Bird Podcast

There is this bird that my mother watches.  When it comes down, she says Garuda, garuda.  And does a namaste. This bird is called the Brahminy kite. Haliastur indus.  But is this bird really the Garuda that Hindus worship? That is the bird of Indonesia– after which its airline, Garuda Indonesia is named? We find out in this short episode. Brahminy Kite.  Haliastur indus.  Latin names are precise.  But they also give the history.  Of why a bird is called what it is.  Take Haliastur indus.  It sounds like a Iranian deep dish pizza.  But Halia means sea.  Astur means hawk.  So the origins of the name meant that this bird was considered a sea hawk.  From India.  Hence the name indus. Now the question is– is this bird really garuda– the bird that was the Vishnu Vahana in Hindu mythology.  Vahana means conveyance in Sanskrit.  One of the nice things about Hinduism and many other ancient religions is that they incorporated the natural world into their beliefs.  So a peacock becomes the vahana or vehicle of the warri