या गतिर्यज्ञशीलानामाहिताग्नेश्च या गतिः।
अपरावर्तिनां या च या च भूमिप्रदायिनाम्॥
मया त्वं समनुज्ञातो गच्छ लोकाननुत्तमान्।
गृध्रराज महासत्त्व संस्कृतश्च मया व्रज॥
yā gatir yajña-śīlānām āhitāgneś ca yā gatiḥ
aparāvartināṁ yā ca yā ca bhūmi-pradāyinām
mayā tvaṁ samanujñāto gaccha lokān anuttamān
gṛdhra-rāja mahā-sattva saṁskṛtaś ca mayā vraja
yā gatiḥ = the destination; yajña-śīlānām = of those of good character and who perform sacrifices; āhita-agneḥ ca = of those who keep five fires burning around them; yā gatiḥ= the destination; apara-āvartinām = of those who never return [home after renunciation]; yā ca = the [destination]; yā = the [destination]; ca = and; bhūmi-pradāyinām = of those who have given up earthly comforts; mayā = My; tvam = you; samanujñātaḥ = with permission; gaccha = attain; lokān = worlds; anuttamān = the supreme; gṛdhra-rāja = O king of vultures; mahā-sattva = O great being; saṁskṛtaḥ = purified; ca = too; mayā = by Me; vraja = may attain.
Purified by Me, attain the destination of those of good character and who perform sacrifices, the destination of those who keep five fires burning around them, the [destination] of those who never return [home after renunciation] and [the destination] of those who have given up earthly comforts. O king of vultures, O great being, with My permission, may you attain the supreme worlds too!
1 One can only grant others the celestial worlds that one has himself earned through piety. (One can thus transfer the result of one’s piety to another.) This is a law of nature. Lord Rāmacandra is so truthful that He has earned all the celestial worlds—which He can certainly also give to others. This is the point here. In other words, Lord Rāma’s truthfulness is commensurate with His supremacy. No one can be as truthful as Him and yet benefit others by His truthfulness.
2 In the edition of Narasiṁha Purāṇa published by Uddhavacharya in 1889, the following verse appears as text 49.95—mat-kṛte maraṇaṁ yasmāt tvayā prāptaṁ dvijottama / tasmād rāma-prasādena viṣṇu-lokam avāpsyasi: “[Sītā-devī told Jaṭāyu:] O best of birds, since you have attained death for my sake, by the mercy of Lord Rāma you will attain the abode of Lord Viṣṇu.”
3 Prescribed activities are of two types: (1) Spiritual prescribed activities and (2) material prescribed activities. Bhakti or bhāgavata-dharma falls under the former category while karma or varṇāśrama-dharma falls under the latter category. Under certain terms and conditions, one’s engagement in karma can help one progress in spiritual life. On the basis of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.23.56, Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda has remarked that (1) if one engages in karma with the desire for dharma (which implies that one does not desire to attain artha and kāma in this life), (2) if that desire for dharma is coupled with the desire for vairāgya (which implies that one does not desire to attain artha and kāma in one’s next life), and (3) if that desire for vairāgya is coupled with the desire for bhagavat-prema (which implies that one does not desire impersonal or personal liberation), such engagement in karma is accepted in the scriptures as a secondary means for spiritual progress. This is what is known as bhakty-anukūla-karma while other methods of engaging in karma are bhakti-pratikūla-karma. King Janaka and others referred to by Lord Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā 3.20 engaged in bhakty-anukūla-karma, not bhakti-pratikūla-karma. See Śrīla Bhaktivinoda’s Āmnāya-sūtra 53 and its commentary.
4 One who attains the Supreme Brahman, that is, the Supreme Personality of Godhead attains a bliss that includes the bliss of possessing land and so on. Therefore, one who attains the Supreme Personality of Godhead is considered to have attained land and other material benefits. So, one who attains the supreme worlds of Lord Viṣṇu can be said to have attained the celestial worlds attained by performing fire sacrifices as a gṛhastha-brāhmaṇa and so on.
5 The brahma-medha purificatory rite is performed for deceased brāhmaṇas who had been in good standing.
Yajña-śīlānām (“of those of good character and who perform sacrifices”) refers to gṛhasthas constantly absorbed in performing [fire] sacrifices. Āhitāgneḥ (“of those who keep five fires burning around them”) refers to the vānaprasthas constantly habituated to [the performance of] austerities. Aparāvartinām (“of those who never return [home after renunciation]” refers to the sannyāsīs who have been spoken about in the scriptural text—araṇyam iyāt, tato na punar eyāt: “He should go to the forest and then not return.” Bhūmi-pradāyinām (“of those who have given up earthly comforts”) refers to the naiṣṭhika-brahmacārīs. Lord Rāma tells Jaṭāyu, “Purified by Me, attain these places as ordained in the scriptures.” Lokān anuttamān (“the supreme worlds”) are the abodes of Lord Viṣṇu which are famous in the Śruti 3. They are referred to in the plural number here because there are several regions in Viṣṇuloka.
