Kavi Santokh Singh's commentary on the sixth pauri of Japuji Sahib, from the Garab Ganjani Tika — reading "bathing at a pilgrimage" as the purifying power of the Name. ਤੀਰਥਿ ਨਾਵਾ ਜੇ ਤਿਸੁ ਭਾਵਾ ਵਿਣੁ ਭਾਣੇ ਕਿ ਨਾਇ ਕਰੀ ॥ Were I to bathe at a place of pilgrimage — if it pleased Him — yet without His pleasure, what worth is such bathing? The meaning of pilgrimage (*tīrath*) by its quality is "purity." When someone bathes at a tīrath, it is the very nature (*dharam*) of the site to bestow purity upon that person — and it is by this figurative sense (*jahal-lakṣaṇā*) that we understand the line. So "*tīratha nāvān*" means the purifying Name: through remembrance of the Name, the mind and all the faculties become pure. But when? "*Je tisu bhāvā*" — only when the Highest Lord's Will is pleasing. Only then does remembrance of the Name bear its complete fruit. "*Viṇu bhāṇe ki nāi karī*" — without finding His Will pleasing, what will the Name accomplish? — like a tiger without feet. To accept the Divine's Will and to renounce ego: these are the two feet of the True Name. With them the deer of ignorance is swiftly slain; a crippled tiger cannot catch the deer, but from a healthy tiger the deer cannot escape. Thus the Guru Granth Sahib says: ਹਰਿ ਹਰਿ ਕਰਹਿ ਨਿਤ ਕਪਟੁ ਕਮਾਵਹਿ ਹਿਰਦਾ ਸੁਧੁ ਨ ਹੋਈ ॥ Calling out "Hari! Hari!" while constantly practising deceit — the heart does not become pure. In its suggestive reading (*byang*), this line also praises the True Guru. When a Sikh enters the sanctuary of the True Guru, the Guru's instruction enters the field of the mind like a plough; ego — that great weed — is uprooted at the root, never to return. When the Divine Will becomes pleasing, a rain of grace keeps the field ever watered; then the remembrance of the True Name is the sowing of the seed, and at once the fruit — wisdom, and the fruit of liberation — springs forth. The greatness of the True Guru's teaching lies precisely in this. Otherwise the Name on ordinary lips is dead: the syllables and the metres are the same, but ordinary people do not know the method (*bidhi*). The True Guru knows the method — that is the distinction. This is why Guru Ji has written: ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਜਪਹੁ ਮਨ ਮੇਰੇ ॥ Through the Guru's teaching, O my mind, recite the Name! And at the close of the first Ashtapadi of Sukhmani Sahib: ਕਰਿ ਕਿਰਪਾ ਜਿਸੁ ਆਪਿ ਬੁਝਾਇਆ ॥ ਨਾਨਕ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਹਰਿ ਸਿਮਰਨੁ ਤਿਨਿ ਪਾਇਆ ॥ By His Grace, He Himself grants understanding; Nanak, through the Guru's teaching, that one obtains the remembrance of Hari. Other mantras, lacking the proper method, are fruitless — even what little they yield is slight — but liberation is obtained through the True Name. Such is the meaning. Garab Ganjani Tika (1829), author: Kavi Santokh Singh Commentary on Japuji Sahib, Pauri 6 [[Garab Ganjani Tika]]