Garuda Panchami

I recently wrote about Naga Panchami, and also wanted to write about Garuda Panchami, since it falls on the same day - August 14 of this year! Garuda Panchami is dedicated to the worship of Garuda, the vaahanam, or vehicle, of Lord Vishnu. It celebrates Garuda’s devotion to his mother Vinathai, and as such, it also celebrates the devotion and love between mothers and their children. On this day, mothers pray for the well-being of their children, and aspire for their children to emulate Lord Garuda in his noble qualities. I happened to come across some of the comments on my Naga Panchami post, and I found it interesting that Garuda Panchami could also be observed between brothers and sisters! According to the tradition, when the brother would leave his sister at her in-laws’ home and return to the snake-infested fields, the sister would seek Nagadevata’s assistance in protecting her brother. Garuda Panchami is founded upon an interesting tale. Kaasyapar, a Saptha rishi, had two wives named Vinathai and Kandharu, who had an argument one day about the color of the tail of Lord Indra’s horse, Uchchairavam. Vinathai claimed that the tail’s color was white, while Kandharu countered that it was black. The wives decided to resolve their issue by seeing the horse for themselves, and contended that the person who answered wrongly would forever be enslaved to the winner. In order to prove that the horse’s tail was black, Kandharu had her sons (who were black snakes) wrap around the tail. Thus, Kandharu tricked Vinathai into being her slave. Upon hearing about his mother’s enslavement, Garuda got angered and sought to get amirtham, or nectar, from the Deva Loka in order to set his mother free. Although he encounter devas along the way, Garuda was victorious in his battle against them. He told the story of his mother’s enslavement when he came across Lord Indra, and upon hearing the story, Lord Indra blessed Garuda with the amirtham. Lord Indra also announced that from that day onwards, all snakes would be enslaved by Garuda due to the burden they had placed on his mother. This festival is grandly celebrated at the Lord Venkateshwara temple in Tirumala with a procession of Lord Malayappa Swamy’s idol mounted on top of Lord Garuda. Both deities are adorned with jewels, and several devotees observe the celebration every year. The reason why this festival is connected to Naga Panchami is that performing the Garuda Panchami pooja may alleviate one’s suffering caused by Naga Dosham. As such, equal importance is given to the eagle and serpent lords on this fine day.