Text 1081 Sārvabhauma Bhattācārva Offers Prasāda to the Lord
حالات
Hari -bhakti-vilāsa (2 10) further quotes:
ato guruṁ praṇamyaivaṁ sarva-svaṁ vinivedya ca gṛhṇīyād vaiṣṇavaṁ mantraṁ dikṣā-ṇūrvaṁ vidhāṇataḥ
“It is the duty of every human being to surrender to a bona fide spiritual master. Giving him everything—body, mind and intelligence—one must take a   Vaiṣṇava initiation   from him.”
The  Bhakti-sandarbha  (298) gives the following quotation from the  Tattva-sāgara :
yathā kāñcanatāṁ yāti 
    kāsyaṁ rasa-vidhānataḥ 
    tathā dikṣā-vidhānena 
    dvijatvaṁ jāyate nrnām
“By chemical manipulation, bell metal is turned into gold when touched by mercury; similarly, when a person is properly initiated, he can acquire the qualities of a  brāhmaṇa .”
The  Hari-bhakti-vilāsa  (17.11,12) in discussing the  puraścaryā  process, quotes the following verses from Agastya- saṁhitā :
pūjā traikālikī nityaṁ japas tarpaņam eva ca homo brāhmaņa-bhuktiś ca puraścaraṇam ucyate
guror labdhasya mantrasya prasādena yathā-vidhi pañcāṅgopāsanā-siddhyai puraś caitad vidhīyate
“In the morning, afternoon and evening, one should worship the Deity, chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa  mantra , offer oblations, perform a fire sacrifice, and feed the  brāhmaṇas . These five activities constitute  puraścaryā . To attain full success when taking initiation from the spiritual master, one should first perform these  puraścaryā  processes.”
The word  puraḥ  means "before" and  caryā  means "activities." Due to the necessity of these activities, we do not immediately initiate disciples in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. For six months, a candidate for initiation must first attend  ārati  and classes in the  śāstras , practice the regulative prin-