1. Rules, regs, and Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami

    Of course, there are some rules and regulations 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….Rules and regulations are …subordinate thing. Just like you enter into an 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 regulations, 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: “This is the rule, and this is the regulation.” Just like in my life, I will say one instance. When I met my spiritual master, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja, so as a gentleman meets as a gentleman, so he was sitting in a couch like that. So, and I also sat down on that very couch. I did not know that what are the rules and regulations. Now, when I saw that his other disciples are coming, and they are sitting down, [laughs] so I thought to 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. So rules and regulations automatically were taught. That rules and regulations is not very important….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.

    [Srila Prabhupada; 8 September, 1966]