Amid Gurbani recitation, volunteers prepare Karah Prashad, popularly called Prashad and Pinni for the sangat, who arrive daily from across the world to pay obeisance at the holiest Sikh shrine. Members of the Sikh sangat from abroad prefer to buy Pinni Prashad because of its long shelf life and take it along to distribute among their near and dear ones.The process is carried out with such precision, patience and devotion that onlookers are left awestruck by the dedication of the volunteers engaged in preparing the Prashad. Cleanliness is given top priority throughout the process.Karah Parshad. iStock photoThe two varieties of Prashad are prepared in a hall attached to a kitchen situated along the parkarma (circumambulation) of the Golden Temple, away from Sri Guru Ramdas Ji Langar Hall, where langar (free community kitchen) is prepared and served to devotees round the clock.Seated around a rectangular open container filled with wood dust, volunteers use small quantities of it to clean each utensil. The process ensures that not an iota of clarified butter (desi ghee) remains on the utensils.At another counter, volunteers can be seen preparing ‘dona’, a palm-sized container made of leaves. These leaves are specially procured from Kerala, informed Golden Temple General Manager Major Singh. He added that every month, a truckload of leaves is purchased to prepare the palm-sized dona used for serving Prashad to devotees.Explaining the preparation of Karah Prashad, cooks involved in the process said the ingredients are mixed in the ratio of one kilogram of clarified butter to one kilogram of atta (wheat flour), along with an equal quantity of sugar and six litres of water. The atta is sourced from the SGPC’s own flour mill. Special care is taken to prepare fresh Prashad for devotees and it is never preserved.Following requests from devotees wishing to take Prashad home for distribution among family and friends, the SGPC introduced Pinni Prashad a few years ago. It has since become popular among devotees. NRI devotees especially prefer taking it overseas because of its longer shelf life.The ingredients used in preparing Pinni Prashad are similar to those used for Karah Prashad, only difference being that it does not contain water.While the shelf life of Karah Prashad is limited to a day or two, Pinni Prashad can last for more than two months.Devotees buy these varieties of Prashad according to their devotion, with money not being a deciding factor. The SGPC offers Karah Prashad and Pinni Prashad to devotees through a coupon system. There is no provision to purchase them in kilograms, and devotees may buy as many coupons as they wish.wuw