Showing posts with label Ghee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ghee. Show all posts

19 Sept 2011

Panchgavya (पञ्चगव्य) - 5 most important gifts from cow

Though there are numerous endowments from vedic cows, her five products are considered to be the most significant for health and spiritual advancement.

Milk (दूध): Milk is the foremost and easily recognizable product and can be taken as synonym of cow. If a cow does not give milk, she is treated as of no worth! According to Ayurveda, cow milk provides special and unique nutrition that cannot be derived from any other type of food. Milk of white cows are beneficial in liver ailments, milk of brown cow has huge effect on all types of Vaat Rogas whereas the milk of black cow can be used to treat respiratory diseases and lung ailments. A black cow whose udders are also black produces milk of infinite medicinal qualities and therefore can be utilized for treating vast spectrum of physical and mental disorders. Cow milk, when digested properly, nourishes all the tissues, promotes balanced emotions, and helps to balance all the doshas (defects). It is one of the most important foods to promote Ojas (the force that maintains life).

Curd (दही): Curd is a byproduct of cow milk. All the leading practitioners of Ayurveda, including Charaka and Sushruta, have written on its qualities and usefulness. It is considered as one of the most wholesome food items throughout the world. Curd has its therapeutic value in many diseases. It has been described as a tonic and is credited with the properties that prevent premature aging. Curd also brings relief to patients of diarrhea and dysentery and is recommended in chronic specific and non-specific colitis.

Makkhan (मक्खन) / Ghee (घी): Makkhan is wrongly called butter these days. Think of bread and roti. Bread can be called as English translation of roti but the process, properties and effects are entirely different. Same thing is between Butter and Makkhan.

Makkhan is made by churning the curd while butter is made (these days) by separating the cream from raw unheated milk. Ghee is prepared by heating makkhan after filtering water and milk solids from it. Ghee is cream to yellowish in color depending upon cow's breed and the time of the year.

In Ayurveda, cow's Ghee is believed to be the best for human consumption. It is full of nutritive qualities and an ideal diet for these heart patients who suffer due to excessive cholesterol in their blood. Its regular consumption enhances physical and mental strength, keeps the body healthy and increases the potency of the body. It is not only nutritive, but also helps in taking out the impurities from the body. It enhances eyesight, keeps muscles and tendons healthy, and bone sturdy yet supple.

Dung (गोबर): As the name says, गो-बर , it’s the benediction from cow. It is anti-septic and has anti-bacterial and fungicidal action. A filtrate of the suspension made by thoroughly mixing cow dung and water forms one of the main ingredients of skin ointments, which are useful in serious skin conditions like psoriasis, eczema and gangrene. Cow dung has provided man with fuel for millennia and used it as fertilizer. It may be used as a seed protector, a heat source (cow dung is naturally hot – compost makes it hotter and it is put into glass-houses to heat them or run pipes through to get hot water). It is employed as a purifier (natural antiseptic qualities), floor coating, mud brick additive (improves resistance to disintegration), a skin tonic (mixed with crushed neem leaves); the smoke is a mosquito repellent, dung is a pond pH balancer. Cow dung is also used in cases of malaria, itching, snake-bite, burns, dental problems like pyorrhea and cholera. Cow dung cakes have been traditionally used by villagers in India as a common fuel, along with firewood. Cow is the only animal whose dung doesn't stink and rather gives good smell. We can generate energy from its manure. Its manure is used as a natural fertilizer. Also cows dung acts as mosquito repellent.

Urine (गोमूत्र): Cow's urine has been described in Ayurveda as a therapeutic agent. The use of cow urine therapy, which is in use over the centuries as a traditional ayurvedic practice, is gaining recognition and acceptability the world over due to recent advances in research in this type of therapy. Cow urine is very useful for curing Jaundice.

Gavyam pavitram ca rasayanam ca pathyam ca hrdyam balam buddhi syata
Aayuh pradam rakt vikar hari tridosh hridrog vishapaham syata

गव्यं पवित्रम् च रसायनम् च पथ्यम् च ह्रदयं बलं बुद्धि स्यत
आयुः प्रदम् रक्त विकार हरि त्रिदोश हृद्रोग विशपाहं स्यत

Cow urine is great elixir, proper diet, pleasing to heart, giver of mental and physical strength, enhances longevity. It removes all blood disorders. It balances bile, mucous and airs and is a remover of heart diseases and effect of poison.

It includes 5 rasas i.e. it tastes bitter, hot (as in chilly), sour, sweet and salty. It is in mode of goodness. It brings goodness in thoughts. By drinking it regularly for six months, man’s nature comes in the mode of goodness. It destroys mode of passion and ignorance. It purges out toxins from the whole body through urine, sweating and excreta. It is destroyer of psychological diseases.

