Kamdhenu fulfils needs without depleting natural resources

In our ancient texts several references of Kamdhenu is made. What exactly is Kamdhenu?A cow which fulfills every need? or A science which is prohibited to be provided to persons who are usurpers as it can, on its own, capable of fulfilling every need of the society without depleting the input recourses. Or is it simply a word or Dharma which means that humanity has to live and utilize the natural resources in a particular manner so that the resources are not depleted.

My interpretation of the meaning of the word KAMDHENU is:

Kamdhenu is the art of living in complete satisfaction in natural surroundings, and using only very limited natural resources and like cow, providing more to nature than taking it. This is the only way that the need of entire humanity can be fulfilled.

Let us trace the history of the use of word Kamdhenu.

Kamdhenu is believed to have emerged from the depth of oceans as a result of churning of ocean. After the great flood, the sea rose to unimaginable levels and the wave formation which is also visualized as churning of ocean stopped. It is said that after a very long period of time, perhaps after lakhs of years, the wave formation or churning of ocean RESTARTED. This is symbolized by Kurma avatar of Lord Vishnu. 

The wave formation or churning of ocean once again filled and colored the sea water with various live forms and resources and Lord Vishnu blessed the Humanity that as long as they used these resources as Kamdhenu, i.e. for the purpose of fulfilling their needs these resources will not get depleted and just like tortoise which has a very long life, these resources will remain Kamdhenu (keep on fulfilling the needs of Humanity).

Sybolically churning of water is the beginning of a new Maha Yug, an altogether New Era. We now know that sea has abundant resourses to be tapped by humanity, but for fulfilling the needs and NOT for destruction or self destruction. This was and is an important Dharm, which unfortunately had not been followed by Humanity; as a result, lots of scientists feel that we are moving towards extinction.

The next time we heard of Kamdhenu was when Vishvamitra wanted to USURP Kamdhenu which was with Sage Vashist. Once again our ancient religious texts want us to believe that it was a cow.

It is important here to note that ancient Hindu text has been written in ‘Sutras’, which means ‘coded language’. As such we need not worry with this being called cow; the cow is believed to be a symbol of the earth ; because it gives so much yet asks nothing in return.

My interpretation of use of force by Vishvamitra represents the desire of Vishvamitra that “he can do it better”. He used force and sophistication to impress Vashist how the resources of jungle can be available in abundance for use by people living in jungle; but none of the persons living there was impressed. He suddenly realized that Sage Vashist has taught the people living there, the precious art of SATISFACTION, which he did not possess. Realizing his mistake, he left for penance.

I am only taking one more example, out of several, of use of word Kamdhenu in our religious texts. The father of Bhagwan Parashuram, who was a renowned saint, had a cow Surabhi, which some say was Kamdhenu. King Sahastrarjuna once along with his army was travelling through that jungle and the saint fed his army and the king with the help of Kamdhenu. The king demanded and when refused forcefully took Kamdhenu away, only to be retrieved later, by force by Parashuram.

Kamdhenu was an art to do everything blissfully and with honest intent, also with intent and knowledge to ensure that natural resourses do NOT deplete. ant the resoures were getting depleted very fast then. and, like today, this was getting only lip service. This WAS an IMPORTANT reason for repeted Avtar of Lord Vishnu as Lord Parashram And Shri Ram, but I would NOT raise this issue in my subsequent posts, as, already there are lot of other serious issues which the society has to understand.

We know that the Avatar of Vishnu takes place when the quantum of Adharm reaches to unmanageable level. We also know that the evolved Humans, also called Vaanars were treated badly by the people of Kingdoms. Perhaps ‘treated badly’ is a wrong word. They were exploited and abused.  As such, since the Vaanars who were helping the saint did serve the food with warmth and positive thought, it was enjoyable. And the king decided to forcefully take these persons to be used as slaves. Later, of course Parashuram rescued them.

The world today, more than ever, requires humanity to understand and accept the need of Kamdhenu.

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