On being asked by the sages as to how did he come to know about the contents of Garuda Purana, Sutji told them–‘Once, I had gone to Badrikashram, where I met Sage Vyasa. I requested him to enlighten me on various spiritual matters to which he agreed saying that he was going to narrate the tales of Garuda Purana which was first told by Lord Brahma to Narada, Daksha Prajapati and myself. Sage Vyasa then told Sutji how once he along with Narada, Daksha and Bhrigu had gone to Brahma loka to see Lord Brahma. After reaching there, all three of them requested Lord Brahma to shed light on the essence of the real knowledge.
Lord Brahma revealed to them that Garuda Purana contained the essence of all the scriptures and Lord Vishnu himself had narrated its divine tales to him (Brahma). Describing the incident when Lord Vishnu had told the divine tales of Garuda Purana to him as well as Shiva, Lord Brahma said– ‘I once went to Kailash mountain accompanied by Indra and other deities. We found Shiva engrossed in his meditation. We were amazed and asked him as to who was he meditating upon.
Lord Shiva told us that he was meditating upon the omnipresent, omniscient and the omnipotent Vishnu- in whom the entire universe exists. Lord Shiva also revealed to us that this was all he knew of Vishnu’s power and also that if we wanted to know more about him then we will have to ask Lord Vishnu himself. So, all of us including Shiva went to Vishnu loka and requested Lord
Vishnu to clear our doubts on various topics which confused us. Lord Vishnu gave a long discourse covering all the major religious topics.