The Story of Garud, The mount of Lord Vishnu

Kadru and Vinata were two daughters out of thirteen daughters of Prajapati Dakshya. All the thirteen daughters had got married to Maharishi Kashyap who had achieved enormous power of austerity through spiritual practice.The relationship between the two sisters Kadru and Vinata was not cordial. Once both the sisters pleased the Maharishi Kashyap through their sincere service and sacrifice. The Rishi, being happy with their services, wanted to give them one boon each. Kadru wanted to give birth to one thousand powerful sons in the form of snakes and Vinata wanted to to be the mother of only two sons much more powerful and wise than the thousand sons of Kadru. Rishi Kashyap agreed and fulfilled their wishes as a result of which Kadru laid one thousand eggs and Vinata laid two eggs. For five hundred years both of them took care of the eggs after which one thousand snakes came out of Kadru's eggs. But there was no change in the two eggs of Vinata which made her impatient and jealous of Kadru. Out of curiosity and impatience she tore open one egg and found her son whose upper part of the body was fully grown up while the lower part was still to be fully matured. Realising the fault of his mother and her jealousy towards Kadru he cursed her that she will be the slave of Kadru for five hundred years and the second son will release her from the slavery. Also he warned her to wait with patience till proper time for the birth of the second son. This first son of Vinata was named as Arun due to the glow of his body like the morning light of the Sun God. Lord Brahma appointed him as the charioteer (sarathi) of the chariot of Sun God. In due course the second son of Vinata took his birth and was named as Garud. His body was glowing like a vicious fireball releasing unbearable heat. As the heat grew day by day, the Devas(heavenly bodies) prayed to Garud Ji to decrease the heat of his body and he decreased the same. One day Garud asked his mother the reason of her slavery and came to know about the curse of his elder brother Arun and the curse fruitified through the treachery of Kadru. Once it so happened that Kadru and Vinata had a bet over the colour of the tail of the horse of Sun God. Vinata told it to be white and Kadru black. But while verifying the truth Kadru made her snake sons to cover the tail of the horse with their black body to make it appear black. As a result Vinata lost the bet and accepted the slavery to Kadru. Knowing the plight of her mother Grauda wanted to know the conditions for the release of his mother from their slavery. They told him if he could bring the pot of Nectar/Amrit (which was the divine drink of the gods which when drunk provides immortality to the person) then they would release her mother from slavery. Hearing this Garuda decided to acquire the Nectar from the Devas(Gods) in the Heaven. Garuda asked the Gods for the Nectar but they denied him. Garuda was determined to free her mother from slavery, so he waged war against the Devas. He defeated all the Devas single-handedly and obtained the Nectar. He returned back from there. Although he obtained the Nectar he didn't use t for himself. Seeing this Lord Vishnu granted him the boon of being his divine vahana(mount) and granted him immortality. After getting the boon Garuda returned to his mother where Kadru and her thousand sons were also present(Nagas). Nagas seeing the pot of nectar released Garuda's mother Vinata. But Indra dev felt insulted by his defeat from Garuda. He wanted to kill Garuda, so he used his divya astra(divine weapon) named Vajra. But as Lord Vishnu had already granted Garuda the power of immortality, the Vajra could not harm him. But to keep the respect of the divine weapon he shed on of his feathers. Seeing this Indra dev realised the divine powers of Garuda and wanted to give him a boon. Garuda asked Indra Dev to grant him the power of eating the snakes. Indra Dev granted the desired boon. Indra asked Garuda about the location of the pot of Nectar.Garuda told him that the pot was kept on the kusha( a type of grass used for religious purposes) and had gone to take a bath. Knowing the location of the pot Indra Dev went there and stole the pot. Being invisible the Nagas could not see him. He returned back to Heaven after acquiring the pot. After the Nagas returned from their bath they saw that the Nectar pot was not there. Greedily all the Nagas start picking the kusha. Being sharp the kusha divided the tongues of the Nagas into two parts. From that day all the samples had their tongues divided into two parts

Legend has it that from that day the Nagas are afraid of Garudas(Eagles). Garuda is worshipped and respected as the divine mount of Lord Vishnu.

Shrimad Bhagwat Mahapuran