Initiation is the beginning of a lifelong commitment to this path. As soon as we have faith in a guru and the willingness to serve and to follow, then our relationship with our Guru has been established. But the particular ceremony, the particular offering of initiation is a deep, sincere, lifelong commitment to follow. ‘yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado’ to please our Guru, and please all the previous acharya and Krishna, though the sincerity of our efforts,
So these vows that are taken, sometimes Prabhupad would call them rules and regulations. And especially Srila Prabhupada explains from Krishna’s words in Bhagavad Gita ‘raga-dvesa-vimuktais tu’ these are the regulative principles of freedom. They're not meant to bind us, they're meant to the parade us because we're already bound. Sometimes people think that these rules and regulations are too restrictive. But the reality is we are already restricted, our hands, our legs, our heads, our feets, our hearts, our brains, every part of us is shackled, like prisoners of Maya’s dictations. And whatever principles there are in Bhakti, are there to liberate us from those shackles, liberate us from that bondage, so that we could actually be free to live by the real spirit of the soul, to be free, to love Krishna, to be an instrument of Krishna’s love and to be happy, to be free from the fear of death and all the uncertainties of life. So, we're taking vows for this purpose.

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