Cow - The Kamadhenu !

First of all, let us admit humans are the only specie that drink the milk of another mammal.

Second of all, humans are the only specie that depend on milk through out our life time. All other mammals consume milk only during infancy.

Third of all, Nature has endowed lactating capacity to most mammals to be able to nourish the infants of that particular specie they belong to. Same applies to cows as well, not to be forgotten the fact that we have somehow got used to the idea that  the yield of cow-milk is exclusively for the humans. The fact that her milk is a great nourisher of the human body has made humans depend on her milk for health-sustenance.

Fourth of all, this dependency is natural and fair as long as human doesn't consciously alter the course of Nature's law and there by benefit himself within this boundary.

(It is interesting to cite the episode from epics as to why the divine bountiful cow Nandini was under the exclusive adoption and care of Sage Vasishta and how King Kashyapa nursed an ambition to posses and sieze her to derive maximum utilization.  Instead the events there after necessitated him to become a sage like Vasishta to be able to deserve a cow like Nandini. http://blogs.rediff.com/ramajayam/2011/12/28/nandini-the-cowmythalogy-story/)

And so, to increasingly breed and produce cows, as a human-undertaking, for the sake of more produce of milk, does alter the Nature's balance, which comes with its own positive and ill effects. Positive effects are  we are sustained with unhindered milk-supply for a prolonged duration of our life time. But our dependency is not limited only to this, since we also indulgently dependent on the dairy-based cooking products and savories such as cheese, butter, paneer, ghee, dairy sweets, milk shakes, icecreams etc, for which we are habituated to receiving an unhindered supply of it. Absolutely nothing wrong in indulging in these as long as these are begotten within the bounds of natural breeding and existence. But when it is breeded by human under-taking, to create more, then the problem of sustaining the life of those cows, specially brought into the world for the sake of milk production, faces the brunt once they have out-lived their utility, which becomes a burden on her 'proprietors'  and so we really don't know what happens of them, there of ...

Sixth of all, not to forget that along with the cows, we also thrive on buffalos, goats and sheeps (we even fleece them to beget the woolen warmth during the winter), Ox etc. Cows tops the list since it is the most docile and the most unresistingly, a cooperative-giver. Besides her body itself, whatever her body gives out is also beneficial to the human world, which is why she is revered to be bountiful and sacred. Yes, Nature indeed intended her to be bountifully beneficial. But perhaps it is the humans who can't or won't differentiate between the aspects of graciously being the free benefactors but also relentlessly and ambitiously pursue to make these benefits profitable too ala King Kashyapa. No wonder the gradual extinction of such a breed of cows can also be subjectively connected with the fact why Nandini became sad under the subservience of King Kashyapa and hence her escape from the King there of.

Besides, the exclusiveness of the Cow's utility alone need not make us less gratitude or less prioritize our care and compassion for the rest of the domestic animals, whom we utilize too, for our benefits.


Seventh of all - The last but not the least, I personally have tried (and still trying) to comprehend why our Dharma has bench-marked cow to be a sacred animal. And this is my realization so far.

It is but natural for a human to gravitate towards that which is most beneficial, bountiful and utilitarian to his existence. But our Dharma's underlying principle is to be equanimously compassionate to all beings.Live and let live. This being the case, perhaps this must've been the way our ancient seers devised out this whole thing by identifying Cow to be the chosen one, towards sensitizing the human heart and the mind towards a selfless and a docile giver, for the simple fact that humans reaped maximum and profound benefits from her. Thus the human qualities of gratitude, love and reverance towards her was naturally invoked. Perhaps cow was made the epi-centre, a trigger point for invoking and intensifying such a kind of human sensitivity, gratitude and compassion, and then to gradually extend this fountain of care and compassion to the rest of the beings too. 

Perhaps this is why our seers always categorized certain elements as being sacred and not just the Cow. They perhaps chose a certain element as a representation of the category of element it originated from. Perhaps sanctifying and according it a scared status aas intended to be the focus point for the humans. Perhaps Tulsi represented the plants, Lotus represented the flower, Gold represented the metal and so on, towards which we rever and worship with gratitude, by according a holiness to it. Unfortunately, the practice became more stereo-typed by it becoming a custom of being more element-specific and less about expanding the profound result of that profound focus, to all beings and elements.