“How does Śrī Rāma who considers Himself a human grant liberation [to Jaṭāyu here], since that act is a unique feature of the Supreme Being?”
Because satyena lokāñ jayati: “He has conquered [all] the worlds by virtue of His truthfulness.”1 (Rāmāyaṇa 2.12.29)
Some consider that the supreme worlds are themselves the destination of those of good character who perform sacrifices, the destination of those who keep five fires burning around them, [the destination] of those who never return [home after renunciation] and [the destination] of those who have given up earthly comforts [because] the enjoyments of the liberated soul are referred to thus:
so ’śnute sarvān kāmān saha brahmaṇā vipaścitā
“He [who has realized the Supreme Person] enjoys all pleasures along with that omniscient Supreme Person.” (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.1.2)
This is not an instance of unnecessary bestowal of liberation for no reason because there is a reason [for Lord Rāmacandra to grant Jaṭāyu liberation]: Jaṭāyu gave up his life in the mission of Lord Rāma. Therefore, the following statement is found in the Nṛsiṁha Purāṇa:
mat-kṛte nidhanaṁ yasmāt tvayā prāptaṁ dvijottama
tasmān mama prasādena viṣṇu-lokam avāpsyasi
“O best of birds, since you have attained death for my sake, by my mercy you will attain the abode of Lord Viṣṇu!”2
Material prescribed duties have been described as the causes of liberation from material existence [in Bhagavad-gītā thus]:
karmaṇaiva hi saṁsiddhim āsthitā janakādayaḥ
“Even kings like Janaka and others attained the perfectional stage by performance of prescribed duties.”3 (Bhagavad-gītā 3.20)
[But isn’t knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, rather than performance of one’s material prescribed duties the cause of liberation from material existence because of the following Śruti text?
vedāham etaṁ puruṣaṁ mahāntam
āditya-varṇaṁ tamasaḥ parastāt
tam eva viditvāti mṛtyum eti]
nānyaḥ panthā vidyate ’yanāya
“[I know that Supreme Personality of Godhead who is transcendental to all material conceptions of darkness. Only he who knows Him can transcend the bonds of birth and death.] There is no other way for liberation.” (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.8)
[No,] according [to the authorities,] this Śruti text merely states that no one other than the Supreme Soul is the direct cause of liberation because He is the primary subject discussed in this [Śruti] text.
Another possible explanation: Āhitāgneḥ, aparāvartinām and bhūmi-pradāyinām indicate that the king of vultures would attain the destinations of those who attain pious credits by maintaining the three sacrificial fires known as gārhapatya, āhavanīya and dakṣiṇāgni, [the destinations] of those who don’t return from a war, and [the destinations] of those who give land in charity respectively, just as one attains land and so on by attaining the Supreme Brahman.4
Saṁskṛtaḥ also indicates that Jaṭāyu would attain the worlds attained by those fit to engage in yajña and so on by dint of the Lord’s performance of the brahma-medha purificatory rite [for him].5
In some manuscripts, mahā-vrata appears [instead of mayā vraja which indicates that Jaṭāyu had accepted great vows].
NOTE. Regarding the performance of prescribed duties by King Janaka and others referred to herein, Prabhupāda has stated the following in his purport to Bhagavad-gītā 3.20:
Kings like Janaka were all self-realized souls; consequently they had no obligation to perform the prescribed duties in the Vedas. Nonetheless they performed all prescribed activities just to set examples for the people in general. Janaka was the father of Sītā and father-in-law of Lord Śrī Rāma. Being a great devotee of the Lord, he was transcendentally situated, but because he was the king of Mithilā (a subdivision of Bihar province in India), he had to teach his subjects how to perform prescribed duties. Lord Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna, the Lord’s eternal friend, had no need to fight in the Battle of Kurukṣetra, but they fought to teach people in general that violence is also necessary in a situation where good arguments fail. Before the Battle of Kurukṣetra, every effort was made to avoid the war, even by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but the other party was determined to fight. So for such a right cause, there is a necessity for fighting. Although one who is situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness may not have any interest in the world, he still works to teach the public how to live and how to act. Experienced persons in Kṛṣṇa consciousness can act in such a way that others will follow.