Ghee: A short consideration from an
Ayurvedic perspective
Article - Summer 2005 Issue of "Light
on Ayurveda" by Peter Malakoff
This is the secret name of ghee:
"Tongue of the gods," "navel of immortality."
We will proclaim the name of ghee;
We will sustain it in this sacrifice by bowing low.
These waves of ghee flow like gazelles before the hunter...
Streams of ghee caress the burning wood.
Agni, the fire, loves them and is satisfied. - Rig Veda
As the Ganges has poured down through the myths and plains
of India for thousands of years, so has ghee flowed through
all aspects of the Indian culture. In the Ayurvedic wisdom,
family homes, religions, peoples and kitchens of India, ghee
is a sacred and celebrated symbol of auspiciousness, nourishment
and healing as well as an esteemed article of everyday use.
When we consider ghee we are in the company of superlatives.
In India, ghee has been highly regarded for so many things,
for so long, that one enters into a crowded river of praise.
The milk of cows is considered to possess the essence
or sap of all plants, and ghee is the essence of milk. According
to a Vedic analogy, ghee is hidden in milk, like the Divine
Lord in creation. Through the introduction of Agni to milk,
by the friction of churning, butter appears. This butter is
then heated over fire and the most hidden part of milk- ghee-
appears.
The Vedas call ghee the ‘first and the most essential
of all foods’.and ghee is a central element of the Vedic
culture. The great theme of the Vedas is yagya (sacrifice)
and ghee is an essential offering to Agni (fire) in all yagyas.
Agni is the mouth of the Gods and through offerings made to
Agni, ghee is the food that feeds them. The Mahabharata says,
“From ghee flows the sustenance of all the worlds”.
The God Agni, the first word and deity of the Rig Veda is
known as Hutabhu (the devourer of ghee). The association
of ghee with light and brilliance is found in many passages
of the Vedas. In fact, the Sanskrit word for ghee is Ghritam.
It comes from the root ghr, which means to shine.
The ingestion of ghee is offering the finest of fuels into
the fires of digestion (Agni). Ghee increases the sattvic
qualities of life both in our self and in our environment
(the Gods are the elemental rulers of the cosmos). It allows
body and mind, both subtle and gross, to burn with a refined
brilliance. Ghee increases Dhi (intelligence) refines the
Buddhi (intellect) and improves the Smrti (memory). Ghee also
builds the aura, makes all the organs soft, and increases
Rasa (the internal juices of the body).
Ghee increases ojas, which is the underlying basis of all
immunity and the essence of all bodily tissues. Dr. Vasant Lad. writes,
“As ghee is the pure essence of milk, in the same way
ojas is the pure essence of the dhatus”. Maya Tiwari
calls ghee the “single most ojas-producing food on earth”.
Although ghee kindles or increases the digestive fire
(Agni), on which all nutrition depends, it does so without
aggravating Pitta, the elemental functioning of fire within
the body. In fact, ghee cools the body, essential in much
of today’s world, where everything is overheating. Ghee
balances all the Agnis of the body.
Because of its superb penetrating qualities ghee has the ability
to carry a substance deep into all seven dhatus. Ghee
is used as a yogavahi (carrier) for herbs and bhasmas (ashes)
of gemstones, heavy metals and even certain toxins.
Ghee also causes secretions and liquification in the dhatus that
dissolve wastes, allowing the doshas to carry away ama. The
ingestion of ghee is used in Panchakarma to first penetrate
into and then dissolve ama in the dhatus, allowing the wastes
to be then carried to the intestinal tract and expelled.
Sneha is a Sanskrit term meaning to express by touch, love
and caring. Sneha is the feeling and knowing that someone
cares for you and that you are being comforted and cherished.
The Ayurvedic texts talk of four Substances for Snehana (the
application of oily substances on the body): They are Taila
(Oil,) Vasa (animal Fat), Majja (bone marrow) and Ghrita (ghee).
Of these, Ghrita (ghee) is considered superior.
Ghee softens and strengthens, protects and nourishes the skin.
