Importance of Four Regulative Principles

There are four pillars upon which human society (religion) rests. 

These pillars are: mercy, truthfulness, austerity and cleanliness. 

1. No meat eating: Killing animals destroys the quality of mercy. One turns one's body into a graveyard by consuming dead animals. These foods are saturated with the modes of passion and ignorance and therefore cannot be offered to the Lord. A person who eats these foods participates in a conspiracy of violence against helpless animals and thus curtails his spiritual progress.

2. No gambling: Truthfulness is destroyed by gambling. This is quite obvious. Gambling turns a person into a liar, a cheat. Gambling invariably puts one into anxiety and fuels greed, envy, and anger.

3. No intoxicants: Intoxication means no austerity. People who take help of drugs, alcohols and smoke can not tolerate the situations and they think if they take help of these things they come out of their problems.

4. No illicit sex: Cleanliness is destroyed by illicit sex. Sex outside of marriage or any sex for any purpose other than procreation is illicit sex. Sex for pleasure compels one to identify with the body and prevents one from understanding Krsna consciousness.

By following these principles, you are not repressing yourself, but are elevating yourself to a superior platform. By chanting Hare Krishna, one gets a higher taste and you leave material desires behind according to the level of your realization.

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