The story begins with a bet between sisters.
Kadru and Vinata were both wives of the sage Kashyapa. Kadru was the mother of the serpents — the nagas, the divine snake beings who populate the underground realms. Vinata was the mother of the birds, and particularly of Garuda and Aruna. The bet that the sisters made — on the colour of the divine horse Ucchaishravas, who had emerged from the churning of the cosmic ocean — was the kind of bet that seems trivial and isn’t. Vinata lost. The terms: she became Kadru’s slave, she and her sons.
Garuda hatched into this situation. He emerged from his egg with the blaze of a newly kindled fire, so radiant that the gods briefly thought the sun was rising twice, so powerful that the three worlds trembled at his birth. He was also, from the moment he understood his situation, absolutely determined to end it.
The serpents named their price for releasing Vinata: the amrita, the nectar of immortality, from Indra’s heaven. The price was designed to be impossible. Indra guarded the amrita with everything available to the king of gods — fire, wind, mechanisms, serpents of his own. The serpents of Kadru expected the amrita to be safe and the slavery to be permanent.
Garuda flew to heaven.
The fire was extinguished with his wings — the wing that controls the wind controls the fire. The mechanisms were shattered. The guards were blinded. He took the vessel of amrita and flew back, and Indra — astonished by a being who could breach his heaven’s defenses — pursued him.
Vishnu also saw Garuda flying. What Vishnu saw was a being of extraordinary capability, extraordinary determination, and a purpose that was entirely righteous — freeing his mother from unjust bondage. Vishnu offered Garuda a boon.
‘Be my vehicle,’ Garuda said immediately. Not a boon of power or of protection — a relationship. The mighty eagle who had just robbed Indra’s heaven chose to spend his existence carrying the preserver on his back.
Vishnu agreed, and gave Garuda in return the boon of immortality and the position above himself — Garuda’s flag flies above Vishnu’s flag on every Vishnu temple, the eagle above the deity in the order of honor.
Garuda brought the amrita to the serpents. He placed it on the grass with the instruction that the serpents could have it once Vinata was released. Vinata was released. The serpents moved toward the amrita — and Indra, who had been following Garuda with a different kind of attention, swooped in and took it back before the serpents could drink.
The serpents licked the grass where the amrita had rested. The blades of grass that had held the nectar cut the serpents’ tongues — which is why serpent tongues are forked, in the tradition’s etiology. The serpents got no immortality, but Vinata got her freedom.
Garuda became the vehicle of Vishnu, the golden eagle on whose wings the preserver crosses the sky. In every Vishnu temple, a Garuda column stands before the entrance — the herald and the vehicle, the free being who chose service, the one who could breach any heaven but chose to carry.