Ghee increases the overall strength, luster and beauty of
the body. Until the last generation in India, men gave ghee
massages on the street. Ghee was almost always the preferred
substance for the skin, however, since it is more expensive
than oil it has come to be used for internal purposes only.
It is still used externally for the old and young. Mothers
in India massage their babies with ghee. I massaged my Father
daily with ghee before he died. He loved it. Sometimes, when
he could not sleep, I would rub it on his feet and temples,
and it soothed his agitation. It is considered one of the
best substances for Abhyanga (self-massage).
Abhyanga bypasses the digestive system and allows the qualities
of ghee to penetrate directly into the deeper tissues. It
is said that sixty per-cent of what is placed on the skin
is absorbed into the body. We literally ‘eat’
what we put on our skin. Ayurveda suggests that if we would
not eat something, we should not use it on our skin. In ancient India, wells full of ghee were made and saved
for times of war, especially for those who suffered wounds.
When a surgeon cuts open a body, he only does so, knowing
that the body will be able to heal itself. The surgeon cannot
heal. Ghee magnifies Ropana (healing), and its effectiveness
in facilitating recovery from wounds is celebrated. In Ayurveda,
when a person has a chronic peptic ulcer or gastritis, ghee
is used to heal the ulcer inside the intestinal tract. Ghee
works wondrously on bedsores for the elderly or debilitated.
It can also be applied for broken bones and bruises. It is
highly effective for all sorts of skin rashes. It is also
used on burns from both fire and chemicals. Once, I accidentally
got some sandalwood oil in my eye. It burned intensely, and
I was unable to wash it out with a variety of eyewashes. I
spent hours in pain and finally remembered to try ghee. Almost
immediately, the ghee pacified the burning and the eye irritation
ceased.
Just recently, a friend of mine who is a yoga instructor had
a pressure cooker blow up in his face, giving him second and
third-degree burns. He immediately put some ghee on his face
and went to the emergency room. The doctors told him that
he would be scarred for life, that the burns would take several
months to heal and that he should take steroids because the
body shuts down the production of testosterone after burns.
He declined to take the steroids and continued to apply the
ghee, twice daily. After six days he was completely healed
without scarring. Ghee is an exquisite Rasayana (rejuvenative
substance, giver of Rasa-juice) and is known to contribute
to longevity. In Ayurveda, long life is correlated with good
Agni and good Kapha. I have mentioned how ghee increases Agni.
Ghee also has the qualities of being heavy, slow, oily, liquid,
dense, and soft. It is these qualities of Kapha that help
build the body, unit by unit. Ghee, in a very sure and steady
way, slows the aging process by enriching the living one.
Ghee has the quality of snigda (oiliness, unctuousness). It
is smooth, lubricating and nurturing. Ghee makes the voice
soft and melodious. Ghee is Guru (heavy). It mildly
increases the qualities of Kapha and decreases Pitta and Vata,
which are both light. In moderation, ghee balances all the
doshas. Ghee has the quality of mrdu (softness). In
Ayurvedic Panchakarma treatments, ghee is the oil used on
the eyes. In Netra Basti, (eye-bath) a small dam is built
around the eyes and filled with warm ghee. Then, the patient
opens his eyes to its soothing softness. After that treatment,
one sees the world though a soft diaphanous curtain of love
and loveliness.
In India, ghee is made from both Cow and Buffalo milk. You
can tell the difference because Buffalo ghee is white and
Cow ghee is more yellow. Also, the ghee of a Cow is in liquid
form at body temperature. The ghee of a Buffalo is still slightly
solid. Buffalo milk and ghee are more tamasic (dulling), while
Cow milk and ghee are believed to be more sattvic (pure and
purifying). Cow ghee is used in lamps in temples
and pujas all over India. The light of a ghee lamp is the
most beautiful and brilliant of all lights. The light of burning
ghee is said to ward off negativity and evil influence.
Ghee is the most refined end product of milk. When
making ghee, there is a concentration of all the qualities
of the milk. This includes, antibiotics, hormones (rGBH),
chemical pesticides, etc. For this reason, always use the
best milk/butter possible. When a cow is milked, there
is whole milk. If you let this milk sit for a while, cream
rises to the top. Then the cream is skimmed off and churned.
