Lean on Ayurveda

Ep 21 - Ghee: The Ayurvedic Elixir That Carries Prayer, Calms the Nerves, and Feeds Creation

• Vytaute Liutkeviciute • Episode 21

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Episode 21 – Ghee: The Ayurvedic Elixir That Carries Prayer, Calms the Nerves, and Feeds Creation

In this episode of Lean on Ayurveda, we explore one of the most sacred and time-honoured substances in the Ayurvedic tradition — ghee.

We travel back to the Rig Veda, one of the oldest known texts in human history, where an entire hymn is devoted to this golden elixir. Through story, philosophy, and practice, we traces ghee’s divine lineage and the many layers of meaning it holds — as nourishment, medicine, and prayer.

From its origins as the union of Agni (fire) and Soma (nectar), ghee reminds us of the balance between transformation and rest, action and receptivity, doing and being.

You’ll learn:

  • Why ghee is called “the tongue of the gods and the navel of immortality” in the Rig Veda
  • How ghee acts as an anupan — a carrier that brings nourishment to the body’s deepest tissues
  • The story of Prajapati and how ghee became a symbol of creation itself
  • The connection between ghee and our nervous system, reproductive vitality, and emotional steadiness
  • Simple, everyday ways to bring ghee into your life — in the kitchen, in self-care, and in ritual

I also share the tradition of making ghee on the full moon — a practice of aligning with the lunar cycle and reconnecting with nourishment as a sacred act.

Mentioned in this episode

  • Rig Veda hymn to ghee
  • Vital Veda's Dylan Smith article — "The lowdown on Ghee" - for further teachings
  • The concept of Agni and Soma in Ayurveda
  • Full moon ghee-making ritual

Explore further
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🌿 Book a 1:1 Ayurvedic Consultation — if you’d like to explore how to use food, rhythm, and ritual to support your unique constitution.

A reflection for you:
Each time you stir a spoon of ghee into your soup or tea, ask yourself — How am I tending to my fire today? And how am I nourishing it?

If this episode resonates, please share it or leave a review — it helps more listeners discover Ayurveda as both science and poetry for modern living.

Listen now on your favorite podcast platform, and join me again in two weeks for another episode of Lean on Ayurveda.

SPEAKER_00:

