Vishnu – Garuda – Part 2 – {Ep.178} – Stories From India – Podcast

In this episode, we’re going to continue the story of Garuda, including how he became Vishnu’s vahana. We began this story in the last episode and this is really part 2. So if you haven’t heard the previous one, it might be a good idea to go back and hear that one first. Regardless, here’s a summary of the story so far.

Recap

The Rishi Kashyap who was a Saptarishi had performed some special Yagna to help two of his many wives have the children they wanted. The wives were Kadru wnd Vinata who were also sisters.

Kadru got her wish which was a thousand Snakes – the Nagas. And Vinata asked for two children but due to a miscalculation on her part, she ended up with just one. But it didn’t stop there, she and her unborn son Garuda ended up becoming servants to Kadru and her Nagas, because she lost a bet. It was a bet over the color of a divine horse’s tail, and Kadru and the Nagas won that through deception. The only silver lining for Vinata was that when she returned home, Garuda was born. One glance at him, and all her pessimism evaporated. That’s where we shall continue the story today.

Garuda the Ferry

Garuda, just like his older brother Aruna, had learned some essential life skills even before emerging from his eggshell. How to speak, how to read and write and he had even developed a world view despite not having been out in the world. He had strong views on slavery. That it was an evil and that it must be stopped, and not just because he and Vianta were personally impacted by it.

But despite his personal feelings on slavery, he gave in to his mother’s instructions. Because like all sons in Ancient India, your parents’ words were law. Unless you were Prahlad, I guess. But we’ve covered that before in Episode 20. 

So this fine summer day, when Vinata asked Garuda to help her with the latest order from Kadru, he agreed to help. Kadru wanted to take her children on a picnic. Unfortunately it was not a simple walk in the park. Certainly not for Vinata and Garuda. Because the picnic spot was on an island.

Kadru said she generously invited her sister/servant and nephew/servant to join them. And while they were about it, since said sister and nephew were also their servants, it meant they could transport them all to the island.

“Alright,” grumbled Vinata. “Where’s the boat?”

“Where’s the island?” asked Garuda

Kadru said that the island was in the Indian Ocean. And as for the boat, they had no need for a boat! Why did they think they were invited to join them? Kadru was going to take a cruise. On her sister’s shoulders. Yes! Vinata would have to swim across the ocean, carrying Kadru on her shoulders. And if Vinata was going to grumble about it, she could forget about getting the next Diwali off from her servant duties.

And as for Nagas, they would get to the island by Garuda Airlines. Not the modern Indonesian Flag carrier Airlines which is indeed named Garuda, but the real, Ancient Indian version. Garuda would have to carry his thousand cousins on his body as he flew to the islands. And that’s not all – he would have to provide inflight meal service.

The Nagas burnt!

A thousand snakes crawling all over your body, who would like that? Garuda certainly didn’t like it. And moreover, it was embarrassing that he would have to serve food to his natural food. Because in case you didn’t know, birds of prey like Garuda eat snakes!

Garuda stopped and thought for a second. Yes, he had to follow Kadru’s orders, but nothing said his compliance couldn’t be malicious. So as soon as the thousand Nagas had boarded and before they could even stow away their carry-on bags, he took off. Not like a plane, but like a rocket. Much like his fellow SpaceX Falcons, which by the way is also named after a bird of prey.

You can imagine what happens to cold-blooded creatures like Snakes when they get too high in the atmosphere. The scorching heat from the Sun made it very uncomfortable. Now, you know and I know that modern science tells us that this is not going to happen. It does get pretty cold pretty quickly as you go up in space. But let’s just pretend that the physics was a little different in Ancient India than it is today, and that it did in fact get real hot. After all, that’s what happened to Icarus in Greek Mythology and to Sampati in the Ramayana.

Nagas were getting toasted alive and some of them began to jump off Garuda’s back and into the cool ocean below. Being snakes, they could swim easily enough. Though they were going to complain real loud to their mother that night.

Indra intervenes

Though a few Nagas dropped off, most of them stayed on Garuda’s back and kept getting burned. Kadru was distressed at seeing all this, as any mother might be.

She desperately prayed to Indra for an intervention. Since Indra was the God of Rain, and Lightning and Thunder, it was easy enough for him to intervene. Quickly a bunch of clouds appeared between Garuda and the Sun, which made Garuda shrug and change his mind about burning up all his cousins. Not that he wasn’t ready to fight his way through. But just that he decided his mother and Kadru were probably waiting too long wondering why flying was taking longer than swimming.