After a while, and all of a sudden, as a result of the Agni
of churning, the fat globules begin to stick to each other
and form butter. What is left over is buttermilk.
In America today, very little butter is churned the old-fashioned
way. Most modern dairies, even many organic ones, no longer
churn their cream to make butter. In a typical dairy, the
cream is pushed (extruded) through a fine mesh screen in which
the heavier and larger molecules of butter are held on one
side of the screen while the smaller molecules of buttermilk
pass through. I asked an Vaidya (Ayurvedic Teacher) about
what difference this process of extrusion makes. He said that
butter made without churning is lacking in some quality of
Agni. He went further in his consideration saying that the
home-based Indian culture churns their cream with a hand churn,
rolling it back and forth between their hands. This back-and-forth
action imparts a particular balancing quality to the ghee,
instead of the one-way action of a gear driven churn.
There is one very important difference in the way ghee
was and is made in India. The Indians start out with milk
from a cow, just like in America. But, they do not let the
cream rise to the top and skim it off as we do in the West.
Instead, and here comes the key difference- they culture the
milk with yogurt, allowing it to sit for four to five hours,
just before it becomes completely soured. Then they churn
the whole milk. From that point on, the process is more or
less the same. (I have read of recipes for making ghee in
India that culture just the cream, but most families I talked
with about making ghee produce their butter by churning whole
milk).
This culturing with yogurt introduces another form of Agni
into the substance of refining the milk into butter and then
ghee.
In my recent visit to modern day India, it was very difficult
to find high quality, pure cow ghee. The commercial milk,
cream and butter are homogenized and pasteurized, and now
even ultra-pasteurized, a process whereby milk is heated to a higher
temperature than pasteurization for a shorter period of time.
This kills and destroys various living substances/enzymes
in the milk thus prolonging shelf life. Ultra-pasteurized
milk can keep un-refrigerated for over a month. I have learned
that the reason ultra-pasteurized milk is refrigerated in America is
that people in this country would not trust un-refrigerated milk. According
to the Ayurvedic Vaidyas I consulted, all of these factors (homogenization,
pasteurization, ultra-pasteurization) increase the Vata (air
and ether, destructive, catabolic, drying, rough) qualities
in what was originally a very Kapha (earth and water, building,
oily, tonifying, anabolic) substance-milk. Some of these processes,
like homogenization, make the milk, and thus the cream and
butter, indigestible. One of the things you can look for in
milk and cream is the sticky quality (picchila), one of the
gunas of Kapha. The milk or cream will literally stick to
the glass it is poured into. This quality will be much reduced
in highly processed milk products.
In America, as in India, there is a similar theme to the story.
Although organic dairies are appearing all over the country,
many of them make their butter by extrusion. Furthermore,
they homogenize and ultra-pasteurize their milk.
Another consideration to mention is that milk comes from cows
and that the general treatment of cows in America is not very
good. This is another reason to purchase milk and butter from
small family farms, which tend to treat their animals better.
Also, try to purchase your milk and butter from a dairy that grazes its cows on growing green grass, not only on hay and silage, even if they are organic.
Now, back to making ghee . . . Once you have obtained
your unsalted butter, heat it in a stainless steel or
enamel pot, bringing it to a boil. It is best to make your
ghee in stainless steel heavy pots, rather than aluminum because
of toxicity from the aluminum. Also, avoid thin stainless steel because a heavier
pot will distribute the heat of the fire more evenly, surrounding
the ghee. Try to use heat from fire rather than an electric
range (This is again in the realm of subtlety and sattva that
I referred to earlier). There is a quality of Agni that lends
itself and pervades a substance cooked on flame not present
when butter is cooked on electricity. I do not entirely understand
the difference between the heat of a fire and the heat of
an electric range and I asked several Vaidyas about it in
India. They simply said that fire was a superior (more sattvic)
way to cook food.