Hi, and welcome to the Lemon Ayat Bella podcast. Here we explore how the ancient Islam Ayat Bella can help us gain a deeper understanding of our body and open the gateway to finally feeling better.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello and welcome to episode number 21. My name is Vitote. I am an Ayurvedic Health Counselor and the host of the Lina Nayurveda podcast. If you tuning into this podcast for the very first time, a very warm welcome to you. And if you are a returning listener, likewise, welcome. I hope you enjoy this episode, and I am really grateful that you are here. So I'm actually recording this episode the day after we got to admire the super full moon, the harvest moon that we had on the night of the 6th of October. And yesterday, after the full moon rose, I was taking a flight, so I was also lucky to see it peeking through the clouds and then above the clouds, and it was really, really spectacular and beautifully full and just so luminous at some point as our plane has risen above the layer of clouds, and it was nighttime. I could see that moonlight being reflected from the clouds below, and it just felt it just looked like this like really magical layer of like white smoke and white um you know spongy substance that looked really outworldly. And I hope that you also may have had the opportunity to um enjoy the side of this week's wonderful full moon. And if you are subscribed to my newsletter on Monday this week, so on the day of the full moon, you uh you will have received an invitation to make ghee because um that is you know in Ayurveda we use ghee a lot, and so usually most on most full moons, I say on most because that wouldn't apply for eclipse times, but on most full moons um we make a lot of ghee, we make a full batch of ghee to last us, you know, for for the weeks to come until the next full moon. So um if if you are uh receiving my newsletter, you will have also received a very simple tutorial that I filmed several years back. Um just of very simple steps of how to make your own ghee because it's really very very simple. Now I wanted to dedicate today's episode to the topic of ghee because it is so revered in Ayurveda and um I always encourage my clients to um you know either make their own ghee or or have like organic store-bought ghee, but to start including ghee in their diets. And today I kind of wanted to bring in a little bit of story and context um to this topic, you know, because stories allow us to um make information more relatable and they allow us to develop um a more intimate relationship with whatever it is that we are hearing the story about, right? Whether it's um you know like a food substance, like a herb or ghee, or whether um you know it's stories of divine nature. So for example, I um was now enrolled in a program with my yoga philosophy teacher where we were listening to stories about the divine feminine, right? The divine mother. Um, because it is through story that human beings make sense of the world around them. So if you've done programs with me in the past, for example, for those of you who were enrolled in the Kitchen Wisdom um program earlier this year, this spring, um, you will know that I really like going back to the source of where that information comes from. And when we are talking about the source of information in Ayurveda, usually we're referring to the foundational texts, right? Whether it's Vedic texts or Ayurvedic texts. So the most ancient text of the Vedic tradition is called the Rig Veda, right? It is thought to be the first book that was written down by humans, by that civilization. And those of you who were involved in kitchen wisdom with me in this program that I ran last spring, you will remember that we looked at some of the very first passages in from the Rigveda which refer to or relevant to Agni, right? So our digestive fire. And Rigveda actually has an entire sukta, so a hymn, that is dedicated to Gi, right? So we have this text that is thousands of years old, right? Um, that is documented at least to be so many thousands years old, and was probably alive in a form of an oral tradition before. Um, and there we have this entire hymn, so the singing of praise to Gi, right? I personally find that absolutely fascinating because if we think of the context, so this was the first collection of writings that an entire civilization deemed important, right? So these are the first things that they decided to collect in a text, right? And to make sure that this information survives, and there it is, this praise, this section on Gi. So it begins with saying that from the ocean of Gi, a sweet substance swells up and rises as a wave and pervades immortality by Agni. How they justify her. Um and just recently my own yoga philosophy teacher was also talking about Gi and she put it really beautifully that you know clarified butter is this divine union of agni, so the notion of fire, and soma, which is the notion of nectar, of what is unctuous and nutritive, so substances that feed us, right? So we are marrying by clarifying butter, by transforming butter, a fat, in a fire, we are marrying agni and soma, we're marrying um food or fuel and a process that purifies, right, and refines it. And as with anything in life, wherever we have fire, we need to make sure we have fuel, right? So that fire can be a digestive fire, but that fire can also be your lifestyle, right? If you have a very fiery lifestyle where you're like really focused on you know um producing or achieving um accomplishing, right, which are very like fiery um states of mind and um states of being, you need to make sure that you have the fuel for it, right? So there needs to be a balance there, and the other way around as well. If you know, wherever we have a nutritive substance, it needs to be broken down, right? It needs to be like whatever feeds us needs that transformative fire to turn it into something that we can absorb. Because without the element of fire, anything that is um you know uncuous and nutritious and luxurious in in all senses of the word will simply create stagnation and ignorance, right? Because it's not being transformed into something that we can use, right? If we're eating really nutritious foods, but our digestive fire is not strong enough to break them down, we're going to start seeing buildup and stagnation in our bodies, right? Which will look like you know, weight gain, slower metabolism, stagnant lymph, and other tissues, and we will start having this chain reaction, right? Because we haven't um maintained balance between these two forces. So Ghee is a great example of marrying Agni and that nutritive, luscious, unctuous fuel, right? As long as we have fuel, the fire can keep burning. As long as we have fire, the substance is feeding us as opposed to weighing heavy on us. And then this uh hymn from the Rig Veda goes on to say that Ghee is like the tongue of the gods and the navel of immortality. And it talks about streams of Ghee and holy oil um caressing the burning wood. So again, we have you know that fuel and the fire, this image of those