एवमुक्ताः सुराः सर्वे प्रत्यूचुर्विष्णुमव्ययम्।
मानुषीं तनुमास्थाय रावणं जहि संयुगे॥
evam uktāḥ surāḥ sarve pratyūcur viṣṇum avyayam
mānuṣīṁ tanum āsthāya rāvaṇaṁ jahi saṁyuge
evam = thus; uktāḥ = being addressed; surāḥ = of the demigods; sarve = all; pratyūcuḥ = replied to; viṣṇum = Lord Viṣṇu; avyayam = the inexhaustible; mānuṣīm = a humanlike; tanum = body; āsthāya = accepting; rāvaṇam = Rāvaṇa; jahi = kill; saṁyuge = in war.
Being addressed thus, all of the demigods replied to the inexhaustible Lord Viṣṇu: Accepting a humanlike body, kill Rāvaṇa in war.
1 “Humanlike body” is our rendering of mānuṣīṁ tanum, for the Supreme Lord does not accept any material body—human or celestial or of any other type. This concurs with the teaching of Bhagavad-gītā (9.11): avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam / paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mama bhūta-maheśvaram: “Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be.”
They requested Him to accept a humanlike body, not a celestiallike body.1