In plain words
Mīrā said: “O God! A pearl lying in the ocean is not easily found. I have suffered many hardships in this deep, endless ocean and won this pearl. There is no greatness in winning it. Protect this pearl that has come into my hand, so that it does not slip from it,” she said. That is yoga and kṣema. What one gains may come by good fortune. But to protect what has been gained is kṣema. This is kṣema. Kṣema is in all three: the spiritual, the physical and the divine. It is welfare of body, of mind and of spirit. But just when you should be recognising this Satya, you fail to recognise it and you are letting it slip away.
Do not forget the promise you have given
Students! It is easy for you to let go, but Swami knows how its consequences and its future will hurt you; that is why Swami grieves over and over again. “Alas, these students let go of the chance that came to them; what sufferings will they meet in the future!”: this is Swami's grief. “As long as we are here we say things, take vows, make promises and pass the time, and the moment this course is over we can go anywhere, even to the race course; there is nothing to fear”: with this boldness and assurance you go about. It is a very great mistake, a grievous mistake. Its result will hurt you, if not today, then tomorrow. Make the effort to see that it does not hurt you. If today you break your promise laughing and laughing, tomorrow you will have to suffer for it weeping and weeping.
The chief limb of our body is the tongue. It is the tongue that makes one seem a beast. It makes one seem Paśupati. It takes one to the heights. It drags one down to the depths. That is why the Veda has held the tongue to be so important a measure. If we let slip the words that came from our tongue, we become people who have let slip the tongue itself.