Nowadays there is much confusion about Maryada. Whether it be Akhand Paath Maryada, Amrit Sanchar Maryada, or Degh Maryada . The reason being every jathebandi has developed innovations of maryada to distinguish themselves from other Gursikhs and as a result the youth and new comers in Sikhi get confused. There should be some level of uniformity of maryada. How can the panth ever be one if we are stuck following all types of different maryadas? Only when Gursikhs accept maryada which has been searched by learned Gursikhs and passed by Sri Akal Takht will the panth become one . Giani Harbans Singh Ji is a great panthic scholar . He has written many topics on maryada such as Akhand Paath Maryada and Degh Maryada. We feel its important to share his hard work with others so we will discuss his views on Degh Maryada. Because few people are tolerant of opposing views we will only share the views which are non-controversial.
Giani Harbans Singh Ji mentions that Degh should be prepared by Sarab Loh utensils in a sarab loh karahaee. The reason being Sarab Loh is a puratan maryada and in addition eating from Sarab Loh has additional health benefits.
Ingredients: Wheat, Pure Gheo, non- white sugar
Giani Harbans SIngh Ji mentioned that Puratan Singhs use to put a lot of effort and love when preparing Degh. In addition, hygiene/sucham was an important aspect of preparing degh. He mentions how nowadays nobody grinds there own wheat, instead they buy the already grinded processed wheat. Often times this wheat is left on the dirty ground. How can we put such wheat in the degh and distribute it too sangat? Giani Ji mentions Puratan Singhs used to clean the wheat seeds and then grind them. Only then would the wheat become acceptable to place in the bata. We remember reading the life story of Baba Bishan Singh Ji ( Muralewale) even at a late age he would clean and grind the wheat by himself. When asked "why not make it easy and just got the grounded wheat" he would say" how can we use wheat which was lying on the floor. How can we do kirpan bhet on such wheat this would be beadbi of degh". Preparing rehat according to maryada is not suppose to be easy, its through the love of labor of the Gursikh which makes the degh taste so delicious.
Butter- We remember some years ago we ate some degh and we could taste salt. It was obvious that the person making the degh did not use pure gheo ( unsalted butter). Salt is not part of the three ingredients when preparing degh so we shouldn't be using salter butter. Oil is also not part of the original three ingredients when preparing degh. Giani Harbans SIngh Ji mentions how the unsalted butter ( gheo) at stores contains vegetable oils. He says stores use oil to make the butter look more shiny ( bright) this appealing more to customers. Its true many stores use all kinds of tactics to make their product look more glossy. For example, in the West stores use crushed ants to make their apples look more shiny, and as a result customers are more attracted to this product. So this type of Gheo should be avoided. Gheo should be made fresh straight from cream. If possible cream should come from the cow milked by the sevadar. This is more akin to bibek.
Sugar- Nowadays people use white sugar when making degh. Giani Ji mentions white sugar is not puratan and also its more unhealthier to raw sugar. White sugar leads to high pressure. A singh was once telling me that white sugar goes through a different process then natural sugar. White sugar is filtered through pipes. These pipes are made out of cow bones, as the sugar is processed absorbs the white of the cows bone. Such sugar is not even vegetarian so we should never serve it to sangat.
ਸਤਿਗੁਰਬਚਨਕਮਾਵਣੇਸਚਾਏਹੁਵੀਚਾਰੁ॥
. It has nothing to do with speed, they dissolve very quickly (like bubbles) if you have proper Ghee.