स तत्र सीतां परिदाय मैथिलीं सहैव तेनातिबलेन पक्षिणा।
जगाम तां पञ्चवटीं सलक्ष्मणो रिपून्दिधक्षञ्शलभानिवानलः॥
sa tatra sītāṁ paridāya maithilīṁ
sahaiva tenātibalena pakṣiṇā
jagāma tāṁ pañcavaṭīṁ salakṣmaṇo
ripūn didhakṣañ śalabhān ivānalaḥ
saḥ = He; tatra sītām = Sītā; paridāya = having arranged [for Jaṭāyu] to protect; maithilīm = of Mithilā; saha eva = with; tena = the; atibalena = very powerful; pakṣiṇā = bird; jagāma = went; tām pañcavaṭīm = to Pañcavaṭī; sa-lakṣmaṇaḥ = and Lakṣmaṇa; ripūn = His enemies; didhakṣan = while desiring to burn up; śalabhān = [that desires to burn up] grasshoppers; iva = like; analaḥ = the fire.
Having arranged [for Jaṭāyu] to protect Sītā of Mithilā, He went to Pañcavaṭī with the very powerful bird and Lakṣmaṇa while desiring to burn up His enemies like the fire [that desires to burn up] grasshoppers.1
[1] puṇyaṁ tu cāru. (Amara)
1 Rāmāyaṇa-bhūṣaṇa: sītāṁ tatra paridāya rakṣaṇāya jaṭāyu-vaśāṁ kṛtvety arthaḥ. “yamāya tvā paridāmy asāv antakāya tvā paridadāmy asau” ityādau tathā-prayogāt.
“Like the fire [that desires to burn up] grasshoppers indicates that Lord Rāma intended to sportingly uproot His obstructors.
NOTE. Lord Rāmacandra engaged the vulture Jaṭāyu in the service of protecting Sītā-devī. The Lord does not discriminate between the various species of life in bestowing upon them the opportunity to serve Him. Prabhupāda notes this as follows:
The brāhmaṇa and the outcaste may be different from the social point of view, or a dog, a cow, and an elephant may be different from the point of view of species, but these differences of body are meaningless from the viewpoint of a learned transcendentalist. This is due to their relationship to the Supreme, for the Supreme Lord, by His plenary portion as Paramātmā, is present in everyone’s heart... As far as the bodies are concerned in different castes or different species of life, the Lord is equally kind to everyone because He treats every living being as a friend yet maintains Himself as Paramātmā regardless of the circumstances of the living entities. The Lord as Paramātmā is present both in the outcaste and in the brāhmaṇa, although the body of a brāhmaṇa and that of an outcaste are not the same. The bodies are material productions of different modes of material nature, but the soul and the Supersoul within the body are of the same spiritual quality. The similarity in the quality of the soul and the Supersoul, however, does not make them equal in quantity, for the individual soul is present only in that particular body whereas the Paramātmā is present in each and every body. (Bhagavad-gītā 5.18 purport)
The vulture Jaṭāyu is acknowledged by Lord Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.12.3-6) as one of the living entities who had achieved His abode by association with His devotees. In their commentary to these Bhāgavatam verses, Prabhupāda’s disciples note:
Jaṭāyu, the bird who at the cost of his own life assisted Lord Rāmacandra, associated with Śrī Garuḍa and Mahārāja Daśaratha as well as other devotees in rāma-līlā. He also personally met with Sītā and Lord Rāma.