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Dear sri vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

 

We saw for whose sake garuda is set to bring amirtham from the custody of dhEvEndhran. It is – just recalling - For getting his mother vinathaa released from slavery, as per orders of the snakes, garudan set himself out to bring amirtham.

 

Quote –

Section 28 of aasthika parvam -- Sauti said, 'Garuda, thus addressed by the snakes, then said unto his mother, 'I shall go to bring amritam, I desire to eat something in the way. Direct me to it.' Vinata replied, 'In a remote region in the midst of the ocean, the Nishadas have their fair home. Having eaten the 1000s of Nishadas that live there, bring thou amrita".

 

Point: Dear readers, now see the difference – here comes nishaadhas, wherein they are eaten by garuda as per mother's guidance for appeasing his hunger. Whereas in raamayaaNam, nishaadhaas are killed by falling branch of banyan tree subhadhra. May be – that variation is due to raavaNa recollecting garudan's feats, as stated by vaalmeeki. But here in bhaaratham, it is a continuous story in aasthika parvam.

 

Continuing – while mother vinathaa said 'eat nishaadhas', she also cautioned garuda not to eat any braahmaNaas living there. Garuda incidentally picked one braahamaNa and his nishaadha wife. – [so kalapputh thirumaNam then itself].  When garuda realized that he is about to swallow a braahmaNa, he allowed the braahmaNa and his wife to come out from his mouth. After that, he flew to sky, still not fully appeased from hunger.

 

While in sky towards indhra lokam he meets father kaasyapa – during that meeting only when garuda asked – 'eating nishadhas was not sufficient, dear father, tell me where I can get some more food', kasyapa said about elephant and tortoise. And he blessed garuda about the 4 vedhaas to be garuda's strength etc. That portion of eating etc, we have already seen.

 

When garuda was thus advancing in the sky, realizing his arrival brihaspathi, the dhEva guru, cautioned indhra about garudan's coming and wanting to take away the amirtham. Then Indhra cautioned all guards. But when garuda really came, all the guards including the powerful vaayu, the wind god, and aadhithyaas et al, were easily defeated by garuda. 

 

Quote – 32nd section of aashthika parvam -- "And Garuda, depriving them of life, [the the Yakshas, Aswakranda of great courage, Rainuka, the bold Krathanaka, Tapana, Uluka, Swasanaka, Nimesha, Praruja, and Pulina] and then went to where the amrita was. And he saw that it was surrounded on all sides by fire. And the terrible flames of that fire covered the entire sky. And moved by violent winds, they seemed bent on burning the Sun himself.

 

The illustrious Garuda then assumed 90 times 90 mouths and quickly drinking the waters of many rivers with those mouths and returning with great speed, that chastiser of enemies, having wings for his vehicle extinguished that fire with that water. And extinguishing that fire, he assumed a very small form, desirous of entering into (the place where the Soma was)."

 

Section 33 -- Sauti said, 'And that bird, assuming a golden body bright as the rays of the Sun, entered with great force (the region where the Soma was), like a torrent entering the ocean. And he saw, placed near the Soma, a wheel of steel keen-edged, and sharp as the razor, revolving incessantly. And that fierce instrument, of the splendour of the blazing sun and of terrible form, had been devised by the gods for cutting in pieces all robbers of the Soma.

 

Garuda, seeing a passage through it, stopped there for a moment. Diminishing his body, in an instant he passed through the spokes of that wheel. Within the line of the wheel, he beheld, stationed there for guarding the Soma 2 great snakes of the effulgence of blazing fire, with tongues bright as the lightning-flash, of great energy, with mouth emitting fire, with blazing eyes, containing poison, very terrible, always in anger, and of great activity. Their eyes were ceaselessly inflamed with rage and were also wink less. He who may be seen by even one of the 2 would instantly be reduced to ashes.

 

The bird of fair feathers suddenly covered their eyes with dust. And unseen by them he attacked them from all sides. And the son of Vinata, that ranger of the skies, attacking their bodies, mangled them into pieces. He then approached the Soma without loss of time. Then the mighty son of Vinata, taking up the Amrita from the place where it was kept, rose on his wings with great speed, breaking into pieces the machine that had surrounded it. And the bird soon came out, taking the Amrita but without drinking it himself. And he then wended on his way without the least fatigue, darkening the splendour of the Sun.

