In plain words
It is not with water, with soap, or with any other material that you purify it. If the body is to be pure, you must enter into good deeds. Only through good deeds does the body become pure. Only through karma does purity of the citta come. We must purify our mind through our thoughts. When we purify these two, the Buddhi always stays pure. What is the very first sound in the body? Ahaṃ, ahaṃ. The 'I, I'. Where was the 'I' born? This ahaṃ was born from the Ātma itself. From this ahaṃ the mind came to be born. From the mind speech came to be born. Ahaṃ is the son of the Ātma. To ahaṃ the mind was born. The mind is the Ātma's grand son. From the mind speech was born. Speech is the Ātma's grand son. All these are one family belonging to the Ātma. As pure as the Ātma is, so pure must the mind become. As pure as the mind is, so pure must the body-self called ahaṃ become. So pure feelings must arise in this whole family of the Ātma. At times we break the word we have given. There is no sin greater than breaking a promise. Emperor Bali said it. Paliki boṅkuṭakaṇṭe pāpamunne: there is no other sin greater than speaking and then going back on it. We must keep our speech sacred.
When he was at Shirdi, many devotees used to come to Shirdi. There was a sheristadar there named Tarkhad. He had a wife and a son of sixteen. The wife and the son had great faith in Baba. Tarkhad would raise no objection of any kind to them. One day the wife and the son said, 'We must go to Shirdi.' He told them to go by all means. He belonged to the Brahmo Samaj. He had no wish to go to any holy place. Even when his wife begged him, he did not go to Shirdi. That too is a weakness. For whatever society we belong to, what does it matter? We must recognise that the Lord of all is one. Some take hold of these castes and creeds and enter a crooked path. Tarkhad, being of the Brahmo Samaj, said, 'I will not come; you go.' The sixteen-year-old son said, 'Father, I will not go.' Why will you not go? 'In my daily worship I keep a discipline from dawn till night. I offer sugar candy as naivedya. In the faith that Baba has accepted it, I take it back as His prasād. I do not want to give up this practice. So I will not go to Shirdi,' he said. The father's Prema for his son was great. Not wanting to trouble his son, the father said, 'Son, I will do that work.