two seemingly opposing forces that come together. And then it goes on to say that Agni, the fire, loves them and is satisfied. Another thing that we can really take from this description of Ghee is that it's described to be flowing, it's described to be moving towards that fire, right? Um movement for a nutritious substance is essential, right? And so in Ayurveda we talk of Ghee as being an Aupan. So anupan is a vehicle. There are other substances that are also um considered to be vehicles for various medicines, right, such as herbs. But what this vehicle does is when we take a herb with this particular substance, so with an anupan, like ghee, it is said that that vehicle will take the substance where it needs to go, right? And so what Ghee does, um it really drives the medicine, the Ayurvedic medicine that we might be taking, with always with you know, advice from your practitioner, um, it takes it to deeper tissues, and it's a vehicle that is especially good for nourishing the deepest of the tissues, right? So we have seven body tissues, and the ones that are last in line to get the nutrients are our nerve tissue and our reproductive tissue, right? So feeding our nervous system, nourishing our nervous system, and feeding our reproductive tissue for men and for women, um, you know, can be a challenge if we um if our digestion is not is not top-notch, so to say, because then very little substance arrives at these last tissues that are last in line to get fed. But when we consume ghee, it is said to arrive at these last tissues that are last in line in a more efficient manner, right? So our deepest tissues get more nourishment, and as we're on the subject of um you know talking about nourishing the deepest reproductive tissue, uh, there's another story that comes to mind um about Gi, uh, which is the story of Prajapati. So Prajapati was a form of Brahman, the creative force. So Prajapati was the Lord of creation that protects life and and um you know is the source of creating life on earth. It is said that he um made Gi by rubbing his palms together and then he let it pour over the fire. So again, we have this imagery of marrying a nutritive nectar-like substance and the fire, and this is how he created his children, right? So this is how man was born, so it's quite literally this relationship between Ghee and procreation, as well as there being this um ritualistic and devotional aspect as well, because offering Ghee to a fire is um a very commonly practiced ritual in um devotional practices in the Vedic tradition when it is done as an offering, this act of offering Ghee to a fire, it's like we are recreating, reenacting the process of creation. And um coming back to this hymn to Ghee in the Rig Veda, um there was a beautiful interpretation of it by uh Vital Vedas Dylan Smith. He was talking about you know Ghee being the Anupan, so the carrier vehicle, but not only in terms of the physical body, of it like bringing the herb to the part of the body where it needs to land, right? But also it being the carrier vehicle for prayer and for our intention to feed the gods. So when we're talking about the benefits of Ghee in Ayurveda, we're not only referring to what can be felt physically in the body, right? Like deep tissue nourishment, that is um you know a physical benefit. The role that Ghee plays in balancing cholesterol as it lubricates the arteries and prevents inflammation and plaque formation in artery walls, that is a physical benefit. Um, preventing dryness across the board in your body. If you're working with vata dosha at any level, whether it's the physical or you know the emotional uh level of vata or the mental patterns of vata, this is likely a wonderful food for you. Ghee lubricates our body from within. So whenever we're dealing with these very vataque issues like dryness, constipation, stiffness, um this can be very, very healing. And another physical benefit of ghee is its ability to help our bodies detox. That's because ghee has a lipophilic effect on toxins of fatty nature, right? So it means that they those particles um kind of attach themselves to the ghe particles and then they can be eliminated through our digestive tract. So here I really only mentioned several physical benefits of ghee without going too much into detail, but my point is that even though you know the physical benefits have been quite well documented and they're definitely very numerous, this other side of working with Ghee on a daily basis and including it into our lives in a form you know that is appropriate for us can be this constant reminder for balanced living. This constant reminder that whatever fire we have needs fuel, right, in terms of nutrition, in terms of good rest, in terms of feeling supported and cultivating a support network around us, right? And whatever wonderful, good, luxurious, nutritious things we have going on in our lives as well, they also need the fire element in order for us not to become too lazy, too apathetic, too stagnant in our ways, right? We need to cultivate discipline, that is a form of fire, right? We um need to cultivate good digestion, that is a form of agni as well. We need to cultivate good perception and discernment, that is also a form of fire, right? So working with ghee is not only beneficial um you know for your physical body, but it can be this daily reminder. Am I living in a balanced way today? And to kind of make it more practical for you, if you do want to make your own ghee or buy, you know, buy your ghee uh and start using it, I wanted to kind of give you some ideas of different ways that you can use it in your daily life, right? So um the first thing that you could do is start using ghee as your cooking fat. So instead of you know cooking with um olive oil or um any other fat that you could be using, you can try cooking with ghee and see if um you notice a difference in the way your food tastes, um also in the way that this fat behaves in the fire. Because ghee is incredibly stable, it's a stable cooking fat. It means that it has a very high smoke point, so you're not going to like burn it up and alter its properties by too much on high heat, right? Which, for example, virgin olive oil will be modified by a high fire. Um, and so a beautiful way to work with that if you are starting to introduce ghee as your cooking fat is warming um a certain quantity up and adding your spices to a warm ghee directly, and then you can heat up those spices for just a couple of minutes until they become fragment. So when you start smelling the spices, that this will be you know an indication that they're being activated because spices become activated under heat, and so then you can start your cooking process and start adding whatever it is that you're adding. Um but when a spice is activated by heat and it comes into our bodies through this vehicle, that is when our tissues will be able to really use that spice, and that's when our digestive fire will be really able to benefit from the digestive properties of the spices that you're using. The second way that you can use your ghee is to simply