Garuda negotiates with the Nagas

So Garuda took his cousins to the island. But he did ask his cousins on the way how Garuda and Vinata could be freed of this forced servitude. It took a while for the Nagas to shake out of the terror of their near-death experience. But seeing as the person asking them the question was the very person who had caused the terror and near-death experience, galvanized htem into a quick answer.

“Lord Garuda sir,” they addressed him, when they explained that only Kadru could release Vinata and Garuda from servitude. 

The obvious follow-up question was what would make Kadru agree to something like that?

“Amrit” said all the Nagas in unison. They explained that Kadru had been wanting the Nagas to drink the nectar of Immortality. If Garuda fetched the Amrit for the Nagas, he and Vinata were practically free.

Garuda seeks Amrit

Amrit, recalled Garuda was the same thing that came out of the churning of the Ocean in back in Episode 51. And he knew that it must be kept in Swarg. So, there was only one thing to do. Go to Swarg and get the Amrit.

Now if you’re asking how Garuda could just walk into Swarg and take the Amrit with him, we’ll need to talk about your expectations. Also, Garuda wouldn’t be walking in to Swarg, he’d need to fly. Because Swarg or Heaven is obviously up in the sky. Somewhere. I can’t tell you the exact location of course. Indra strictly warned me not to, he doesn’t like door-to-door salespeople visiting him and would like to keep the location a secret.

Anyway, if Swarg is in the sky, you can’t keep it a secret from a creature of the sky like Garuda. At least not for long.

So Garuda began his search. He enlarged himself to the size of a mountain so it would be easy to spot Swarg from a distance. On top of that, being eagle-eyed, he noticed his father praying, thousands of kilometers away in the Himalayas. 

Kashyap guides Garuda

Kashyap was just the person Garuda was searching for. Seeing as Kashyap was also the father of all the Devas, he must have his childrens address. Surely, he must have visited Indra and others.

And he had. Kashyap knew exactly where Swarg was and could easily direct Garuda there. But first, he had something important to tell his son. 

Could it be that Kashyap was struggling with the situation of helping his youngest child fight a bunch of other children to make a thousand other snake children immortal? No, that’s not it. What Kashyap had on his mind was Food. He explained that the larger you were, the more energy you burned, and the more sustenance you needed. Very much as the Ant Man discovered in the Marvel movies.

And offers Garuda a snack!

“This is the first time you’re visiting me, you should definitely have a bite to eat” Kashyap told his son. But instead of placing a fruit bowl on the table, or offering him tea and biscuits, Kashyap pointed towards a valley. Garuda looked in that direction and instantly his mouth watered. 

An elephant and a massive Turtle were wrestling. These two creatures were each about the size of a house, easily. And yet, Garuda had no problems swooping down and grabbing each in his talon and carrying them off. Garuda did eat them both up, but it’s a little gory so I’ll skip the details.

Devas defenses break down

With that little snack break, Garuda was ready to go to the directions from Kashyap. He zoomed off eager to get the Amrit before going and finding lunch. Because honestly, the elephant and Turtle were great, but they were more in the appetizers category. After having been in close proximity to his cousins for so long, he really really felt like eating snakes. He wouldn’t eat his cousins. Maybe. Okay, he might eat them as a last resort, but he’d look everywhere else first.

He stormed through the gates of Swarg. The Devas were shocked at being under attack. What happened to the state of the art surveillance system, the electric fence and the turrets with the automated machine guns? Only later they would realize that those were non-functional because someone had accidentally tripped over the main power cord and they had come unplugged. Honestly if I hadn’t been nursing my bruised elbow, I would have taken the extra two seconds to plug everything back in. Who leaves a cord out like that anyway, wherever anyone could trip over it?

Anyway, back to the Devas. They jumped into protection mode. Shooting one weapon after another at the huge shape that was hovering over them. But nothing – not lightning, not arrows, spears or any other weapon made any difference.

When they realized that their weapons were not helping, some Devas began to panic. Soon, all Devas began to panic when Garuda flapped his massive wings. Because those wings were so strong, they kicked up an intense dust storm. No one could see anything.

Vayu the God of Wind had to intervene to clear the dust. But that didn’t help very much as Garuda again swept his wings and sent Devas scattering in every direction. It’s kind of how Sinbad the sailor might have felt when trying to save himself from the giant Roc on one of his seven voyages. I mean Sinbad’s seven voyages, not the Roc’s.

