He who does not earn the goodwill of Shiva, O sage, shall never attain true devotion to me. Bearing this in mind, go and wander through the earth. My illusion shall haunt you no more.”

Having thus reassured the sage, the Lord then disappeared, and Narada departed to Satyaloka (the seventh paradise, Brahma’s realm), singing Rama’s praises as he went.

When Shiva’s henchmen saw the sage walking on the road, freed from illusion and full of inward joy, they approached him in great alarm and, clasping his feet, spoke to him in great humility:

“We are Shiva’s servants, not Brahmans, O great sage! We committed a great sin and have reaped its fruit. Now rid us of the curse, O benevolent Lord!” Narada, who has compassion on the humble, replied,

“Go you both and be born as demons of enormous fortune, grandeur and might. When you shall have subdued the universe by the might of your arm, Vishnu shall take a human form.

Dying in battle at Hari’s hands, you shall be liberated and shall never be born again.” After bowing their heads at the sage’s feet, both departed and in due course were born as demons.

In one aeon it was for this reason that Lord Hari assumed a human form, to gladden the gods, to delight the virtuous, and to relieve the earth of its burdens.