OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA OM Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.

avadhutasya kasta-vyāma viṣayāmy yati sarvam.

Cha, Also, Prak, Eastern, Varao, 2 gates, Ekatra, in 1 place, Nirmite, constructed, Avadhuta, of the name Avadhuta, Saka, with his friend, pavyam, by those 2 gates, vishayam, place, iyati, used to go, saravam, of the name sarabha.

Translation in Purport by His Divine Grace, Śrīla Prabhupāda, similarly in the east there were 2 sets of gates named Nālani and Nālani, and these were also constructed in 1 place.

Through these gates, the king accompanied by a friend named Abhiduta used to go to the city of Sarovar.

The 2 gates named Nalani and Nalani are the 2 nostrils.

The living entity enjoys these 2 gates with the help of different abhidhutas or airs which constitute the breathing process.

Through these gates the living entity goes to the town of sarva or aroma.

In other words, the nostrils with the help of their friend the air enjoy various aromas in the material world.

Nalini and nalini are the pipes of the nostrils through which 1 inhales and exhales enjoy the aroma of sense pleasure."

Śrī guruṁ śrī-jatā-padakamalāṁ śrī-guruṁ vaiṣṇavamś ca TAM SA JEEVAM

SAVADHUTAM PARIJANASAHITAM KRISHNA CHETANYA DEVAM parijana-sahitam krishna-caitanya-devam śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādam sahagana-lādhītā śrī-viśākāṁ vitāṁś ca namo om viṣṇu-padāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devam śrī-radhā-kṛṣṇa-pādam sa haganaradhita śrī viṣākāṁ vṛttāmuṣṭha namo om viṣṇu padāya kṛṣṇa-prestāya bhūtale śrīmate bhaktivedanta svāmṛti nāmine vishnaprestaya bhūtale śrīmate bhaktivedanta svāmanitīnāmine namaste sarasvate deve gauravāni prachārine nirviśeṣa śūnyavādi

paścātya-deśatārine So, if we could broadcast this verse and prayer part here to thousands and millions of spiritual seekers all over the world, they might ask, what in the world does this have to do with Self-Realization?

Talking about the airs coming through the nostrils.

Why do we have to study about these 9 gates when we're not these bodies, 1 could ask?

Well these 9 gates can be understood as our attempt to try to enjoy this world through these different 9 gates.

So the point is we have to go beyond these 9 gates.

The first step in Self-Realization is to understand, I am not these 9 gates.

I may be living in this city of 9 gates, but it's not my permanent residence.

Just like someone may go traveling here, traveling there, and take up residence in this place, just like we were in Trivandrum and now we're in Vrindavan.

You may go to different places, but it's not that you are those places.

So right now we're residing in this city, each 1 of these, it's like here in this room we have many different cities of 9 gates sitting here.

We have about 10 or 12 cities of 9 gates sitting here, you see, different cities of 9 gates.

So, we're all residing in these different cities, but it's not that we are these different cities of 9 gates.

We're actually situated beyond these cities of 9 gates.

But the difficulty is, my dear devotees, the difficulty is we're misidentifying, oh yes, I am this city of 9 gates, I am this nostrils, I am these eyes, I am these ears, I am these genitals, you see.

We misidentify with these things and that gets us into a lot of difficulties.

Dehi nāsmin yadāte he, kamāraṁ jobaram jirāt tathā dayantara-praptir dhira-śreta-namuyati.

As the embodied soul continually passes in this body from boyhood to youth to old age.

The soul similarly passes into another city of 9 gates at the time of death.

The self-realized souls are not bewildered by such a change.

The Tathagatis, my dear Listeners, right now we are bewildered.

We're bewildered when we get sick, we get old, we find ourselves getting old, we're bewildered by it, oh no, I'm getting old, body's falling apart, what can I do?

I have this problem, I have that problem.

So right now, because we're not self-realized, we're bewildered by these changes in the body.

It's like bewildering when a young boy attains puberty.

His voice changes, he gets a beard, he becomes lusty, all these things come.

When he goes from puberty into manhood, it's a very bewildering change to go through.

I was in this body, but now everything is different.

So, these changes in the body are actually very bewildering things.

So, the real point is, how do we become self-realized souls and not be bewildered by these changes in the body?

