Finally the Victory..

Finally the Victory..

The battle was over now.  The valiant bird had won the pot of nectar through his valour without comparison.  Amrutha is a potion which would give immortality to a person who drank even a little of it.  But Garuda had never thought of partaking of it for himself to gain immortality.  His only aim  was to ensure that his mother Vinatha was released from the slavery from Kadru.  Even now it was not too late.  He could have his own share of amrutha because the entire pot was with him.  But Garutman would have nothing of it.  He was dutifully carrying the pot to where his aunt and cousins were stationed.  On the way he met Lord Narayana.  The Lord of Lords was pleased with the utter lack of selfishness on the part of the bird.  So He addressed Garuda and told him that He was granting a boon to the bird.  The  request of Garuda was that he should stay stationed above the Lord and that if the lord pleases he should be granted immortality even without consuming amrutha. The boon was granted.  The Lord gave a place to Garuda in his flagstaff.  Garuda in turn offered a boon to the Lord and the Lord asked the bird to be his mount. Garuda thus became the eternal servant of Lord Narayana.

While Garuda was heading for his own abode with the pot of amrutha, Indra hurled his weapon of thunder and lighning, Vajrayaudha at the bird.  The bird laughed it off.  He was not at all affected by the weapon.  But the bird was acutely aware of the sacrifice of Sage  Dadhiichi who gave up his life to offer his backbone to be crafted as this weapon to enable Indra to annihilate Vritrasura.  Moreover the bird did not  want to bring infamy either to the weapon on its wielder Indra.  So he offered to shed one of his feathers in response to the impact of Vajra.  The huge feather fell on the space and the living beings were not even able to measure it from one tip to the other.  The feather was very beautiful.  So the Gods and other occupants of heaven praised Garuda as Suparna, the possessor of beautiful feathers.

Indra then requested eternal friendship with Garuda and it was granted.  Indra pleaded to Garuda that if the amrutha was consumed by the thousand wily and venomous snakes, they would become very powerful and as they were already having only evil intentions towards living beings, their gaining immortality would be a catastrophe to all living creatures.  Garuda replied that  he was forced into the adventure of capturing amrutha by an action of deception on the part of his aunt Kadru in collusion with her sons and all that he had promised was to fetch the pot of nectar to their place in return to his mother's liberty.  He had no intention of allowing them to drink the nectar. So Indra was free to take away the nectar once it was placed in the presence of the snakes and Vinatha's liberty was ensured.

Accordingly, Garuda reached the place where the snakes and Kadru were residing.  There was a thick growth of Kusa grassed and Garuda placed the pot on the grass  and told the snakes to have their hearts content of amrutha and they could have their drink after purifying themselves with a ritualistic bath and other observances.  The foolish snakes went for a bath after releasing Vinatha and  as already determined, Indra  took away the pot of amrutha back to its place.

The snakes returned from their bath and ablutions to find the pot of amrutha missing.  They had no means of retaliation. Garuda was too strong an adversary, and he had kept his promise.  All they could do was to lick the Kusa grasses over which the pot of nectar was placed earlier.  Their tongues became split  due to the sharpness of the grass.

Since the pot of nectar was placed on Kusa (Darbha) grass, they became sacred from that time onwards. 

Garuda did not keep quiet.  He attacked the snakes with great vigour and killed most of them, and only about ten Nagas were left behind.  Garuda spared them only because of divine intervention.

Thus after accomplishing his mission with great success, Garuda lived happily in the company of his beloved mother Vinatha ever after.

The episode of Garuda has many things in common with the adventures of Anjaneya as we could see in the Sundarakandam and Yuddhakandam of Ramayanam.

The total lack of selfishness on the part of Garuda  as he chose not to drink nectar but  preferred to remain the faithful servant of Lord Narayana  makes his glory even more praiseworthy.

Now it is our turn to look into the history of Hanuman.

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।श्रीकृष्णो रक्षतु।
|śrīkṛṣṇo rakṣatu|
Have a nice and happy day
with profound respect and warm regards
K V Ananthanarayanan
blog   http://kanfusion.blogspot.com/
त्यजन्तु बान्धवाः सर्वे निन्दन्तु गुरवो जनाःI
तदापि परमानन्दो गोविन्दो मम जीवनंII
let all my relatives abandon me, let the great people insult me, still I am in supreme bliss since my life  is GOVINDA alone.
Iकृष्णात् परं किमपि तत्वं अहं न जाने"I
लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु।
lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu|