NOTE. Jaṭāyu’s idea is to first of all appeal to Rāvaṇa’s intelligence and activate it if possible. And he does this while flattering Rāvaṇa (just in case it helps).

This brings to mind a verse from Śrīla Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī that Śrīla Prabhupāda often quoted:

dante nidhāya tṛṇakaṁ padayor nipatya
kṛtvā ca kāku-śatam etad ahaṁ bravīmi
he sādhavaḥ sakalam eva vihāya dūrād
caitanya-candra-caraṇe kurutānurāgam

“Taking a straw between my teeth and falling at your feet a hundred times, I humbly submit, ‘O great personality, please give up all mundane knowledge that you have learned and just submit yourself at the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.’” (Caitanya-candrāmṛta 90)

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has noted in his explanation to the above verse that Triḍaṇḍī Gosvāmīs who spread the message of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu should rigidly adhere to the following instruction of the Lord:

tṛṇād api su-nīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā
amāninā māna-dena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

“One who thinks himself lower than the grass, who is more tolerant than a tree, and who does not expect personal honor yet is always prepared to give all respect to others can always glorify Lord Hari.” (Śikṣāṣṭaka 3)

Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has also elaborately explained what the above verse by Lord Caitanya means and what it does not mean in an article entitled “Humbler than a blade of grass” in his journal Harmonist (April 1929), an excerpt of which is as follows:

A chanter of the kīrtana of Hari is necessarily the uncompromising enemy of worldliness and hypocrisy. As chanter of the kīrtana of Hari it is his constant function to dispel all misconception by the preaching of the truth in the most unambiguous form without any respect of person, place or time. That form has to be adopted which is least likely to be misunderstood. It is his bounden duty to oppose clearly and frankly any person who tries to deceive and harm himself and other people by misrepresenting the Truth due to malice or bona fide misunderstanding. This will be possible if the chanter of kīrtana is always prepared to submit to be trodden by thoughtless people if any discomfort will enable him to do good to his persecutors by chanting the Truth in the most unambiguous manner. If he is unwilling or afraid from considerations of self-respect or personal discomfort to chant kīrtana under all circumstances, he is unfit to be a preacher of the Absolute Truth. Humility implies perfect submission to the Truth and no sympathy for untruth. A person who entertains any partiality for untruth is unfit to chant the kīrtana of Hari. Any cringing to untruth is opposed to the principle of humility born of absolute submission to the Truth.

That which passes under the name of humility in the world is to be carefully avoided by the chanter of the kīrtana of Hari.

Not surprisingly, Prabhupāda himself is an excellent example of this precept in action and we request our readers to read his biography entitled Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta to understand how he successfully applied this instruction.¹

Another point to note is that the wife of a king is one of the seven kinds of mothers:

There are seven kinds of mothers:

ātma-mātā guroḥ patnī brāhmaṇī rāja-patnikā
dhenur dhātrī tathā pṛthvī saptaitā mātaraḥ smṛtāḥ

These mothers are the original mother, the wife of the teacher or spiritual master, the wife of a brāhmaṇa, the king’s wife, the cow, the nurse and the earth. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.12.8 purport)

Since Sītā-devī is Lord Rāma’s wife and since Lord Rāma is the king of all including Rāvaṇa, abducting one’s king’s wife is as abominable as trying to establish an illicit relationship with one’s own mother.²