I thank you very much for your appreciation of my disciples in New York and you will be glad to know that all my disciples in different centers are being so trained. The four principles of restriction, namely no illicit sex relations, no animal food, no intoxication, and no gambling, are acting on their character. Character building is the groundwork for seating Krsna consciousness and the Vedic injunction is that one can advance in spiritual life by following the rules of austerity and celibacy. We do not bluff our students that he has liberty to do all sorts of nonsense and at the same time advance in spiritual understanding. And because we are a little bit strict in this matter, we have not a very large number of followers, neither do we want any large number of nonsense followers. We want only one moon at night, and we do not care for millions of stars.
From Srila Prabhupada's letter to Jai Mazo, 18th January, 1968