use it as an add-on into warm foods. So, for example, when you know you make your porridge in the morning, if that's the case, you can add like a teaspoon of ghee on top, and it will melt nicely and it will give that extra lubrication and extra nutrition for your porridge. Same if you, for example, made soup, and especially now that we're definitely in the midst of soup season here in the northern hemisphere, um it's an especially great time to kind of like cushion your soups a bit more with some extra um support, you know, extra uh extra fat as we get ready for the winter. Uh, so again, you can just drop some ghee into your hot soup and it will melt and it will add more of this emollient quality to your soup, you know, it will provide some extra inner lubrication. Another way that I love using ghee every day is um in my beverages. So a very simple way to try that out is if you're used to, for instance, having um a warm cup of milk before bed, whether it's dairy milk or it's a plant-based milk, you can add um some ghee to it, and that will help your um morning bowel movement because the combination of milk and ghee together, especially if if um it comes with a little bit of spice, so maybe a bit of cinnamon, maybe just a tad of dry ginger or some uh cardamom, it can be nutmeg at night as well. Um, so just like spicing it the way that you enjoy it, the way that you like it, and that combination of milk and ghee will act as a very, very gentle laxative. But you can also kind of bulletproof your morning drinks, right? So if you have a habit of taking a herbal chai in the mornings, you could absolutely add a bit of ghee to it for this extra absorption of your of the spices, right? Because um spices, when consumed, warm and when they come into our body through the means of this vehicle, this anupan, they will like our body will be able to absorb them much more efficiently, and so our body then gets to enjoy more of these medicinal properties that um we will find in a herbal chai, right? So, usually this will be spices that are you know carminative in nature, so like gas dispelling, they will be warming, boosting the circulation, boosting the immunity. Um so plenty of um benefits that can be reaped from a cup of herbal chai with some ghee. Even if you are used to having a coffee on an empty stomach, Aguilbara is definitely not a fan of that. But if that's your case, and if right now you don't feel like um this is a habit that um you want to work on, one baby step that you could take is adding a bit of ghee to your morning coffee. That um, you know, the presence of this extra fat will be able to absorb just a little bit of this like adrenal shock that your body is getting if you're consuming coffee on an empty stomach, right? This is this premise of a bulletproof coffee. Um, so ideally, you would be taking coffee with a little bit of food to help your body. Balance this sudden flood of very like agitating energy that usually comes with a cup of coffee, especially if we're um if we don't have anything in the stomach to um absorb part of that. So simply adding a little bit of ghee can kind of partially help with this. Another great way to use ghee in the kitchen is to bake with it. So I've definitely used ghee in my baking before, and I am never hesitant to use it when the recipe calls for another uh type of baking fat. So for example, um coconut oil or olive oil. I also use these, but if I have enough ghee, I definitely favor that because I find that using ghee in baking gives it this extra lovely buttery feel to it. So another great way to use ghee in your life is not only in the kitchen, you can actually make candles with it. So uh in you know in in the Vedic tradition, um we have um there these are called dia lamps. So these are usually like clay um tiny clay pots that come with a cotton wick. And um to to make that lamp work, you simply need to add ghee to to the recipient and then soak the cotton wick into in into the ghee and light it up. These lamps look really really lovely, especially I find when um you know as we move into the fall. They look really um lovely on windowsills, on on the you know, on your office desk or on your altar, and there is something special about a candle that is using as fuel something that you made yourself. These dia lamps, they um are in the Vedic tradition very much used during Dipavoli or Diwali, which is coming up this month actually, the the festival of lights. Um so this is a great time to try this practice and and see if um it's a keeper for you. And my final suggestion um for using ghee in your daily life would be to use it topically on your skin. So if you've already tried abyanga, so the iuretic art of self-oiling and self-oil massage, um, typically abyanga is done with sesame oil, but but you could also use ghee for that. Um, and it's especially nice to use on babies, and you know, to to um if you have in an infant in your home or if you um know someone who has a baby, uh it can be a beautiful gift to offer them a jar of ghee so that they can massage their baby with it. Um, you know, is it's as natural as it comes. Um so it's I'm always a fan of putting stuff on my skin that I would be comfortable ingesting. And Ghee, as much as it is beneficial for us to ingest it and consume it, you know, lubricate our body from the inside, it is also beneficial to be used topically, right? On the outside, it uh first of all, it's uh it will have this really nice warming and sweet buttery smell, um, and it will be emollient and antioxidant and hydrating, and you could even um mix it with a bit of um honey and some turmeric and put it on your face as a face mask, as a nourishing face mask. I have also used it as a hand cream in the kitchen, so um I always have a jar of ghee available in the kitchen, and sometimes, like during winter time, when I feel like my skin is slightly drier, and especially when it comes to my hands, I will just take um a bit of ghee and just massage it into the backs of my palms, and then you know, keep it for for a few minutes as I'm cooking and then wash it off. Um, and you can also put it on your lips if you um have dry lips in the winter. So, as you can see, Ghee is a wonderful home remedy that is as simple as it is majestic and magical and divine. You can use it to soothe your cracked lips, and you can also use it to feed the gods in ritual, in an offering. And to me, it really embodies this idea that something can be so incredibly simple yet so majestic and royal and divine with these magical creative powers as an agent, as a substance that is instrumental in this process of creation, whether it's you know human procreation and feeding our reproductive tissue, or whether it's the creation um, you know, in a different sense, the creation of ritual, the creation of an offering. I really hope that you enjoyed this episode. If you find this podcast of value, please leave me a review or a rating on whichever platform you are listening on. And I very much look forward to reconnecting with you in the next episode, which will air in two weeks. Have a wonderful day.