Curse of Jay and Vijay (Lord's Gatekeepers.)

Once, when the four sons of Lord Brahma named Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana and Sanat-kumara were wandering throughout the three worlds, they came to Vishnu loka. Although these four great sages were older than Brahma's other sons, they appeared like small naked children only five or six years old. After passing through the six entrances of Vaikuntha Puri, the Lord's residence, they saw at the seventh gate two shining beings, armed with maces and adorned with most valuable jewelry, earrings and diamonds. 

The two gatekeepers were garlanded with fresh flowers which attracted intoxicated bees and which were placed around their necks and between their four blue arms. When the gatekeepers, Jaya and Vijaya, saw the sages trying to enter Vaikunthaloka, they thought them as ordinary children and forbade them to enter. Thus Sanandana and the other great sages, who very angrily cursed Jaya and Vijaya. "You two foolish doorkeepers," they said. "Being agitated by the material qualities of passion and ignorance, you are unfit to live at the shelter of the Lord's lotus feet, which are free from such modes. It would be better for you to go immediately to the material world and take birth in a family of most sinful asura.

         

  While Jaya and Vijaya, thus cursed by the sages, were falling to the material world, they  were addressed as follows by the same sages, who were very kind to them. "0    doorkeepers,   after three births you will be able to return to your positions in Vaikutha for    then the duration of the curse will have ended."

These two associates of the Lord Jaya and Vijaya later descended to the material world, taking birth as the two sons of Diti, Hirayakasipu being the elder and Hiranyaksa  the younger. They were very much respected by the Daityas and Danvas. Lord Vishnu himself taken avtar of Narsimhma and Lord Varah to kill Hirankasipu and hiranyaksa respectively.

Thereafter the same Jaya and Vijaya, the two doorkeepers of Lord Vishnu, took birth as Ravana and Kumbhakarna, begotten by Visravi in the womb of Kesini. They were extremely   troublesome to all the people of the universe. Just to relieve Jaya and Vijaya of the brahmanas curse, Lord Ramacandra appeared in order to kill Ravana and Kumbhakarna.

In their last birth, Jaya and Vijaya did not become demons or Rakshasas. Instead they took birth as Shishupala and Dantvakra in a very exalted ksatriya family related to Krishna’s family. They became first cousins of Lord Krishna and were practically on an equal footing with Him. By personally killing them with His own disc, Lord Krishna destroyed whatever sinful reactions were left in them because of the curse of the Brahmans.

These two associates of Lord Vishnu Jaya and Vijaya maintained a feeling of enmity for a very long time. Because of always thinking of Krishna in this way, they regained the shelter of the Lord, having returned home, back to Godhead.

                                                                                              

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