In plain words
The first is karma. For karma, instruments are essential. Whatever karma is to be done, our hands are of the first importance. Every action we do with our hands must be sacred, must be for the good of others, and must be meaningful. Only when these hands do such actions do the hands prove themselves sacred. This is the first purity, the purity of action. By these actions the citta too is purified. ‘Cittasya śuddhaye karmaḥ.’ Through all the actions man does, we gain purity of citta. Purity of citta alone is of no use. One-pointedness of citta is essential as well. The ground of this one-pointedness of citta is Bhakti. What does Bhakti mean? It means that Bhakti is what is never separate from God. When we recognise the Satya that the principle of God is everywhere, in our feeling there is no separation between God and us. If we are to remember, to sing of and to contemplate God, all-pervading and divine as He is, the tongue is essential. That is why
“O tongue, you who know taste and love sweetness, I tell you what is Satya, what is good, what is highest: speak the sweet syllables, Govinda, Dāmodara, Mādhava,”
said Jayadeva. The tongue, the sacred tongue, the meaningful tongue, the divine tongue, the noble tongue: with this tongue you must never use words that hurt anyone. You must never use words that cause anyone grief. With it we must speak only Satya. We must say only pleasing words. We must speak only words that do good. And these words must never be harsh words. That is why, in the Bhagavad Gītā,
“Speech that causes no distress, that is Satya, pleasing and beneficial, and the regular study of the scriptures: this is called the tapas of speech.”
Our speech must be loving, beneficial and free of agitation. Only then does our tongue become a sacred instrument. Only when we use it as a sacred instrument in this way does our birth too become meaningful.