Jaya and Vijaya

Chapter 1

When Maharaja Pariksit heard that Sisupala and Dantavakra were associates of the Lord who fell from the eternal world, he enquired further. Sukadeva Goswami thus explained the story of Jaya and Vijaya by narrating a conversation between Maharaja Yuddhistira and Narada Muni that took place just after Sisupala’s death.

Once, when the Four Kumaras were entering Vaikuntha, the two gatekeepers, Jaya and Vijaya, refused them entry. Offended by their behaviour, the saintly sons of Brahma cursed the gatekeepers to descend to the material world as demons. They later became Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa in Satya-yuga, Ravana and Kumbhakarna in Treta-yuga, and Sisupala and Dantavakra at the end of Dvaparayuga. After these three demoniac births they re-entered the spiritual world.