In Ramayana, Jatayu personifies opposition to oppression and abuse
When he saw Ravana, the king of demons, abducting Sita, he swooned into action. He was much inferior to Ravana in physical strength and he knew it, but that didn't obstruct his resistance to ruthless Ravana.
When Adharma is openly demonstrated by demons like Ravana, it becomes impossible for the dharmikly sensitive people to remain mute spectators, act helplessly, intellectually convince oneself of being much weaker in stopping the aggressor or only pray for peace and well being.
Jayatu first requested, then instructed and when neither worked, he induced Ravana to fight him, despite knowing that it would result in his own brutal death.
For Jatayu, not doing what he did was a worse form of adharma than what Ravana did. Being sensitively conscious of dharma, Jatayu preferred to externally die battling Ravana in pursuit of saving mother Sita, than bearing a lifelong internal battle with his conscience and die repeated deaths.
Eventually, Jatayu did fight Ravana till death and reserved his last breath to give crucial information of Sita's whereabouts to Rama, before he peacefully rested in the lap of Rama.
Jatayu could not avoid the battle so he chose the one he knew was dharmik, and avoided battle would prick him with guilt for the rest of his life.
We have the choice to actively resist abuse or be silent like the great Bhishma, Drona and Krpa, who did nothing when Draupadi was abused, and eventually got killed by the very shame of their action.
Jatayu was a seemingly ordinary bird but soared very high in the estimation of God and Godly people. All those who witnessed Draupadi's public humiliation were greatly powerful by all measures, but their wings of dharma were cut off. because they did not resist. And sure enough they fell flat.
Therefore, what counts is not what we are, but what we make of what we are.
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