One who reads attentively the pastime of Jaya and Vijaya “falling” from the spiritual world and becoming Ravana and Hiranyakashipu, Ravana and Kumbhakarna and Sisupala and Dantavakra, taking birth as demons for three lives before going back to Vaikunta can have a lot of questions.
1- First of all, how can Jaya and Vijaya become demons if no one falls from Vaikunta?
2- It’s narrated that they had to come as demons because Lord Vishnu wanted to fight. This appears to contradict statements about the affection of the Lord for His devotees.
3- We hear that demons who are killed by Krsna attain liberation. Why then they had to take birth as demons for three lives (and be killed by the Lord three times) before finally attaining liberation?
4- Lord Nrshihadeva, as well as Lord Varaha, Lord Rama, and Krsna Himself appear every day of Brahma. Does this mean that Vaya and Vijaya have to repeatedly be cursed and come to the material world as demons to fight with the Lord?
These questions are answered by Srila Rupa Goswami in the Laghu Bhagavatamrta.
He mentions that Jaya and Vijaya, being the strongest servants in Vaikunta, had the desire to see the strength of the Lord, and the Lord reciprocated their desire by also desiring to fight with them and thus organizing the whole pastime with the Kumaras. It’s true that they were cursed to become demons because the Lord desired to fight with them, but the desire of the Lord appeared as a reciprocation of their own desire to fight the Lord. Srila Rupa Goswami mentions that the Lord is dependent on the desire of His devotees.
Their “fall” from Vaikunta is not a “fall” but just a pastime organized by the Lord to satisfy this desire of His associates. It’s not possible to fight in Vaikunta, where no one is inimical to the Lord, therefore such a pastime could happen only in the material world. Jaya and Vijaya however were never separated from the Lord, because they were able to constantly meditate in the Lord in anger. This point is also emphasized by Srila Prabhupada in his purports on the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Srila Rupa Goswami also explains that Hiranyakashipu didn’t attain liberation when he was killed by Lord Nrsimhadeva because he didn’t see Him as the Lord, but rather as a powerful living entity who had come to fight him. Because of this, He didn’t attain the intense attraction and meditation in the Lord necessary to attain liberation. Instead, he attained a lot of material enjoyment (in his next life as Ravana) as a result of being killed by the Lord.
Srila Rupa Goswami comments that, “One can absorb one’s mind in an object either by accepting it as the most wonderful object or as the most detested object. Because Hiraṇyakaśipu did not see Nṛsiṁha either way, he did not absorb his mind in Nṛsiṁha. By this absorption alone one attains liberation. He did not make Nṛsiṁha (tasmin) the object of absorption (anālambinī kṛte), and thus his mind could not be absorbed in Nṛsiṁha.”
Similarly, as Ravana, he saw Sita as just an attractive woman, as not as Lakshmi, and similarly he saw Lord Rama as just a powerful human being. Because of this, he again didn’t attain liberation but got huge opulence in his next life as Sisupala. The same happened with Vijaya in his lives as Hiranyaksha and Kumbhakarna.
Srila Rupa Goswami further mentions that sāmānya-darśanāl lokā muktir yogyātma-darśanāt: if one sees the Lord as a human, one gains heavenly planets, but if one sees him as the Lord, one attains liberation. (Nārāyaṇa-tantra). When a person does not see the Lord as the Lord, His transcendental form becomes covered for them, and as a result they attain just ordinary pious results for being killed by the Lord.
In this way, only in their last births as Sisupala and Dantavakra were they able to fully absorb their minds in Krsna, finally attaining liberation and returning to their eternal position. Naturally, all of this happened by the will of the Lord, although there are other external causes.
“Abusing Kṛṣṇa by his names and holding his form in his heart, Śiśupāla, freed from the fault of hatred, finally saw the Lord with a brilliant indestructible form, glowing with rays of his cakra held in his hand and meant for killing him. Killed quickly by the cakra of the Lord, and having his piles of sin burned by remembrance of the Lord, he was brought to the Lord and enjoyed the embrace of the Lord.” (LB 5.47-48)
For the final question, if Jaya and Vijaya have to come in every Kalpa to fight with the Lord, Srila Rupa Goswami concludes: “Thus, one should not think that in all kalpas the associates of the Lord fall from Vaikuṇṭha and become Hiraṇyakaśipu. If they were always associates, it would not be proper to have them fall in every kalpa.” (LB 5.51)
Although lord Nrsinghadeva, Lord Varaha, Lord Rama, and Krsna Himself come in every day of Brahma, they normally fight with regular demons. The pastime of fighting with Jaya and Vijaya is just an occasional occurrence. This is illustrated by the surprise of Pariksit Maharaja when he heard that two of the eternal associates of the Lord had come to this material world and taken birth as demons. That’s not something that happens every day.