"If one were to begin to study ISKCON techniques, what would he have to give up?"
Give up . . . give up means . . . first give up is that "I am this material body." The nonsense idea that, "I am this body," that is the root of all misunderstanding. So he has to give up this bodily consciousness. That is naturally. There will be beginning of teachings of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The Bhagavad-gītā teaches Arjuna. Arjuna was overwhelmed of family affection, that "How can I fight with my members of the family? They are my brothers . . ."
So this conception, bodily conception, was first of all eradicated in the Bhagavad-gītā. He lectured . . . Arjuna was talking, arguing with Kṛṣṇa that, "If I kill my family, male members, the female members will be without husband, and they will be polluted, and there will be unwanted children and this or . . ." so many, as far as one can, materialistic person can think. So he was talking like that, as very man of wisdom. So Kṛṣṇa first of all chastised him. Not in the beginning, because in the beginning there was friendly talk, but when Arjuna surrendered unto Kṛṣṇa, that "You don't take me as Your friend. I accept You as my spiritual master. So You teach me."
This relationship of spiritual master and student . . . the student is called śiṣya. Śiṣya, the Sanskrit word śiṣya, this word comes from the root śas. Śas means ruling. From śas, the śāstra. Śāstra means authoritative books. They have been derived. And śastra. Śastra means weapons, armaments. That is called śastra. Just like sword, guns, they are called śastra. These two things are rulings. The state has got law books, authoritative books, and one who does not obey the law books, then the next word is gun and sword. This, these two words means to accept authority.
So śiṣya means one who accepts the authority of the spiritual master. He voluntarily accepts the rulings or the punishment of the spiritual master. That is called śiṣya. One voluntarily agrees to the spiritual master . . . this initiation is going on. This is the beginning of voluntary acceptance of the spiritual master. That means he agrees that he will abide by the orders of the spiritual master. This is called acceptance of spiritual master. Śiṣya. Śiṣya means voluntarily accepting the ruling. Everyone is free. If I give you some ruling, why should you accept it? Therefore this formal initiation ceremony is performed. He promises, "My dear sir, I shall abide by your order."