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Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers
better than Me,” and Krṣṇa cannot refuse him. That is the best devotee. But it is not to be imitated: “I have become the best devotee.”
iśvare tad-adhīneṣu
bāliśeṣu dviṣatsu ca
prema-maitrī-krpopekṣā
yaḥ karoti sa madhyamaḥ
[Bhāg. 11.2.46]
A second-class devotee has the vision that some are envious of God, but this is not the vision of the best devotee. The best devotee sees, “Nobody is envious of God. Everyone is better than me.” Just like  Caitanya-caritāmṛta ’s author, Krṣṇadāsa Kavirāja. He says, “I am lower than the worm in the stool.”
BOB:  Who is saying this?
ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA:  Krṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, the author of  Caitanya-caritāmṛta :  purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha . He is not making a show. He is feeling like that. “I am the lowest. Everyone is best, but I am the lowest. Everyone is engaged in Krṣṇa’s service. I am not engaged.” Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “Oh, I have not a pinch of devotion to Krṣṇa. I cry to make a show. If I had been a devotee of Krṣṇa, I would have died long ago. But I am living. That is the proof that I do not love Krṣṇa.” That is the vision of the best devotee. He is so much absorbed in Krṣṇa’s love that he says, “Everything is going on, but I am the lowest. Therefore I cannot see God.” That is the best devotee.
BOB:  So a devotee must work for everybody’s liberation?
ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA:  Yes. A devotee must work under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master, not imitate the best devotee.