Good actions like acts of mercy and charity although commendable in themselves do not have an important bearing on the highest Spiritual Attainment. They cease to be of consequence, once the soul begins its Inner Journey from the Til or the third eye:
If, therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of Light.
St Matthew 6:22
Borne along the Current of the Word, the soul reaches Amrit-saar or Amritsar or the Fount of Nectar, the Amritsar in man. There any impurities, that may be still clinging to the soul are finally washed away. Thus the soul is made fit for the onward journey to the highest Spiritual Plane of Sat Naam which is of ineffable greatness and Glory.
Stanza XXI
Pilgrimages, austerities, mercy, charity and alms-giving, cease to be of any consequence, when one gets an ingress into the Til – the Inner Eye;1 communion with and practice of the Holy Word, with heart full of devotion, procures admittance into the Inner Spiritual Realms, washing away the dirt of sins at the Sacred Fount2 within. All virtues are Thine, o Lord; I possess not one, there can be no worship without practising the Holy Word. From Thee has emanated the Bani or the Holy Word, which is the Path to Salvation; Thou art Truth3 enchantingly sweet, and my mind yearns for Thee. What the occasion, what the epoch, what the week, what the day; what the season, what the hour, when Thou first came into being or expression? The pandits could not discover it, else they would have recorded it in the Puranas:4 Nor could the qazis5 determine it, else it would have been in the Quran; nor could the yogis or any one else divine it. The Creator alone knoweth the hour, when He came into manifestation. How shall I address Thee or praise Thee, oh Lord? How shall I describe Thee or know Thee? Oh Nanak, one and all speak of Thee, each wiser than the rest, Great art Thou, and greater still, is Thy Holy Word, what It Wills, cometh to pass. Thy greatness Thou alone knoweth. And those, oh Nanak, that claim to know the most, shall have no honour in the life beyond.
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Explanation: 1) Til: it literally means the mustard seed. Here it is used for the ganglion between and behind the two eyes. Hindus call it Shiv Netra or the Third Eye. In the Gospel it is termed as Single Eye. The Sufis call it Nukta-i-Saveda. It is the seat of soul in man. It is the first stage where the soul collects itself and is enabled to rise in the higher Spiritual Planes. Guru Ram Das, in this context, says: "Mind wanders away every second as it has not entered the Til." Bhai Gurdas has given a beautiful description of it in his Kabits and Swaiyas Nos. 140, 141, 213, 265, 269, 270 and 294. Kabir has also referred to Til, in his Dohas or couplets. Tulsi Sahib, tells us that mystery of God is revealed only when one penetrates behind the Til. 2) The sacred Fount of Nectar is the Amrit-saar or Amritsar in man. It is not to be confused with Amritsar, the sacred pool founded by Guru Ram Das (4th Guru) and completed in the time of Gura Arjan (5th Guru). The Sacred Fount, here referred to, by Nanak, is situated in the third Spiritual Plane, called the Daswan Dwar. The Mohammedans call it Hauz-i-Kausar and the Hindus term it as Prag Raj. It is here that the pilgrim soul gets its real baptism and is washed clean of all impurities and regains its pristine purity. 3) Truth or Sat Naam resides in Sach Khand, which is the highest of the five Spiritual Planes, where the Formless One dwells. This is explained in the stanzas assigned for the various planes at the end of the text. 4) Pandits or the learned men conversant with Hindu scriptures, like Vedas and Puranas – the ancient treatises. 5) Qazis or the Muslims learned in religious law and theology.