The eagle-like emblem on an Indonesian passport or a Thai banknote began as a creature so huge it could eclipse the sun. This episode traces the mythological biography of Garuda across Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions, starting with a toxic family rivalry between the co-wives Vinata and Kadru, a five-hundred-year wait for two eggs to hatch, and a curse that condemned Garuda's mother to slavery among a thousand serpent sons.

The conversation follows Garuda's one-bird assault on heaven to steal the Amrita, his pact with Vishnu to become the god's mount, and the cunning double cross with Indra that freed his mother and made him the eternal nemesis of the Nagas. It then explores how Buddhist Garudas learned to counter stone-swallowing serpents, how Jain tradition made him guardian of the Tirthankara Shantinatha, how Vishnu humbled his arrog ...