What would you do if you were handed a guitar? Strum a few strings? Perhaps play-act as a rockstar? But once you start listening to the sounds attentively, you’ll be able to recognise different notes and chords. As you learn how to play the instrument, your listening is honed, and you learn a whole new language. Without the knowledge, you’re just pretending. But once you’ve learned the rules, understood the instrument, then you can start to find your own unique sound and express yourself, be the best musician you can.

What if you’re a dog lover? Would you go around petting every stray dog you came across? Without understanding their way of communication, without making sense of what and how they’re communicating, you would get bitten, sooner or later. And then cue the many vaccinations you’ll need and the anxiety that’ll follow. But once you understand a dog’s body language, his tail movements, the different types of barks and so on, you will be more discerning. You’ll know which dogs are friendly and which ones to steer clear of. Being within the realm of rules allows you to connect more deeply with the furry babies in front of you.

In every sphere of life, there are rules, ways of being. They might seem restrictive at first. Or even impossible to follow. Or entirely irrelevant. But once you start following them, you can make better sense of that world. And then you can be more yourself, in every way. And in ways you couldn’t even have anticipated before. The rules allow for an informed, conscious freedom. The rules are the building block that teach you about that particular world. And then, within those confines, you can express yourself, experiment, and be truly innovative.

In the Krishna Consciousness process, the same logic applies. By following the four regulative principles (no meat-eating, no intoxication, no illicit sex, and no gambling), by living life in the mode of goodness, you’re overcoming the addictions and temptations that drive you and rule over you. By emerging stronger than those, you’re discovering new power within yourself. You’re learning new ways of coping, of enjoying the world and of seeing and relating with people around you.

And once you follow those rules, all that energy starts to get redirected toward higher subject matters. Instead of mulling things over with a glass of wine, you introspect by sitting in front of Krishna. With a clear mind and knowledge of the scriptures, by relying on something greater and larger than yourself, and by consulting with God’s own word, you’re reaching more mature conclusions about the things in your mind. Your mind will, with time, start to go on interesting adventures of deep thought and interconnectedness. More things will become clear as your mind’s capacity to process ideas increases, without temptations to steer it off course. Answers will start to unravel, slowly and enjoyably.

The only questions are, are you going to let the regulative principles show you the upliftment they’re capable of? Are you going to have faith in Prabhupada’s instruction? Are you going to surrender to Krishna?

– Aarushi Agrawal