"Meanwhile, when the time came, the greatly resplendent Garuda was born without [the help of] his mother, breaking open the egg. Blazing like a mass of fire, burning, most terrible, he suddenly grew huge — a vast-bodied bird soaring into the sky. Seeing him, all beings took refuge with Vibhavasu (Agni) and, bowing down, said to him as he sat in his universal form: 'O Agni, do not grow larger! Do you not mean to burn us? For that huge blazing mass [of fire] is creeping toward us from you.' Agni said: 'It is not as you think, O scourges of the asuras. This is the mighty Garuda, equal to me in splendor.' Suta said: 'Thus addressed, the gods together with the hosts of sages, drawing near to Garuda close by, praised him with their words.'"