Text 721
The lord's Atemon to Go to Vrodāvana
10E
temple Deity to be made of stone, wood or gold. All of these are impediments. The Deity in the temple is not material—He is the Supreme Personality of God-head Himself. Similarly, considering the spiritual master an ordinary human being ( guruṣu nara-matiḥ ) is also an impediment. Nor should one consider a Vaiṣṇava a member of a particular caste or nation. Nor should a Vaiṣṇava be considered material.  Caraṇāmṛta  should not be considered ordinary drinking water, and the holy name of the Lord should not be considered an ordinary sound vibration. Nor should one look on Lord Kṛṣṇa as an ordinary human being, for He is the origin of all  viṣṇu-tattvas ; nor should one regard the Supreme Lord as a demigod. Intermingling the spiritual with the material causes one to look on transcendence as material and the mundane as spiritual. This is all due to a poor fund of knowledge. One should not consider Lord Viṣṇu and things related to him as being different. All this is offensive.
In the  Bhakti-sandarbha  (265), Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī writes:  nāmaikaṁ yasya vāci smaraṇa-patha-gatam ityādau deha-draviṇādi-nimittaka-‘pāṣaṇḍa’-śabdena ca daśa aparādhā lakṣyante, pāṣaṇḍamayatvāt teṣām.
The Māyāvādīs look on Viṣṇu and Vaiṣṇavas imperfectly due to their poor fund of knowledge, and this is condemned. In  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  (11.2.46), the intermediate Vaiṣṇava is described as follows:
iśvare tad-adhineşu  
 bāliśeşu dvişatsu ca  
 prema-maitrī-kṛpopekṣā  
 yaḥ karoti sa madhyamaḥ
“The intermediate Vaiṣṇava has to love God, make friends with the devotees, instruct the innocent and reject jealous people.” These are the four functions of the Vaiṣṇava in the intermediate stage. In  Caitanya-caritāmṛta  ( Madhya  22.64) Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī is taught:
śraddhāvān jana haya bhakti-adhikārī ‘uttama’, ‘madhyama’, ‘kaniṣṭha’—sraddhā-anusārī
“One who is faithful is a proper candidate for devotional service. In terms of one’s degree of faith in devotional service, one is a first-class, second-class or neophyte Vaiṣṇava.”
Śāstra-yukti nāhi jāne dṛḍha, śraddhāvān ‘madhyama-adhikārī’ sei mahā-bhāgyavān
“One who has attained the intermediate stage is not very advanced in śāstric knowledge, but he has firm faith in the Lord. Such a person is very fortunate to be situated on the intermediate platform.” (Cc.  Madhya  22.67)