Garuda and Vishnu Exchange Boons
Garuda, flying with the stolen amrita, encounters the god Vishnu in the sky. Pleased that Garuda has not drunk the nectar of immortality, Vishnu offers him a boon. Garuda asks for the impossible — to be above Vishnu and to be immortal without the amrita — and then grants Vishnu a boon in return.
Garuda flew through the sky, the pot of amrita (nectar of immortality) in his grasp, his mission to free his mother from slavery nearly complete. In that high realm, he encountered Vishnu — Narayana, the god who grants boons that do not decay.
Vishnu was pleased. He was pleased specifically by Garuda’s act of self-denial: the bird had the power of immortality in his claws but had not drunk it. The god spoke: he was the granter of undecaying boons. He offered Garuda a wish.
Garuda made two requests. The first was audacious: “I always wish to remain above you.” The second was practical: “I wish to be immortal, free from the decay of age, without the amrita.” He wanted an immortality that was his own, not dependent on the stolen nectar.
Vishnu granted both boons.
Then Garuda, having received, wished to give. He told the illustrious god, “I wish to grant you a boon too.”
Vishnu — Krishna — asked for his boon: that the powerful bird should always be his vehicle.
To fulfill Garuda’s first wish, the illustrious Narayana then placed the bird on his flagstaff, the emblem that would fly above him in battle and in procession. “Thus you will always be above me,” he said.
The bird agreed. The alliance was eternal: Garuda would be Vishnu’s mount, and Vishnu would have Garuda forever above him.