Garuda boasts of his strength and secures a boon from Indra
Indra intercepts Garuda, who has stolen the amrita, and asks for friendship and the return of the divine drink. Garuda agrees, but first he boasts of his impossible strength — he can carry all the worlds on a single feather — and then asks for a single, specific reward.
Indra, king of the gods, caught up with Garuda as the great bird flew with the stolen amrita. He asked for Garuda’s friendship and requested the return of the soma (divine nectar). Garuda agreed to the friendship, but then he paused. He knew the learned disapprove of self-praise, but since Indra was now a friend and had asked, he would speak.
“O Shakra,” Garuda said, “know that my strength is great and hard to bear. On a single one of my feathers, without any fatigue, I can bear the wide world with its mountains, forests, oceans and even you suspended there — even all the worlds together, with all their mobile and immobile objects.”
Indra, the illustrious lord of the gods, was pleased. “Now accept my eternal and supreme friendship,” he said. “If you do not require the soma, please return it. Those to whom you give it will always overcome us.”
Garuda explained he had a reason for taking it. “I will not give the soma to anyone to drink. When I have put it down, you can immediately pick it up and bring it back.”
“Your words please me,” said Indra. “Ask from me any boon that you desire.”
Garuda remembered Kadru’s sons — the snakes — and his mother Vinata’s slavery, secured through their deception. Though he had the power to do as he wished, he became a supplicant. “O Shakra, let the mighty snakes be my food.”
The enemy of the danavas (demons) agreed. “I shall take the soma away when you have put it down.” With the terms set, Garuda sped on toward his mother.