# Rules and Regulations *On the regulative principles of devotional service* --- ### First Attachment, Then Rules > So rules and regulation automatically was taught. So that rules and regulations is not very important. The important is... The thing is that we must take up. The first rules and regulation is that we must have some attachment for this. Attachment for this. Then, automatically, rules and regulation we shall learn. There will be no difficulty. — [[spoken/1966/660909le.ny|Lecture on Mahā-mantra, New York, 1966]] --- ### Like Getting a New Job > Just like you enter into your office. You are appointed in some office to work. So on the very day, you do not know all the rules and regulations. But because you do not know all the rules and regulation, that does not mean that you cannot be appointed. First of all let yourself be appointed. Now, working, working, yourself you will know that rules and regulations. — [[spoken/1966/660909le.ny|Lecture on Mahā-mantra, New York, 1966]] --- ### Rules Are Subordinate > Of course, there are some rules and regulation for chanting, but in the beginning we haven't got to observe those rules and regulation at the present. First of all let us have the taste for chanting; then we shall be little careful that the rules and regulations are followed. In the beginning, if we stick up to the... Rules and regulation are subordinate, subordinate thing. — [[spoken/1966/660909le.ny|Lecture on Mahā-mantra, New York, 1966]] --- ### Learned Automatically > So rules and regulation automatically was taught. When I saw that his other disciples are coming, and they are sitting down, so I thought myself, "Oh, I have done this wrong. I should not have sat with His Divine Grace." So of course, I did not get down immediately, but I took it, and from next day I did not sit. — [[spoken/1966/660909le.ny|Lecture on Mahā-mantra, New York, 1966]] --- ### The Nivṛtti-mārga > Because you have to make it nil altogether. Then you are eligible to go back to home, back to Godhead. Therefore we train our students: "No illicit sex, no gambling, no intoxication, no meat-eating"—the nivṛtti-mārga. — [[spoken/1972/721017sb.vrn|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.6, Vṛndāvana, 1972]] --- ### Not Like Cats and Dogs > We cannot allow eating, mating, like animals, cats and dogs. No. That is not possible. You'll eat, you'll mate, but just like human being, civilized man. Then what is the distinction between animal and man if we behave like animals? — [[spoken/1969/690510r1.col|Room Conversation, Columbus, 1969]] --- ### Voluntary Acceptance > So tapasya means voluntarily one has to accept some so-called suffering. That is required to make advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness—voluntarily acceptance, some so-called suffering. Tapaḥ divyam. That suffering is for transcendental realization. That is good. — [[spoken/1969/690510r1.col|Room Conversation, Columbus, 1969]] --- ### Like a Doctor's Restriction > Just like a patient. A doctor says, "You cannot take it." So he has the desire to take it, but doctor says that "You cannot take it." Therefore he mentally thinks that "Doctor has restricted this. I am suffering." Actually he is curing, but he thinks that "I am suffering." And when he's cured, he sees, "Oh, doctor is good friend. He told me not to indulge in this. Now I have done it, I am now cured." — [[spoken/1969/690510r1.col|Room Conversation, Columbus, 1969]] --- ### Conquering Over Bodily Demands > Therefore the sādhana-bhajana means to come to the point of nil. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau. These Gosvāmīs, they conquered over nidrā, āhāra. Nidrā means sleeping, āhāra means eating, and vihāra means sex. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau. You have to conquer. The more you conquer over these things, the more you are advanced. — [[spoken/1972/721017sb.vrn|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.6, Vṛndāvana, 1972]] --- ### Accidental Mistake Excused > So accidental mistake is not dangerous. Willful mistake is dangerous. That we should be careful. We should be very careful always so that accidental mistakes also may not take place. But if it takes place, it is excused. — [[spoken/1969/690510r1.col|Room Conversation, Columbus, 1969]] --- *10 quotes from Śrīla Prabhupāda on rules and regulations* [[wiki/quotes|Back to Quotes]]