cow of plenty, Suswara story

Lately Ming and I have been talking about a sacred wish fulfilling cow called Kamadhenu.  Please click the link below to see a beautiful picture.  I especially like the way the cow is lactating on the shiva lingam.

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/sac/Smith_Poster_Archive_-_Kamadhenu/

There's a story that's important to me that I first heard from my swami.  Let me tell it to you.  Suswara was a poor hunter with a family.  One day he's hunting a deer that leads him deeper and deeper into the forest.  He never kills the deer, but he gets lost and the woods are full of wild animals, so he climbs a tree.  He is too hungry to sleep, so he stays up all night crying and plucking leaves off the tree and letting them drift below.  In the morning he dies, and he's immediately taken to heaven, all sins forgiven.  There Shiva explains that there was a shiva lingam at the base of the tree.  All night Suswara was watering the lingam with his tears and offering bael leaves to it as he fasted.  Also, it was Shivaratri.  All this is to show how generous and forgiving Shiva is.  Even if you worship him accidentally, it works.