How can we come to this platform of being self-realized souls and not be bewildered by this change?

Well, you have to engage the city of 9 gates, even though you're not the city of 9 gates, even though you're not this body, you have to engage these bodies, vishyakesha, vishyakena, sevonam.

The master of the senses, vishyakesha, you have to engage the vishyaka, the senses, in the service of the master of the senses.

But the difficulty is, we're not doing that.

It's like Bhagavad-gita-tathagat Like Bhagavad-gītā-tukara is very nicely sung.

Jīvanā hayaḥ, jīvanā hayaḥ seṣh, nā bhajīla rṣikeṣh jīvanā hayaḥ seśa This light can enter at any minute.

But still I'm not serving the Lord of the senses, rishi keśa.

So we think, even though death can come at any minute, any minute, you never know when it's going to happen.

Just like 1 man, he was attacked by his own pet dog.

He almost died actually, his dog almost, his own pet dog, who was petting a few minutes ago, now has attacked him and almost killed him.

So we should never think, oh yes, I will live here a very long time." At any second we can be finished.

Any 1 of us can drop dead by a heart attack, a seizure, or whatever.

So therefore we should be prepared to take shelter of that holy name, like Bhaktivinoda Thakura advises, bhaktivinoda upadesa.

Bhaktivinoda Upadesa ek bharanam rase mato re.

Just once, just even once, relish the nectar of the name.

So that's what will save us, my dear devotees.

We have to learn how to relish the nectar of the name.

We have to learn how to become intoxicated by the name.

See right now, we would have been intoxicated by material nature.

We get intoxicated seeing the opposite sex, or we get intoxicated by this or that money or power or fame.

We get intoxicated by these things, that's the difficulty.

We're intoxicated by the material energy.

have to get free from the clutches of Maya.

If you can somehow get the key, you can be liberated.

The jailer has the keys and you don't have the key, but if somehow you could get, he walked by, you can sneak the key out of his pocket.

So Lord Chaitanya has come to give us the key.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna,

Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

The city of 9 gates is a jail cell in which you're locked in right now.

The beauty of this process is even when your body is living, You can be liberated from it.

You can be within this body but no longer captured by it.

This body is a jail and now we're captured in this body, but you can be in the jail, At the same time be out of the jail.

Same time be in the jail and out of the jail at the same time.

Actually I had that experience as I mentioned in my memoir.

I was out there distributing Back to Godhead magazine in Leesburg, Florida in a shopping mall and guess what?

The local police thought I'd be better situated in their squad car than out there distributing Back Together magazine.

And they took me to my new home in the city jail.

There's a saying called, behind the bars, meaning you're under arrest, you're in the jail, you're behind the bars.

When I looked through the bars there in the window, I looked at the material world out there.

There I was chanting Hare Krishna in the jail cell.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

I looked through the window, I could see the whole material world was behind the bars.

So the point is, even while you're being in this body, you can be liberated from the body, seeing the body as jail cell, but seeing they're behind them, the whole material world is behind the bars and you're on the liberated side.

So the point is how can we become probably situated now on the other side of the bars, even though we're in the bars, how to see them, how material well is behind the bars, and not I'm behind the bars.

Baba has given it so many ways, just like I mentioned many times.

So just, even when you're drinking water, you remember Krishna.

In other words, try to do everything you can to remember Krishna.

Take every possible way you can to remember Krishna, every situation.

Krishna Himself has manifested as Govardhan.

So when you go to Govardhan, you go, Oh, Krishna's been standing here for 5,000 years, and now I can have this darshan.

After 5,000 years, Krishna's still standing here.

So take every opportunity to be Krishna conscious.

So, remembering his divine teachings, they're so powerful.

Even take 1 verse of the Bhagavad-gītā, even 1 verse can liberate you.

Apurya-māṇḍham mac-cādāpatiṣṭhaṁ samudvāpāpāpīśanti yad-vad-tad-vad-karma-yam prabhīṣaṁ tathātheśa-śaśāśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaśaś say, apuryamanam macchala-pratishtham samudrabhavapavisanta-yadvatadvat-kamayam pravisanta-sarthe-sastram shistantam abhnoti na kama kami.