Snakes guarding Amrit

He didn’t have to do that for long, because his eagle eyes quickly spotted what he had come for. An enormous Golden pot at the center of several spinning discs that had sharp blades. The blades seemed so sharp they could have sliced through diamonds like they were butter.

And coiling around the pot of Amrit was what Garuda really wanted. Lunch. There were two huge snakes spitting and hissing in his direction, ready to strike him should he somehow get past the spinning blades.

Garuda emerges victorious

But Garuda did get past the spinning blades, by going right through them. He immediately shrunk himself to such a small size that he could pass through all the empty space in the atoms that the blades were made of. And he could do it without violating any laws, if you don’t believe me just go ask some specialists in Quantum Mechanics.

Garuda got to the center and sprung back to his original size. This allowed him to quickly grab both Snakes by his beak, and it had the side effect of smashing the spinning discs. Garuda loved the Snakes. They were very tasty, though he felt the Green snake would have been even better with some chutney.

With his stomach fully satisfied, Garuda grabbed the pot of Amrit and flew off unopposed.

Vishnu is impressed

Vishnu is one of the holy trinity. He is the preserver of the Universe, just like Brahma is the creator and Shiva, the destroyer. Vishnu was watching all this and was incredibly impressed by Garuda’s strength and powers. But most of all what impressed Vishnu was that despite having the entire pot of Amrit, he hadn’t helped himself to a single drop of it. He wasn’t the conquering person who was going to assume the title of ruler of Swarg or something. All he wanted was to save his mother from servitude. And himself as well, but by extension.

So Vishnu met Garuda mid-flight and made him a very generous job offer. Which Garuda accepted immediately because it’s not everyday that the Preserver of the Universe asks you to be his personal mount. Sure, his brother Arun had secured a pretty decent job as charioteer for the Sun God. But Garuda would be carrying Vishnu himself! The one and only Vishnu! Garuda would get to go everywhere Vishnu went, and he could do his bit to help preserve the Universe. He was looking forward to seeing Arun’s face at the next family get-together when Garuda would announce the sweet gig he had landed.

Confirming that he’d report for duty tomorrow, Garuda flew off towards the island where the Nagas were waiting. But there was another interruption.

Indra makes an appeal

Indra himself appeared. Yes, the very Indra who had tried with all his might and all the might of all the other Devas to battle Garuda. Indra had failed. He clearly accepted that Garuda was stronger. What Indra had to offer now was friendship. If you can’t beat them, join them, Indra figured. And Garuda was more than willing to be friends, and to let bygones be bygones.

“Then,” said Indra, “as a friend to another friend, please give me back my Amrit”

Well, that was something Garuda could not do. And he said so. He needed the Amrit to free his mom and himself.

They brainstormed a bit until finally they hit on a plan. And no, they didn’t just prepare a pot with fake Amrit. The pot had a tamper proof seal.

Garuda is free!

Garuda took the pot straight to the Nagas, while Indra returned to Swarg. Indra hadn’t given up. He instead had returned to fetch his son, Jayant, to do him a little favor.

Garuda meanwhile presented the pot to the Nagas and Kadru. The Snakes were eager to dive in, but Garuda stopped them. First, Kadru had to lift the curse. She gladly did. Vinata almost jumped for joy!

But Garuda had something else in mind too. He asked if the Nagas even bothered to read the instructions on the Amrit? See, it clearly said on the warning label that they must bathe for at least half an hour before consuming Amrit. Oh maybe the warning label must have fallen off somewhere. But they should take Garuda’s word for it. Or bad things would happen.

That made sense, so the Nagas – all thousand of them slithered off to the pond for a long bath.

Kadru kept Vinata and Garuda engaged in conversation as they walked. She obviously didn’t want any funny business while the Nagas were gone.

Jayant the trickster

But funny business is exactly what happened as Kadru, Vinata and Garuda went on their stroll. Jayant, Indra’s son had sneaked in through the window of their shelter, grabbed the pot and gone away.

The Nagas came back and were annoyed, upset, and angry at being cheated out of their Amrit. But they could not blame Garuda or Vinata for it. Garuda simply said tsk-tsked and suggested they invest in some good CCTV cameras to at least identify the culprits if it were to happen again.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

Garuda Airlines is a real deal in Indonesia. Garuda also features prominently in sculptures not just in India, but in Japan and Cambodia.

Jayanta also features in an interesting story in the Ramayana. We’ll cover that story in a future episode.

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

Next week we’ll do a folktale from Himachal Pradesh. It’s a revenge story, featuring an evil stepmother, a dark forest, a tiger who is picky about what it eats, and a King who isn’t picky about who he marries.