It is clear to me that it is important to create and enjoy
a beautiful and positive environment when making ghee. This
subtle quality of ambiance is in line with cooking ghee on
the flames of fire, it makes a difference. Once the
butter begins to boil, reduce the flame to the lowest point
at which the butter will continue to boil. As it boils, moisture
evaporates off and it will begin to clarify and the butter
will turn from cloudy yellowish liquid to a more golden color.
Whitish cloudy milk solids will rise to the top and sink to
the bottom. Do not stir. After a half hour to an hour and
half to several hours, depending on the amount and the size
of the pot and the amount of ghee compared to the flame, your
ghee will be ready. The ghee will be a clear beautiful golden
color with a wonderful smell that some have compared to popcorn.
The moment ghee is ready is critical and lasts only a short
time. If the ghee is cooked too little, moisture will remain
in the ghee and it will lack in exquisite taste and qualities.
Also, because of the moisture, it will tend to spoil or sour.
If ghee is cooked too much, it will burn, turn slightly darker
and have a certain nutty flavor. This does not ruin the ghee
at all, but it is to be noticed, so that over time you will
capture the ‘perfect’ ghee to be experienced between
these two ‘extremes’. After the ghee is ready,
skim off the top light crust of whitish milk solids. (These
and the heavier ones at the bottom of the pot are traditionally
used to make sweets. Children in India love them and always
plead with their Mothers to have the leftovers when ghee is
made. )
Then, pour the golden, sweet-smelling liquid through layered
cheesecloth to catch any last impurities, into a bottle, leaving
the slightly burned milk solids (caramelized lactose) on the
bottom of the pot you cooked it in (ghee contains no lactose
or milk sugars). Do not close the glass jar into which you
pour the hot ghee until it comes to room temperature so that
no moisture from condensation forms on the inside of the
jar. Moisture spoils ghee, allowing a mold to grow which will
sour the ghee. This is the reason that you always use a clean
and dry spoon to take your ghee out of its container. For
a similar reason do not refrigerate your ghee. First of all,
it is not necessary. but, most importantly, condensation will
form inside the jar as you take it back and forth between
a refrigerator and a warm room.
Making ghee is a beautiful and peaceful experience. The sound
of softly boiling butter, the pouring of the thick golden
liquid into bottles, the wonderful smell that permeates the
space.
The older the ghee, the better its healing
qualities. 100-year-old ghee is greatly valued in India and
fetches a very high price. Such ghee was often kept in Temples
in large vats and families would pass on aged ghee to their
next generation to be used as medicine on the skin (not internally).
According to
Maya Tiwari, the traditional Vedic day for making ghee is
on purnima (the full moon). The moon represents Soma, the Mother
and nurturing and all the best qualities of milk and butter
are energized on this day. The quality of ghee will
change as the time of year and the diet of the cows change.
Not all cows in America are given green pastures to graze
on. Even those that are allowed to graze in the fields often
do not do so all year round. Many dairy farmers, even organic
ones, feel that too much grass in the diet gives a undesirable
or grassy taste to the milk. Also, in winter, there are many
days when the cows are not able to go out to pasture and there
is more hay, silage and legumes in their diet. This will noticeably
change the quality of their milk, butter and ghee. The more
cows graze in the fields on grass, the more yellow is the
ghee. This ‘yellow’ is the result of an increase
of beta-carotene in the butter. This is why dairies began to color their butter- to fool those who remembered the color of butter from cows fed on growing green grass. I have also noticed that there is
a sweeter taste to the ghee when there is more grass in their
diet.
Ghee is nourishing and healing, steady and dependable and
always supportive of life and living. Ghee brings an excess
of goodness wherever and whenever it is appreciated and used.
An ancient scripture summarizes it best: Ayurghritam (Ghee
is life).
(Though I have presented ghee as an entirely
benevolent substance, there are cases where its use is contraindicated.
People with obesity should be very frugal in their use of
ghee and those with high ama, acidity, dyspepsia and fever
should not take ghee at all).
Peter Malakoff
Peter Malakoff has studied with Dr. Sunil Joshi, a world-renowned
Ayurvedic Physician and Panchakarma Specialist. He received
his Ayurvedic Sadhana Padavika Diploma from the Kalidas Sanskrit
University of the State of Maharashtra, India.
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