taken the worlds from Bali and the rākshasas who followed Bali rushed at him with śūlas and swords, the attendants of Vishṇu stopped them, each with the strength of ten thousand elephants: Nanda, Sunanda, Jaya, Vijaya, Bala, Prabala, Kumuda, Kumudāksha, Vishvaksena, Garutmān the king of birds, Jayanta, Śrutadeva, Pushpadanta and Sātvata. They cut down the rākshasa army.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapter 21

Sources

• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapters 15–16, 19; Skandha 7, Chapter 10; Skandha 8, Chapter 21; Skandha 9, Chapter 24; Skandha 10, Chapter 74