In plain words
At each gate a hero stands guard, one to each gate, mighty, full of splendour, appointed by God’s command. The name of the guard at the first gate is śama. The name of the second guard is vicāraṇa. The name of the third guard is tṛpti. The name of the fourth guard is satsaṅga.
First of all we must see this śama, the guard called śama, who has good, firm faith in God. To enter here, we must win this gatekeeper’s leave. We must win him over. Only then does one become fit to enter here. In the worldly way, śama means suppressing the nature of the inner senses. No, no. That is not the right meaning. Śamuḍu is the one who restrains the mental principle that roots out the nature of the inner and the outer senses. That is, this Śamuḍu is the one who keeps the Ekādaśa Rudra under his control. Ekādaśa Rudra means the five organs of action, the five organs of knowledge and the mind: these eleven principles are called Ekādaśa Rudra. When we restrain the organs of knowledge, these organs of action come easily under our control. Nothing happens through the organs of action. So Śamuḍu is precisely the one who has restrained the nature of all the senses. If we would win this Śamuḍu over, we too must recognise Śamuḍu’s nature and act by it. That is, we must make the right effort, step by step, to bring our senses under control. Only the one who has brought the senses under his control is the Master; but the one who has come under the control of the senses is a slave, a bondsman. You must become a Master, not a slave. When you bring the senses under your control, you become Paśupati. When you come under the control of the senses, you become a beast. But unfortunately man, who should become Paśupati, becomes a beast today and takes his conduct far from humanness. Having enjoyed these worldly pleasures and riches through many births, and having grown the belief that in them alone lies a lasting truth, man is craning his neck after them and straining for them.
Embodiments of Prema! Beasts, birds and animals too enjoy pleasures and riches with the outer senses, fulfil their many kinds of desires, and live their lives as well. So, as ‘jantūnāṃ narajanmadurlabhaṃ’ says, man is most exalted. He is sacred. The maharṣis have condemned it as wrong that man, who should take shape as a human being of courtesy and good character, should himself come under the sway of these senses like the beasts, birds and animals. What is the way to master this? Because he holds this body, which is the very form of āvaraṇa, as his chief aim, thinking ‘I’ and ‘mine’, he suffers in many ways for the sake of this body’s pleasure.