Hare Krsna!
As I had informed in my previous post, I would be listing few unacceptable methods of making ghruta which have crept in, not only in western countries but also in India. Also would like to explain in detail the changes in properties of Ghruta due to wrong method of making Ghruta.
Few important methods that are wrongly executed are as follows:-
- 1. Wrong Process: From past 60 – 70 years people in India has developed a habit, to take only cream from the milk after boiling it. Collect the cream for few days and make it into curd. Later churn it to get butter. One of the reasons for using this wrong method was the introduction of tea in India. There is an interesting story behind this, which I would be mentioning later on.
Correct Process: In proper process the whole milk along with cream is converted into curd and then churned in order to get butter.
- 2. Wrong Process: People directly try to convert the milk in to curd without boiling it i.e. after obtaining it from cow. This is a shortcut but wrong method. After little research, we came to know that in some parts of India where the temperatures is very high especially during summer, So people draw milk from cows and as it is warm fresh from cows they add curd to milk to make it curd. They prefer using this shortcut method because after boiling milk it takes long time to cool the milk to required temperature so that curd can be added.
- 3. Wrong usages: Usage of ghee made in modern factories which is called cream ghee. Actually this is not ghee but poison and so modern doctors say that we should not eat ghee. The actual ghruta can cure even heart attacks and blockages. Actual ghruta can increase good cholesterol and decrease bad one however this factory ghee is going to give exactly reverse effects.
- 4. Wrong usages: To use milk of non Vedic cows or buffalos etc. This is also recent addition in wrong method from past few decades, after the introduction of tea in India.
Analyzing wrong methods
Now I will analyze each wrong method mentioned above and its limitation.
- 1. We boil the milk and after the milk stays for few hours undisturbed then cream gets accumulated on top of it. Take the cream off the milk and add some curd to it. Keep it in fridge or outside if we don’t have fridge. Keep on adding more cream thus obtained for few more days. Then churn the cream where some curd is added. Add water and then butter will come on top. Take this butter and heat it to get ghee. Here in this process the process of fermentation or rather development of bacteria does not take place fully and properly as it will happen when full milk is utilized. This development of bacteria is an important step as they digest milk. Development of bacteria will not happen in only cream process. And if the cream is kept in fridge then it is all the more difficult for bacteria to act.
Reasons
Following are the reasons for pursuing wrong method of processing Ghruta.There is an interesting history behind this wrong usage…
- 1. Certainly one reason is shortage of milk in past few years.
- 2. However the major reason the habit of consuming tea. Indians used to drink milk and not tea. So the Britishers made propaganda to popularize tea by adding milk and drink it even though the tea in Europe was normally consumed in the form of black tea. I.e. without milk. But tea has an addictive kick, when drunk hot and has its odor and taste. The Odor and the kick are hampered when cream is added into milk. So we see in India the tea drinkers would hate tea with cream in it. In fact the system was to remove cream from milk and then add it to tea. From here onwards people began the process of separating cream from milk. Otherwise in actual process if we want to drink milk it has to be done with full cream i.e. in natural way. In past, if milk was offered without cream it was ridiculed as if one is offering water. Similarly when milk was made into curd, it was again full milk with cream. There was no separation of milk and cream. Either take full milk for drinking or curding. But as tea became a habit, cream was separated from milk and as cream was remaining it was added with little curd and churned to make into ghee.
When I inquired from few people, why don’t they go back to the original process of making curd with full milk?
The standard answer is that we get milk and ghee both by removing cream. However in full milk process we get butter milk and ghee. So actually there is no loss. Only loss is for tea drinkers, where milk has to be without cream. We can’t add butter milk in tea. Now in modern society when a guest comes to our house we offer tea in the process of welcoming them. But previously one would offer milk, buttermilk, fruit juice etc. But as the standard is now tea the requirement of milk without cream is present, and thus the cause of this defect.
Ghee thus made will be certainly beneficial in some way but will also be with some defects. Certainly much better than factory ghee but not what is intended in Vedic scriptures.
- Adding curd directly to the raw milk of cow i.e. without boiling it. This shortcut method of making curd is practiced in some parts of Kutch where the climatic conditions are very hot and some other areas as well. This method is used to avoid the milk to cool down in order to add curd. Honestly I am not aware of the negativity of consuming such ghee however it surely tastes different from the normal ghruta.
- Before making ghruta from butter we have to be carefull that we should remove water or buttermilk from butter. When we take out butter from churned buttermilk we have to be carefull to remove all water content. In previous times when the walls of house were plastered with mud people would stick butter on walls like plaster so that all extra water would drain off. When water is drained off butter stay without spoiling for few days. Such butter from which water is drained off should be heated slowly to make ghruta. If water is not drained off and water remains in ghee then there is chances of ghruta getting spoiled becasue of water content.
