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In the heavens, the gods were alarmed at this fiery power rushing towards them.
They intuited that he was after the Amrita. They placed the Nectar in the middle
of a huge revolving steel wheel, the edges sharpened and envenomed. Two snakes guarded
the Wheel, and a circle of fire surrounded
it. If this sounds like a video game, that can't be helped. Hindus loved such stories
and they endure because they satisfy some deep need in human nature to be challenged.
Garuda tried to blind the gods with a dust storm, but they dissipated that.
He tried as long as was feasible not to hurt them but after a while he lost his
temper and scattered them with his wings. Assuming a form that had ninety times
ninety mouths, he filled them with the waters of the heavenly rivers and doused
the flames of the ring of fire. Reducing his size, he slipped unnoticed to the centre
of the wheel where his flapping wings threw up another cloud that blinded the snakes.
He then abruptly enlarged himself, which smashed the wheel and killed the serpents,
and the pot containing Amrita was his.
The episode can be seen as an allegorical interpretation of the dangers inherent
in seeking the knowledge that confers immortality, i.e. Liberation from rebirth
through Enlightenment. First come the forces of status quo, ranged against you with
a variety of weapons and reason why it is not for you. Trying to ignore them will
not work, you have to combat them and drive them away. Then comes the process of
extinguishing the fires of desire; they may need ninety times ninety dousing! The
wheel is the wheel of fate, all actions taken in opposition to it slice you up.
It is only by stepping aside from the eternal cycle of actions and consequence that
one can transcend the Wheel. Even then are left the serpents of the unconscious,
the dark side that can only be defeated by extinguishing the sense of ego-ic self,
i.e. by practicing humility, which is what being small is all about. But when one
has grasped the truth, achieved the liberating experience, then one's stature automatically
grows, shattering the last vestiges of the Wheel of limiting karma.
Vishnu saw the entire dramatic episode and he was deeply impressed by the fact that
Garuda did not take a drop of Amrita for himself. Such self-control and sacrifice
was beyond even the capacity of the gods and he granted immortality and perpetual
freedom from disease to Garuda. The great eagle wanted "a stature that was above
Vishnu" and the sense of humor of the Great Trickster flared up and he told Garuda
to perch on his Flagstaff. Garuda was also pleased at this subtle and elegant reminder
as to who was after all the God of gods and he agreed to become the vehicle of Vishnu,
Vishnu who pervades the Universe, Vishnu the soul of the world. Only Garuda could
lift that immensity of power, so far from being a servile position it was a proclamation
of unchallenged superiority. Indra still had some doubts so he threw his
supreme weapon, the Vajra or thunderbolt, at Garuda. It bounced off his feathers
like a droplet of rain. Garuda, who did not want to fight anybody, offered friendship
to the humbled Indra and then revealed the extent of his strength. On just one of
his feathers he could bear the entire earth and all its beings. If need be he could
bear, without fatigue, the entire universe!
An aghast Indra was only to happy to have made such a powerful friend, but he was
worried about the Amrita being provided to the serpents who were mostly vicious
by nature. Garuda was bound by his word to take the nectar to them, but if Indra
chose to steal it back when the snakes had gone to purify themselves before drinking
of immortality, well, that was no concern of Garuda, who was, along with his mother,
free! Association with Vishnu had obviously given Garuda a puckish sense of humor
and an enchanted Indra blessed the still seething Garuda that snakes would always
be his natural food and he would always have power over them. This boon
would come in handy when Vishnu was incarnated as Rama and wounded by magical snake
arrows. Only Garuda could break the spell and even today, repeating the name of
Garuda thrice before sleep is regarded as potent protection against snakes in the
night.
This feud between Garuda and the snakes could also represent the long struggle between
the followers of the Yaksha deities and the old Naga snake gods in India. The Nagas
were assimilated into the new
faiths as royal umbrellas for the gods and saints of Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism.
They survive only in Kerela state as independent gods, and there is even today in
the state a snake temple in Mannarshala, with a high priestess instead of priest,
a magnificent and peculiar relic of the classical age. At a personal level I think
that Garuda is how Indian culture has interpreted the great spiritual power known
to the West as the Archangel of Presence, Michael. The similarities are
pretty astonishing. The colors of Michael too are red, white and gold. His very
name means, 'He who is as God', again a level of power that matches Garuda. Both
of them are winged powers who serve the supreme god and nourish an inveterate enmity
to serpents. Both of them are invoked in healing and for protection against evil
energies. It is just a thought, I do not urge it.
Garuda was married to Unnati, which means 'the spirit of progress'. They had two
sons - Sampati and Jatayu, both of whom play important roles in the Ramayana. He
has many names as is suitable for a god who can assume all forms. He is Rakta-paksha,
'Blood [red] winged', Gaganeshwara, 'Lord of the sky', Suvarna kaya, 'Golden bodied',
Sweta-Rohita, 'The White and Red', Khageshwara, ' King of the birds', Taraswin,
'The Swift', Rasayana, 'Who moves like Quicksilver' and Vajrajit, 'Conqueror of
the Thunderbolt'. He is also known as "the senior servant of Hari [Vishnu]",
Hanuman being the junior servant. Garuda keeps appearing in stories about Vishnu
but his stature arises from the fact that he renounced and restrained his colossal
powers to serve the universe.
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