You are a temple with fourteen gates. Five of perception, five of action, and four chambers within. Through them your soul meets the world, and through them, every hour and in very small ways, it moves either toward the Lotus Feet of Sriman Narayana or away from them.

This book walks all fourteen. At each gate it asks three plain questions. What has been coming in? What has been going out? And what would this gate become if it were turned toward Him? The answers come from the Alwars, from Bhagavad Ramanuja, and from the ordinary daily practice of the Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya, and every Sanskrit term is explained the first time it appears.

You do not walk alone. A boy named Govinda arrives at his Acharya's house on the first page and grows up as the book goes on, learning, stumbling, moving to the city, and at last surrendering. His questions are our questions.

The book closes with the fourteen practices gathered for daily life, a reading path into the tradition, and a glossary.