 

And the son of Vinata then met Vishnu on his way along the sky. And Narayana was gratified at that act of self-denial on the part of Garuda. And that deity, knowing no deterioration, said unto the ranger of the skies, 'O, I am inclined to grant thee a boon.'

 

The ranger of the skies thereupon said, 'I shall stay above thee.' And he again spake unto Narayana these words, 'I shall be immortal and free from disease without (drinking) Amrita.'

 

Vishnu said unto the son of Vinata, 'Be it so.'

 

Garuda, receiving those 2 boons, told Vishnu, 'I also shall grant thee a boon; therefore, let the possessor of the 6 attributes ask of me.' Vishnu then asked the mighty Garuda to become his carrier.

 

And he made the bird sit on the flagstaff of his car, saying, 'Even thus thou shalt stay above me.' And the ranger of the skies, of great speed, saying unto Narayana, 'Be it so,' swiftly wended on his way, mocking the wind with his fleetness.

 

"And while that foremost of all rangers of the skies, that 1st of winged creatures, Garuda, was coursing through the air after wresting the Amrita, Indra hurled at him his thunderbolt. Then Garuda, the lord of birds, struck with thunderbolt, spake laughingly unto Indra engaged in the encounter, in sweet words, saying, 'I shall respect the Rishi (Dadhichi) of whose bone the Vajra hath been made. I shall also respect the Vajra, and thee also of a 1000 sacrifices. I cast this feather of mine whose end thou shalt not attain. Struck with thy thunder I have not felt the slightest pain.'

 

And having said this, the king of birds cast a feather of his. And all creatures became exceedingly glad, beholding that excellent feather of Garuda so cast off. And seeing that the feather was very beautiful, they said, 'Let this bird be called Suparna (having fair feathers). And Purandara of a 1000 eyes, witnessing this wonderful incident, thought that bird to be some great being and addressed him thus.' "And Indra said, 'O best of birds, I desire to know the limit of thy great strength. I also desire eternal friendship with thee.'"

 

So ends the 33rd section in the Astika Parva of the Adi Parva.

 

34th section -- "And Garuda in joy then spake unto all the snakes, 'Here have I brought the Amrita. Let me place it on some Kusa grass. O ye snakes, sitting here, drink it after ye have performed your ablutions and religious rites. As said by you, let my mother become, from this day, free, for I have accomplished your bidding.' The snakes having said unto Garuda, 'Be it so,' then went to perform their ablutions.

 

Meanwhile, Sakra taking up the Amrita, wended back to heaven. The snakes after performing their ablutions, their daily devotions, and other sacred rites, returned in joy, desirous of drinking the Amrita. They saw that the bed of kusa grass whereon the Amrita had been placed was empty, the Amrita itself having been taken away by a counter-act of deception.

 

And they began to lick with their tongues the kusa grass, as the Amrita had been placed thereon. And the tongues of the snakes by that act became divided in twain. And the kusa grass, too, from the contact with Amrita, became sacred thenceforth. Thus did the illustrious Garuda bring Amrita (from the heavens) for the snakes, and thus were the tongues of snakes divided by what Garuda did.

 

"Then the bird of fair feathers, very much delighted, enjoyed himself in those woods accompanied by his mother. Of grand achievements, and deeply reverenced by all rangers of the skies, he gratified his mother by devouring the snakes. – unquote.

 

Dear readers, from this portion of story – see how many points we can pick.

1.      Garuda – how he became the dhvaja – the flag - of supreme lord naaraayaNa – so that lord is called 'garuda dhvajaaya namah' in sree Vishnu sahasra naamam.

2.      How garuda also became lord's vaahanam – vehicle.

3.      How garuda got the name 'suparna' – his lord also being called suparnaaya namah

4.      How kusa grass [or simply dharbham- what we use in occasions - like amaavaasya - became sanctified – because it had the touch of amirtham.

5.      How snakes got a split tongue?

 

Ok about all that – going back to where we started – why raavaNa should remember or recall all these acts of garudan – the answer to that is - he is crossing the same sea and land where this tree subhadhra was and on seeing that tree, he got his thoughts set on garuda. But why not on garuda's master 'vishNu' – for raavaNa was always in fear of vishNu, he did not think garuda's lord but was thinking about garuda only.

 

Thanks to the blessings I received from our respected Sriman sadagopan swamy, I will add swamy dhEsikan covering these garuda's feats in his garuda dhandakam and garuda panchasath in next post. With that, I think this series can come to an end.

 

Dhasan


Vasudevan MG __._,_.___

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