A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires that enter like rivers into the ocean which is ever being filled, but alone remains still, can alone achieve peace, and not the person who strives to satisfy those desires." So desires to gratify the city of 9 gates, whether it's the nostril gates, nālani and nālani, Whatever, whatever.

Of course, we have so much facility here to enjoy, to get purified by nalini and nalini.

Just like every day, that, that's the devotee comes by, he puts the scent on my wrist.

Very strong scent, and I get to smell it.

It was offered to the deities, Krishna and Balarama.

Very strong scent, big, huge, 3 of me puts every morning.

So that we can smell the incense offered to the Lord.

So instead of trying to smell something for sense gratification, like the perfume of a woman, you see, we can smell the beautiful perfume that's offered in the service of the Lord.

So in this way, Hrishikesha Hrishikena Sevanam, engage all the senses in the service of the Lord, not be bewildered by any material desires.

We're living in the world of material desires right now, but they should just pass right through us.

The material desires like arrows being shot everywhere.

Cupid is like a machine gun of arrows, shooting a machine gun of arrows everywhere.

Even to sell toothpaste, they use sex to sell toothpaste, but to speak of other things, even microphones, they use sex to sell microphones nowadays.

They had a microphone they had to show a woman, half naked woman, her breasts half way showing to sell a microphone.

Can you say anything that's civil about it?

Can you name anything that's civil about it?

Is there any 1 thing that's civil about it?

They should call it animalization or something like that.

We need to change the word in the dictionary.

Us, non-civilization, something like that.

That's civilization, based on Krishna consciousness.

Any society that's not based on Krishna consciousness is actually lower than the animals.

The Animals are acting in accordance with the laws of nature.

Monkeys do their monkey business just like they're supposed to according to the laws of nature.

The pigeons, the sparrows, the ants, everybody is totally, 100% in harmony with the laws of nature.

Show me which species are polluting the atmosphere on this planet.

The human beings are polluting the atmosphere on this planet right now.

Just like I was saying warnings of the very bad quality air in Vrindavan.

I look on the weather report, there's warning, the air is very bad in Vrindavan.

That's not from the animals, but the plants.

Actually, the human beings, they're polluting it with all their industrial enterprises.

So we have to become a little bit sober, my dear Prabhus and Madhusis, we have to become a little bit sober, my dear Pabu's and Madhuji's, we have to become a little sober now and wake up and realize these rascal leaders are completely devastating the peace and happiness of the human population.

We need a new set of leaders who follow Dharma.

Not these rascals, they're simply power hungry monsters trying to take over the world for their sense gratification.

We have rapists and all kinds of low class people trying to rule this planet right now.

So, we need to become a little bit sane, a little bit sober, a little bit sensible, come out of this crazy mentality of putting our faith in these rascals.

We have to understand the only ones who can actually lead us properly.

Yad yadāt teraśiṣṭhaś tattvata yaveta rojanā sa yad pramāṇam karute lokas tad anuvartate The only ones who qualify to truly lead us are the Acharyas.

Those who are not only preaching Vaishnava principles, but practicing them with every thought, more deed, and all times, circumstances.

Those who can actually lead us, rascals who are struggling here in the modes of nature.

Those persons like Prabhupāda, Bhaktisiddhānanda Sarasvati Dakura, those persons who are actually living examples of the scriptures, they can rescue poor souls like us who are drowning in the murders of nature, take us back to our original identities in Krishna's transcendental kingdom.

So we should not remain prisoners here within these cities of 9 gates.

We should use this city of 9 gates very nicely in the service of Krishna.

Use the eyes to see the form of the Lord, the ears to hear the topics of the Lord, the nose to smell the incense and the perfumes offered to the Lord, the likes for walking to the temple of the Lord, the intelligence for how to preach the glories of the Lord, everything utilized for Krishna.

Even if you're a businessman, make money for Krishna.

Even if you're a worker, try to do your job in such a way that you can be Krishna conscious and spread Krishna conscious of the co-workers and Then and then so the point is gauge everything for Krishna Nothing for my sense gratification Krishna will take good care of you.

It's not that you're going to starve to death if you become Krishna's devotee.

You'll actually be better than the non-devotees.

Everything is there if you give yourself to Krishna.