Unfortunately, these days, people are chasing her for other atrocious 5 products, namely, Bark (Skin), Bod (Meat/Flesh), Blubber (Fat), Blood and Bone.

12 Sept 2011

Cholesterol - Phobia

Talking about "cholesterol-free diet" is a modern trend now. Marketing stunts like "100% fat free" or "Only 0.1% fat" have further caused restlessness in already agitated minds who don't have time to investigate enough to know what CHOLESTEROL is and whether its really that bad as is publicized.

Further, many people think fat = cholesterol (or vice versa) i.e.  they think that a fat free diet can not have cholesterol and a diet with cholesterol must have fat. Lets see.

Cholesterol is a waxy steroid of fat that is produced in the liver or intestines. Surprised? Most people think its produced in stomach or heart or in blood cells!

It is used to produce hormones and cell membranes. It is an essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes and is required to establish proper membrane permeability and fluidity. In addition, cholesterol is an important component for the manufacture of bile acids, steroid hormones, and Vitamin D. That makes things clear that it is required by the body.

There are two basic types of Cholesterol:

    HDL (High Density Lipoprotein) - The good one
    LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) - The bad one

Cholesterol does not mix with water, and therefore needs some assistance to travel throughout the blood stream. With the help of HDL, packets of cholesterol are formed to help move cholesterol through the blood. Hence, HDL helps remove cholesterol from the body by transporting it to the liver. On the other hand LDL does not aid in the transportation of cholesterol out of the body, instead it deposits cholesterol onto the vessel wall. In summary the ratio of LDL/HDL should be low i.e. more of good part then bad part.

Total Cholesterol (TC) = LDL + HDL for almost all practical purposes. The ratio of  TC/HDL is more indicative of cardiovascular disease than simply total cholesterol. For men an acceptable ratio of TC/HDL is 4.5 or below, and women is 4.0 or below. HDL levels have an inverse relationship with coronary heart disease. So a high HDL diet can be helpful in curing cardiovascular diseases.

Researches have proven that ghee contains  medium and short chain fatty acids which are absorbed easily by the body and digested too, unlike the other oils like sunflower/canola/palm oils and hydrogenated fats (like vanaspatee ghee - वनस्पती घी). Also ghee contains 27% mono unsaturated  fatty acids which are good and 4 to 5% polyunsaturated fatty acids. They help controlling the LDL levels and only causes increase in HDL cholesterol which isn't bad. Ghee does not raise the cholesterol levels to the levels compared to what oils would cause. But note that the ghee must be made authentically by churning the curd from the milk of vedic cows. Two tea spoons of ghee in daily diet twice a day is the recommended amount from some ayurvedic and modern doctors. Please consult yours.

11 Sept 2011

Glories of Vedic Cow

COW is called gaaya (गाय) in Hindi and gau (गौ) in Sanskrit. The word gau is derived from the verb gama (गम्), which means, "To Go". Mother Earth is also called gau in Sanskrit, and the earth is the place where all the living beings reside.

In the AtharvaVeda (अथर्ववेद), cow is described as the mother of Adityas, daughter of Vasus, and the very soul of the people.

The YajurVeda (यजुर्वेद) considers a cow as incomparable, meaning that she has unlimited qualities and virtues. There is no concept of eating a cow’s meat in the Vedas. In fact, the Holy Koran says that eating cow meat brings many kinds of illnesses and diseases.

In Mahabharat (Anusasanika parva), muni Vashitha said to king Soudasa that cow is sacred in the entire world and Lakshmi (लक्ष्मी - the goddess of wealth) stays where cows stay. Cleaning house with cow dung is advisable as cow dung and cow urine are sacred and has anti-microbial and excellent mosquito repellent property.

Gomaye Vasate Lakshmi (गोमय  वसते लक्ष्मी) - this phrase has repeatedly been used in Upanishad (उपनिषद). Apparently, it may look an unbelievable connotation. How can Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, live in cow dung? How is cow dung relevant to creation of wealth? If analyzed deeply in terms of modern economy, it would be revealed that what our ancient rishis (ऋषि) expressed is a universal truth, irrespective of area, community or time. The cow has always been held in high esteem as cattle wealth of India.  The five products of cow (milk - दूध, curd - दही, butter/ghee - मक्ख्न/घी, cow dung - गोबर and cow urine - गोमूत्र) — the panchgavya (पञ्चगव्य), possess excellent quality of nourishment and purification of five basic elements of cosmos (earth, water, fire, air and space/ether). While her milk, curd, butter churned from curd (दही का मक्ख्न, not the modern day butter we get in market), ghee and whey (छाछ) are most meritorious and energetic nourishment for us, the dung and urine are best nutrients to keep the land live, fertile and healthy.