Jatayu's Eagerness to Serve

Radhanath Swami

It would have been very easy for Jatayu to just allow Ravana to fly overhead and remain silent and think justify within his heart ‘I am too old, there is no one to help me, there is nothing that I can do’. After all there was no one also around to criticize him if he would have just allowed Ravana to carry on with his activities, no one would have ever known that he even saw the scene. Certainly, Jatayu was quite aware that he had very little chance of defeating this great asura in battle. But he had a heart of a pure devotee and therefore, his meditation was that ‘whether I conquer or I am conquered is not what is important but that every last drop of energy in my life is dedicated in the service of Lord Sri Ram’ that is my only concern.