In plain words
He went to his younger sister. He had poison mixed into milk and had it given to her. Mīrā would offer everything to God and then eat.
Students! Here is something you must take careful note of. We have taught you to perform the Brahmārpaṇa before you eat, whether in the hostel or anywhere else. Because impurities of many kinds get into food. Purity in cooking, they say. The cook may not be clean. Even if his body is clean, his Buddhi may not be pure. He may cook while thinking all sorts of things. Then there is purity of the vessels. The vessels may not be properly clean. Purity of the ingredients. What do you think ‘ingredients’ means? At home we wash everything well and keep everything clean. That is not purity. We bring vegetables from the bazaar. We do not know whether the man grew them himself, or stole them from somewhere, or how he came by them. All kinds of taint are in these vegetables. When the neighbours’ drumstick tree leans over into our house, we may pick its pods, thinking, “It is in our house, isn’t it?” Those too are vegetables got by theft. Such vegetables are tainted. So we cannot trace the taint in the ingredients. There is no telling what the cook’s thoughts are like. Many taints of this kind creep in. When we perform the Brahmārpaṇa, when we offer it to God, it is no longer ingredients, no longer food: it turns into prasāda. Once it has turned into prasāda, no taint remains in it. That is why,
“The act of offering is Brahman, the oblation is Brahman, offered by Brahman into the fire that is Brahman; Brahman alone is reached by one absorbed in action that is Brahman”:
saying this, we must perform the Brahmārpaṇa. If you ask why we must do it:
“Becoming Vaiśvānara, I dwell in the bodies of living beings; joined with prāṇa and apāna, I digest food of the four kinds.”
God makes pure the food we eat in four ways, it is said. That is “Ahaṃ vaiśvānaro bhūtvā”: O foolish one! I dwell in you in the form of Vaiśvānara. What are the four kinds of food? One kind: shaping the food nicely into a mouthful, chewing it with the teeth until it is soft, and swallowing it. The second: sucking and swallowing. The third: slurping. When people take buttermilk, see, there is a slurping sound. That is slurping. The fourth: licking it up as a relish. Pickles. Pāyasam and buttermilk they simply swallow. They do not chew. They do not suck. What we chew, what we suck, what we swallow, what we taste. All four kinds of food I make pure. So God gives His promise.