The four regulative principles.
No meat, fish or eggs. No intoxicants, tea and coffee included. No gambling. No sex outside marriage for children. Vowed at initiation and enforced by the community.
The four regulative principles are vowed at initiation and are enforced by the community rather than by conscience alone. The dietary rule is the most visible: ISKCON temples run restaurants and a large food-relief programme, and everything served has been offered first. The intoxicant rule includes caffeine, which surprises people. The sexual rule — intercourse within marriage, for children, with prior chanting — is the one most often relaxed in practice and most often discussed. Devotees generally present the four as a package: the point is not each prohibition but the removal of the four things Prabhupada identified as reliably breaking the practice.
The same ground, other faiths
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