Kamadhenu -- The Wish-Fulfilling Cow

When the gods and the demons churned the ocean of milk for the nectar of immortality, many wonders rose from its depths before the nectar itself: the moon, the white horse Uchchaihshravas, the elephant Airavata, the Kaustubha gem, the wish-granting tree, and the goddess Lakshmi. Among the first of them was a cow. The Bhagavata calls her the giver of the oblations -- the cow whose milk and ghee would sustain the sacrifice -- and the sages, the knowers of Brahman, took her for that purpose.

She is Kamadhenu, "the cow of desires", also called Surabhi: the cow who gives whatever is wished for. In the tradition she is less a single animal than the source of all cattle, and the image of the cow's generosity raised to a divine scale -- the mother who gives without limit.

Kamadhenu's gifts made her the cause of conflict. The most famous quarrel concerns her daughter Nandini, who lived in the hermitage of the sage Vasishtha. When King Vishvamitra came to the hermitage with his whole army, Vasishtha fed them all lavishly from Nandini's bounty. Amazed, the king demanded the cow; Vasishtha refused; and when Vishvamitra tried to take her by force, Nandini brought forth armies of warriors who routed his soldiers. Humbled to learn that a king's might was nothing before a brahmin's spiritual power, Vishvamitra gave up his kingdom and began the long austerities that made him a brahmarshi.

A second story, of a wish-fulfilling cow in the hermitage of the sage Jamadagni, set off an even darker chain of events. The thousand-armed king Kartavirya Arjuna, entertained by the sage, carried the cow away. Jamadagni's son Parashurama pursued the king and killed him; in revenge the king's sons killed Jamadagni; and Parashurama, the epic says, then cleared the earth of kshatriyas twenty-one times.

In the Gita Krishna names himself Kamadhuk among cows -- the best of every kind is a glimpse of the divine. That is the deeper sense of Kamadhenu. She stands for abundance that comes from giving rather than taking: the cow gives milk, ghee for the sacred fire, the bullock's labour in the field and dung for fuel and plaster, and asks for little. The stories also carry a warning. Kings who tried to seize her by force -- Vishvamitra, Kartavirya -- brought ruin on themselves. What Kamadhenu gives cannot be taken; it can only be received.