Upanishads · Mantrikā 5
॥
Devanāgarī
गौरनाद्यन्तवती सा जनित्री भूतभाविनी । सितासिता च रक्ता च सर्वकामदुधा विभोः
Transliteration (IAST)
gauranādyantavatī sā janitrī bhūtabhāvinī | sitāsitā ca raktā ca sarvakāmadudhā vibhoḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
गौः अनाद्यन्तवती साgauḥ anādyantavatī sāshe is a cow, without beginning or end; she is the gauḥ, beginningless and endless
जनित्री भूतभाविनीjanitrī bhūtabhāvinīthe genetrix, producing the beings; the mother, bringing forth the creatures
सिता असिता च रक्ता चsitā asitā ca raktā cawhite, black and red; light, dark and crimson
सर्वकामदुधा विभोःsarvakāmadudhā vibhoḥmilking all desires — the Sovereign's; yielding all desires — the all-pervading one's
Translation
She is a cow, having neither beginning nor end, the genetrix producing the beings; white, black and red, milking all desires — she is the Sovereign's.
Version
9f153cbc2c22 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:00:17 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The verse which Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa quotes in the Govinda-bhāṣya when examining the “unborn one” of the Śvetāśvatara.
Here she is named gauḥ — “a cow” — and moreover anādy-antavatī, “beginningless and endless”.
This settles the dispute over the word ajā. The Śvetāśvatara said “one unborn female, red, white and black”; the Sāṅkhya read out of it its own self-standing principle. Our book takes the same three colours and calls their bearer a cow — that is, something that is milked.
And here is the last word of the verse, which decides everything: vibhoḥ — “the Sovereign's”, the genitive of possession.
The cow is somebody's. Beginningless — and yet not on her own.
In this lies the whole argument: eternity does not mean independence. The Lord's power is beginningless, as He is — and precisely because she is His.
The three colours — white, black, red — are read as the three guṇas: sattva is white, tamas black, rajas red. And sarva-kāma-dudhā, “milking all desires”, is a phrase of the kind used of the wish-granting cow, the kāmadhenu.
The next verse will say who milks and drinks her — and there stands the second great passage of the book.