- To churn the curd in mixer or fast moving machines that move only in one direction. The word churning means to move in both directions. Moving in one direction is different activity. When we churn in only one direction then the prana (life energies) in the curd goes out of it. This is like friction and heat is generated which destroys the nutrition. Even we can observe that when curd is churned in one direction with motors it gets heated whereas when it is churned in both directions it remains cool. When curd is churned in both directions all the life energies remain in the curd and in fact the process of churning attracts life energies from atmosphere to it. Ghee thus made will be of less value than made by churning in both directions. As far as my experience is concerned my health improved in 2-3 months by consumption of right ghruta was reversed by this unidirectional machine ghee in 2-3 days. Later I would write in detail about my personal experience.
- Cream ghee made in factories and modern dairies. This is nothing but cheating. So the factories also call it animal fat on their label. In this process the cream (fat) is separated from milk by mechanical means like centrifugation etc. this separated cream is heated to make ghee. This ghee would be harmful in numerous aspects and is nowhere close to nectar. Milk thus rendered without fat which is generally sold in cities is also not the milk which sages used to drink to advance in spiritual life and longitivity. It’s better to eat oil in natural form than to eat factory ghee which has been made by cream separator machine. This factory ghee will bless you with high blood pressure, heart blockages, obesity, weakness of bones and many other similar gifts.
- To use milk of non Vedic cows or buffalos. For this point we can refer to quality of milk from these two animals when I write about it. In short former will give us diseases of body and mind and latter will make us lazy and obese. Details will come in milk section which will be posted later on.
In next post I will write about the methods to utilize ghruta and its multifarious benefits. Before that I will write my experiences with cow urine, dung and ghee for past 10 years. I don’t want to brag about myself but I am writing this just to share information.
Follow
thank u very much. how do we store butter made everyday or make ghee also everyday?
Ans – If you remove water from butter properly then butter doesn’t get spoiled for few days say a week. In previous times the ladies would put the butter on vertical walls(something like cement) so that all water would drain out and only butter doesn’t get spoiled. Then they would collect butter of a week and make into ghruta. Previously wall were of mud and butter would stick on it. In modern painted wall we can’t do it and so all have to find out a way to remove water from butter completely.
Is it possible to get readymade ghruta which is prepared in proper way..?
Ans – The whole idea of my writting is that a good demand for real quality ghruta is created all around the world. I can say for sure there are people atleast all around india making right ghruta. Just you should be ready to pay right price and search for them. I don’t want to do this search alone and become a supplier of ghruta. At present rates the real ghruta will not be less than Rs 900/ kg but it is worth it. It can be upto Rs 1200/kg.
For you information there are few places in Mumbai and Pune where such ghruta is available. Still i would say approach local farmers and tell them what you want and what price you are ready to pay for it. Some one will start making it.
Hare Krishna!
We have purchased two gir cows while we already have four local cows. One is vedic rest three are cross breed.
I and my wife minal who have conceptualized the organic learning progam “School Without Walls” are going through your blog in detail. Minal is collecting milk from local (desi) cow in village and making some efforts to make Ghruta. I think your blogs will help her now. Presently all the cows we have are non-milking cows.We are presently using the cow urine and cow dung for vermcomposting and cultivation of vegetables. We also want to make Cow dung ash for cleaning utensils.We will be obliged if u cud share the method of making cow dung ash. Look forward to hear from you.. Regards Sachin Desai (9404164945)
Ans – Thanks, sachin for the comment. Its simple to make ash. Basically you dry the cow dung cakes in sun till they become completely dry. Burn them just like that or to cook. Collect the residual ash. Simple.
how can u say all the factory ghees are poision ? do u mean all the company ghees are not useful or some specific company ghees u tested ???
ANS –
Its a little long answer and I will write a post and when post is up I will put the link here. Still for information the answer will consist of following points.
1. lab tests will not reveal any posion.
2. There are 2 types of poisons. one kills instantly and another kills you slowly by making you susceptible to various diseases and speeding ageing process. Cream ghee will be poison of type two which labs can’t detect.
3. All company ghee means any ghee made by cream method and not by traditional hand churned method after curding of milk. As far as I know no companies make ghee by first curding milk and then churning it. If they did it they will sell it at Rs 5000 per kg. I have explained the pricing of various ghee in a seperate post which is in pipeline.
4. I keep less faith on labs and more on vedic information to decide what is poison or not. So according to those standards all cream ghee will be poison.
I will write a separate post explaining these points. Please wait till then.
i am a cardiologist and recently went through interesting article that ghee decreases cholesterol
for benifit of readers givivg you the abstract
Nutr Biochem. 2000 Feb;11(2):69-75.
Hypocholesterolemic effect of anhydrous milk fat ghee is mediated by increasing the secretion of biliary lipids.
Kumar MV, Sambaiah K, Lokesh BR.
Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, Karnataka, India
The anhydrous milk fat ghee is one of the important sources of fat in the Indian diet. Our earlier studies showed that rats fed diets containing greater than 2.5 wt% of ghee had lower levels of serum cholesterol compared with rats fed diets containing groundnut oil. To evaluate the mechanism of the hypocholesterolemic effect of ghee, male Wistar rats were fed a diet containing 2.5 or 5.0 wt% ghee for a period of 8 weeks. The diets were made isocaloric with groundnut oil. Both native and ghee heated at 120 degrees C containing oxidized lipids were included in the diet. The ghee in the diet did not affect the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG CoA) reductase activity in the liver microsomes, but it significantly increased biliary excretion of cholesterol, bile acids, uronic acid, and phospholipids. The rats fed ghee had lower levels of cholesterol esters in the serum as well as in the intestinal mucosa. Both native and oxidized ghee influenced cholesterol metabolism. These results indicate that supplementation of diets with ghee lipids would increase the excretion of bile constituents and lower serum cholesterol levels.
thank you madangopal prabhu
dr abhijit aklujkar
cardiologist
Hare Krsna. Thanks for the informative article. I have a question….I’ve read this entire post and I don’t understand when you speak on churning curd to make butter. In US where I live (I’ve not been to India yet) curd means paneer (when lemon juice is added to boiling milk to separate into cheese and whey). When you speak on curd, is that meaning yoghurt?
Thank you for the clarification. Ghee and milk is an important part of a Krishna conscious life.
Haribol,
Varuni
Ans –
Yes from your description it seems that what we call curd in India you call it yoghurt. In India we take curd and yoghurt to be same thing i.e. yoghurt for you.
Certainly curd is not paneer. Curd is yoghurt.
Hare krsna Prabhuji,
I read your blog after I happened to listen to Sri Uttam Maheshwari Prabhu’s lecture. I reside in Bangalore and would like to know how I can consult about cow therapy and I also wish to know where do I get such good ghruta that can be had as a therapy. Please do guide me on this matter.
Many thanks Prabhuji
Haribol
Ans – Thanks for writing. You can contact Sri uttam maheshwari on 09869433439.
About Cow ghee I know few places in Maharashtra where you can get right ghee. They are Bafana Goshala, jalgaon, At Uttam maheswari, kandivili, Mumbai. At ISKCON chowpatty gift shop, Mr Vyas (Dhanu, Thane). There might be few other places. The whole idea of our writing this in not to increase our ghee sale but people creating demand for ghee and other cow products at local level through out world so cows are saved. I would recommend that you first try to get right ghee some where around Banglore and around. If not can get from Mumbai.
Hare Krsna Prabhu
Obeisances unto you! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Thank you for a great article. Prabhu, I live in the west and so have to use raw milk from cows here. I am guessing that the cows in the west are not exactly vedic cows. Is there any health benefit for using the milk of these cows in the west?
If not, would you advise that one just become vegan?
Thank you.
ys Suvarna
Ans – No. i would say where there is will there is way. certainly so in USA. In many parts of USA there are vedic cows imported from India or Brazil which were originally imported from India. So search for them and get raw milk from them. They are called Brahamana cows locally in farmers language. You can search for them on net as well. Pay little extra for transportation etc if required. Import other products from India.
Till that time may be take less milk or try to find out which cows they are. If your supplier can arrange for milk from brahmana cows that is best.
…also, even if the cows here in the West are not Vedic cows, they should still be protected as they must be a distant relative of the vedic cows.
Do you have any history on the cows of the west?
Ans – In Vedic culture we don’t harm any living entities. We don’t kill them. But protection and preservation is done of those species who are specifically beneficial for human existence and spiritual development and help the environment. For eg protection should be done of Tulasi Maharani but no tree should be killed. I think the point is clear and I don’t want to discuss this sensitive topic on net where many misconception breed. For clarification mail, call or meeting is encouraged.
How can country where cow slaughter is prominent. No cow or bull dies a natural death because they are killed before that. All male calves except for procreation are killed within weeks of birth, cows are milked with machines and not lovingly with hand have any history of cows. Better not be obstinate close to wide knowledge on cow protection available in India and learn from where cow protection was practiced for centuries even if it is weakening now. Just because we have become devotees does not mean we have more knowledge than what has been passed down for 100s and 1000s of years on the topic.
Hare Krsna.
Hare Krishna Prabhu Jee…
Your ‘Mistake in preparation of Ghruta (Ghee from Vedic Cow) article was undoubtly marvelous.
Ye gyan aisa hai ki agar samjhe to aaschrya chakit ho jaaye aur jo na samjhe wo annari hai.
Apka shukriya es gyan ko share karne ke liye.
Apse nivedan hai ki please share us the shops/society where one can get this original cow ghee called GHRUTA.
We have a group of three to four persons in Delhi who are shocked while observing these facts.
These may be conspiracy of earlier government before independence who observed our BHARAT as ‘Sone ki Chiriya’ due to one fact that we have ‘GODHAN’ by which we are connected to God more than any one else in this earth.
HARE KRISHNA
(Vaibhav Agarwal)