The Sun, Sacred Cows and Ghee

There is something magical and deeply satisfying in transforming milk into different delicious and nourishing forms; in creating an infinite abundance of products from such a simple base. Among these the drawing of golden ghee out of creamy milk is supreme. The process reunites us with our most ancient past. The rhythmic churning of a wooden charni spinning back and forth is meditative in its effect and usually has me singing.

The earliest recorded reference to ghee (Sanskrit : Ghritam) is found in the Rig Veda, the oldest text known to humankind, compiled by Vedic seers and sages several thousand years ago.

The root of Ghritam is ‘grh‘ which means luminance. Luminance from the Sun (sunlight) is transformed into green plant matter by photosynthesis; which in turn is transformed by grazing cows into milk; microbes transform milk to curds which is transformed by churning into butter; butter is transformed by heat (fire) and reveals the ghee ‘hidden in milk like the Divine Lord in Creation’ to borrow an analogy from the Rig Veda itself.

The invisible link between Sun, Cow and Ghee was noticed by Vedic seers and recorded in scripture, the cow was enshrined as sacred in the culture and ghee made essential in all sacred rituals, daily nourishment and healing processes.

The numerous superlatives given to ghee in the Vedic scriptures gives us a sense of its importance to the sages.

“Tongues of Gods” - Rig Veda. Food becomes its most delicious and nourishing when cooked in ghee

“Navel of immortality” - Rig Veda . The source of all life , literally transformed sunlight.

According to Ayurveda ghee has and imparts Sattvic guna - A state of perfect balance of energies. Ghee increases ojas, the juicy essence of the five elements of life, improves intelligence, intellect, memory, clarity of vision, suppleness of all organs and joints, radiance of skin , strengthens one’s aura , increases rasa the juicy pleasures of the body and so on.

At Happy Belly Foods we try to honour the antiquity of this sacred food by keeping steadfastly to tradition in the making of our ghee. We use only organic raw milk from cows who graze peacefully in organic green pastures full of herbs and wildflowers. Milk is then cultured and churned the Vedic way.

The amplification of finer and more subtle forces by microbial recycling and the creation of vortices by churning is common to both the Vedic Sciences and Biodynamics. We incorporate both these principles in the way we make ghee, with the intention of imbuing it with the most refined and subtle qualities.

Mother Yashoda and Krishna by Jamini Roy