It is the duty of the acarya to somehow get his disciples to fix their minds on Krishna. The rules and regulations can come later. Srila Prabhupada set the example of a guru trying to fix his disciples’ minds on Krishna. Even at the beginning, when Prabhupada started the Krishna consciousness movement, he attracted people by speaking about Krishna. It was quite some time before he introduced a new idea: “Anyone who lives in the ashrama must follow certain rules and regulations.” By the time Prabhupada introduced the rules and regulations, we were already so attracted to Krishna that we could not refuse to follow. When the mind is attracted to Krishna, we will naturally want to follow whatever regulations help us make progress toward Him.
(LFD, Vol2, The Process for Awakening Bhakti, Pg 23, 3rd paragraph)