Canto 9, Chapter 10, Verse 12
dagdhvātma-kṛtya-hata-kṛtyam ahan kabandhaṁ
sakhyaṁ vidhāya kapibhir dayitā-gatiṁ taiḥ
buddhvātha vālini hate plavagendra-sainyair
velām agāt sa manujo ’ja-bhavārcitāṅghriḥ
Lord Rama, whose Lotus Feet are worshipped by Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva, took the form of a human being. Thus, He conducted the funeral rites of Jatayu, who was killed by Ravana. The Lord then slayed the demon called Kabandha, and after befriending the monkey chiefs, killing Vali and arranging for the return of Sita, He went to the beach of the ocean.
Jatayu was very happy when he saw Rama. At last, the Lord had come to release him. Jatayu was actually a gandharva who had been cursed. When Bhagavan incarnates, He has the power to remove all curses. Jatayu was dying, so when he saw the Lord, he said, “Ah, finally, Lord, You have come! Have mercy on this poor soul!” Then Rama asked Jatayu, “Who has done this to you?” Jatayu replied, “It was a cruel demon called Ravana. He was abducting a lady, and I tried to stop him, but I could not. He cut me into pieces.” At that moment, Rama realised what had happened to Sita. He told Lakshman, “Now we know where we have to go. Lanka is our aim.” They cremated Jatayu, and the gandharva was released from the curse. He regained his true divine aspect, and went back to heaven.
Afterwards, Rama and Lakshman walked deep into the forest and approached the place where Hanuman and Sugriva were, in Andhra Pradesh. When Hanuman and Sugriva saw two beautiful men walking in the forest, they started wondering what they were doing there. They thought, “They must be some demons in disguise.” So Sugriva asked Hanuman, “Go and see who they are.” Hanuman transformed Himself and went to meet them. Upon meeting Hanuman, Rama told Hanuman, “I am Rama, king of Ayodhya.” When Hanuman realised that it was truly Rama there in front of Him, He could not control His joy. At that moment, He transformed Himself back into His Hanuman form, and bowed down to Sri Rama. Rama had been His Lord since He was a child. The first word that He had ever heard was Rama. His Master was Rama. He had been chanting the Name of Rama throughout His whole life, long before meeting Him, so He had great devotion for Rama.
Hanuman took Rama to Sugriva. Sugriva told Rama that he had a twin brother called Vali, who had abducted his wife, and who was always fighting with him. He asked Rama, “Can you please help me kill Vali? He is so arrogant, but I can’t kill him.” So Rama said, “Yes.”
Soon, Vali came again to beat up Sugriva, his younger brother. He was very proud, because he had also taken his wife. Vali said, “How shameful! You call yourself strong?!” Vali was beating on Sugriva, but everyone was waiting for Rama to shoot an arrow and kill Vali. As Sugriva and Vali were twins, and they looked so much alike, Rama did not know who was Vali, and who was Sugriva, and so He didn’t shoot.
Due to this confusion, Sugriva returned back to his kingdom all beaten up. Sugriva asked Rama, “Why did you let me get beaten up?” Rama said, “I couldn’t recognise you! You look so much alike. You dress the same way.”
Like this, when you are deluded, you can’t see the difference between true reality and the illusion. So Rama advised Sugriva, “Next time, please, dress a bit differently and wear a garland!”
Next day, he went and tried to fight Vali again. Vali said, “Huh? You have come again? Yesterday was not enough? Come! This time I will kill you!” So they fought, but this time Rama shot the arrow and killed Vali. While Vali was dying he said, “Aaagh! Who shot this arrow?” Then Rama came and said, “I shot the arrow. I was protecting Sugriva.”
Here, illusion was destroyed, and the reality was saved. When one is surrendered to the Lord, the Lord removes that delusion from your mind. In the end, Vali recognised Rama as the Supreme Lord. Before dying, he bowed down to Him and said, “I am fortunate that the Lord Himself has killed me.” Bhagavan blessed him and sent him to heaven.
Rama stayed there with Sugriva and Hanuman and inquired if they had heard anything about Sita. They said, “Yes, we saw something flying around. We were sitting, enjoying ourselves and something fell from heaven on us.” Then, they brought the bundle and showed it to Rama. When Rama saw it, He said, “That’s the jewellery I gave to Sita!” Now, Rama knew that they were on the right track. Sita Herself had left behind a sign.
Meanwhile, Sugriva was crowned king. In order to express his gratitude to Rama for His help, Sugriva said, “We will always stand by You. No matter what, my entire army of monkeys will help You.” Please note that these monkeys are all devas from heaven. When Narayana said that He would incarnate as Rama to deliver the world, all the devas came down to participate in His Leela. Even Brahma incarnated as Jambavan, the king of bears, and Shiva incarnated as Hanuman.
On the way to rescue Sita, to attain the spiritual wealth, one goes through many steps of purification. Thus, on the way they found Ahilya who had been cursed by her husband. Once Indra disguised himself as Sage Gautama, the husband of Ahilya, and went inside the house with her. So when Sage Gautama came and saw Indra with his wife, he became very angry and cursed her. He told Ahilya, “You should turn into a stone.” But, then he softened and said, “Look, because it was not your fault, the Lord Himself will come and deliver you.” Therefore, while passing by, Rama made a detour. Sugriva said to Rama, “This is the way.” But Rama told him, “No, I have to go over here! My bhakta is waiting for Me there. I have to fulfil the wish of a sage.” Sage Gautama said that the Lord would deliver Ahilya, and the Lord never forgets anything. So He made a detour, went to Gautama’s ashram and touched the stone with His Feet. The moment the stone was touched by the Feet of Lord Rama, the curse was destroyed and Ahilya was freed.
Usually people are happy in their own world. They don’t want to know anything about somebody else. So the heart becomes like stone. The heart softens only when is touched with the pure Love for God. When it is touched with bhakti, with devotion, the heart softens and then from there, Love will grow. But first the heart has to melt. So Ahilya was softened and purified. At that moment, Sage Gautama and Ahilya were present in front of the Lord and the Lord blessed them both.