Concluding Words
On July 19, 1976, His Divine Grace Śrila Prabhupāda accepted my wife and me as his disciples and initiated us with the names Bhakti-devi dāsī and Brahmatirtha dāsa. As I reflect back on that day, I can see how fortunate I was to have met His Divine Grace and my Godbrothers in the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.
When I was handed my beads at initiation, I promised to follow the regulative principles and to chant God's names daily. Four years previously, Śrila Prabhupāda had advised me to follow these principles, and within six months, he said, I could be like the other devotees; all unnecessary things ( anarthas ), such as mundane movies and restaurants, would cease to attract me. "The whole human life is meant for purification," he said. I was interested in being purified, even though I did not really know what purification meant. I had gone to India with the Peace Corps hoping to find a higher level of consciousness. I could not believe that satisfying the senses was the all in all, yet I myself was bound by the senses. Later I could understand that  yoga  means becoming free from the dictation of the senses.
Upon returning to America, I started graduate school in geology, got married, and became somewhat entangled in domestic responsibilities, but I would very often think of
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