Long, long ago, the gods and the demons did something they had never done before and would never do again — they worked together.

They wanted amrita, the nectar of immortality, and it lay hidden at the bottom of the great Ocean of Milk. So they made the towering Mount Mandara their churning-stick and the vast serpent Vasuki their churning-rope. The gods took hold of the serpent's tail, the demons seized its head, and they began to pull — back and forth, back and forth — turning the mountain in the sea.

The ocean churned. It foamed white, then gold, then a thousand colours. Whirlpools spun the size of cities. And slowly, one by one, wonders began to rise from the depths.

First came a moon, pale and perfect, and Shiva caught it in his hair.

Then, in a great surge of spray, up rose a horse — but no ordinary horse. It was whiter than any cloud, whiter than the snows of Meru, with a mane like streaming silver and eyes like dark stars. It threw back its head and neighed, and the sound rolled across the heavens. They named it Uchchaihshravas, "the loud-neighing one," and the gods agreed there had never been, and would never be, a finer horse in all the worlds.

The churning went on, and the sea heaved again, and now up rose an elephant — immense, gleaming white, with four great tusks and ears like sails. This was Airavata, and Indra, king of the gods, claimed him as his own mount, the grandest elephant ever to walk through cloud or sky.

At last came the nectar itself, in a shining cup, and with it the goddess Lakshmi on her lotus, and the great work was done.

Ages afterward, on a chariot at Kurukshetra, Krishna would tell Arjuna of his glories. "Among horses," he said, "know me as Uchchaihshravas, born of the nectar. Among great elephants, Airavata. And among all human beings — the king, who carries his people the way these noble creatures carry the gods."

For the finest of every kind, Krishna was teaching, is a window. The nectar-born horse, the cloud-white elephant, the just and noble king — look closely at the best of anything, and you are looking at a spark of the One who is best of all.