INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

ciprocity, either for purely devotional purposes or as votive gifts to the Guru. Offerings
may be a part of a larger ceremony or constitute the key act itself, and which
type of food to be offered is usually determined by the social and ceremonial context.
303 The food especially associated with the Sikh tradition, however, is the pudding
called karah prashad, or the sweetened wheat pudding which is prepared in a
cauldron (karah) and served daily in gurdwaras. On any happy occasion, in times of
need, or just for the sake of devotion, Sikhs will prepare karah prashad in their houses
and bring it to the gurdwara as an offering to Guru Granth Sahib. Scholars frequently
pay attention to the recipe for this special pudding ‒ equal parts of clarified butter,
sugar, and wheat flour are cooked together with water – but for some reason have
neglected the most significant acts that are believed to consecrate and endow the food
with the unique properties. Local Sikhs will sometimes make a clear distinction between
karah prashad and other types of edible offerings, saying that the pudding is
“real” prashad for the reason that “it is accepted (kabul) by the Guru” and “in this
prashad we do the recitation of Anand Sahib”, as an attendant in the gurdwara explicated.
Contrastingly, other food offerings that has not been ritually prepared are not
formally “accepted” (parvan nahi karte) by the Guru. What distinguishes karah prashad
from other types of food is the principle of sanctification, although other food can
certainly be imbued with similar spiritual properties if offered and accepted by the
Guru by the same ritual procedures.
The transformation of ordinary wheat pudding into consecrated food is dependent
on three interrelated acts: the reading of the hymn Anand Sahib and the Sikh
supplication Ardas, as well as the “offering by the dagger” (kirpan bhet). 304 An abbreviated
form (stanza 1 ‒ 5, and 40) of Anand Sahib should be liturgically sung or read
prior to the reading of the prayer since the composition “helps the prashad to become
more powerful,” as one attendant put it. The gurbani words uttered in sounds will
transform into blissful substances in the pudding. 305 The iron bowl containing the
303
After childbirth, for instance, families will distribute large quantities of sweets to celebrate a
joyful event, while food offerings at the event of a death depend upon the circumstances and
cause of the death. Some families uphold monthly traditions of bringing sweet fried bread (puri)
to the gurdwara on the full moon day (puranmashi) and prepare and serve rice pudding (kir) to
the congregation on the day of a new moon (masia).
304
The combination of these acts are far from modern, having occured already in the eighteenth
century Chaupa Singh Rahit-nama, which prescribes Anand Sahib as a text to be read prior to the
preparation of karah prashad and Ardas before the distribution of the food (McLeod 1987: 39).
Another text called Sakhi Rahit ki, which is attached as an appendix to the Chaupa Singh Rahitnama,
similarly correlates the sacred food with the reading of Anand Sahib and Ardas in a short
instruction on how Sikhs should commemorate a departed soul: “When someone has died, after
preparing the tastiest food invite Khalsa. Read Anand, do Ardas and feed the Sikhs. The one who
does this will have the offerings accepted and they also reach the ancestors”(McLeod 1987: 135).
The contemporary Sikh code of conduct briefs a similar pattern of acts as the one described
above.
305
Some interlocutors emphasized the importance of people’s inner feelings and devotion when
preparing the pudding. The feelings people might have in the moment of preparing the food
147
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008