You gain everything by becoming Krishna conscious.

So when you give yourself to Krishna, guess what happens?

You actually possess the owner of everything.

So you become more wealthy than even the biggest wealthy people on this planet right now when you become Krishna conscious.

You become more wealthy than Bezos or any of these multi-billionaire peoples.

You become more wealthy than any of them.

When you give yourself to Krishna fully, now Krishna becomes your property, the 1 who owns all the planets, all the universes, all existence is the property of Krishna.

And now you own Krishna and everything is your property, as good as your property, you see.

But the key is you can't have any desire for sense enjoyment.

You have to engage everything in the service of the Lord.

That amazing person, you see, Venam kvanantam aravindadaraya taksam, barha-vatam samajyatam buddhasundaram, gandharpa-kodikamaniya-vishesha-sobham, govindam adipurusham tamaham ajamiya-vrishu-govindam the primeval Lord, who is the dead but playing on his flute, with blooming eyes like lotus petals, head like the peacock's feather, with a figure of beauty tinged with the hue of blue clouds, and his unique loveliness is charming millions of Cupids.

Just imagine having an intimate, loving relationship with that person.

It's like when there's some big famous person, everybody wants to get, how they can have a good, how they can get in close.

How can I have a personal relationship with some big famous personality, considered a great accomplishment?

You can become personal friends with the Beatles, or be a personal friend with some famous person, considered a big thing.

Oh wow, I became a close friend with 1 of these big famous people.

These other famous people, their fame is fleeting, it comes and it goes.

They may be a big famous movie star now and become a dog in their next birth, you see.

They become a big famous prime minister, a songwriter, an author, whatever.

You may come close, but they're going down to the animal kingdom in the next world.

Try to develop some relationship with some big famous person in the material world when you can develop.

The supreme famous person is ready right now.

I'm the best, most intimate, well-wishing friend of every single living being.

So Krishna is your most intimate, well-wishing friend.

You should be turning around and go back.

Why do you keep running away from Krishna?

He's saying, come back, come back, come back.

I'm going to go off on my own and try to be a Krishna.

I will be another Krishna on my own independently.

I may be a big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big bummer, big, big this, you see.

It's time for us to stop this idiocy, this madness, and realize I cannot imitate Krishna.

I'm the source of all material and spiritual worlds.

I have to get, just understand my position is, I'm the emanated energy of Krishna and He's emanating me for the purpose of enjoying loving relationship, loving rasa.

Krishna wants a rasa with me and that's why I exist.

So why not just getting back to who I am?

Why should I be a fish trying to enjoy the land?

Instead of trying to enjoy independently in the land, just get back to the water, get back to my natural habitat.

So all we're saying in this Krishna consciousness movement is get back to your natural habitat.

It's considered very cool nowadays, be natural.

But the trouble is, we think natural is, we have a wrong idea what natural means.

It's like the hippie style, natural means go to the woods, have a nudist colleague in the woods, and walk around, I don't need clothes, that's being natural.

Being natural means to get back to being who you actually are, jivara sarvapahaya krishnara nitya dasa.

That's what it means to actually be natural.

So, these great acharyas are teaching us how to be our actual selves.

Why do we keep going away from them and try to do something different.

Why are we so stupid, so asinine, to prefer being an ass, when I can come to the high-class position of being the pure devotee of Krishna?

So let's stop being an ass and become high-class.

Let's get back to being who we actually are.

Why don't we listen to these rascal minds who are telling us to try to enjoy, enjoy, enjoy?

We should beat our heads with shoes for being such rascals.

It's time to get back to being who we actually are, the eternal servants of Krishna, all full of bliss and knowledge.

Mananda-cchindhi-sac-cchidananda-vigraha As Krishna is sac-cchidananda-vigraha, we are qualitatively 1 with Him, therefore we are also such that under vigraha.

And as Krishna is an eternal youth, and that would be Yovinam, we are also eternal youths.

So let's get banged beings, who we actually are.

And Guru Manoji now will give us some further enlightening points in this regard.

But when you ask a question, she'll jump in for sure and give us some very good answers.

See all transcripts on Upload

SB 04.25.48 Gates of the body 2024-03-02 Vrindavan.m4a