1248
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 3, Ch. 29]
TRANSLATION
The pure devotee should execute devotional service by giving the greatest respect to the spiritual master and the  ācāryas . He should be compassionate to the poor and make friendship with persons who are his equals, but all his activities should be executed under regulation and with control of the senses.
PURPORT
In  Bhagavad-gītā , Thirteenth Chapter, it is clearly stated that one should execute devotional service and advance on the path of spiritual knowledge by accepting the  ācārya .  Ācāryopāsanam : one should worship an  ācārya , a spiritual master who knows things as they are. The spiritual master must be in the discipline succession from  Kṛṣṇa . The predecessors of the spiritual master are his spiritual master, his grand spiritual master, his great grand spiritual master and so on, who form the discipline succession of  ācāryas .
It is recommended herewith that all the  ācāryas  be given the highest respect. It is stated,  guruṣu nara-matiḥ .  Guruṣu  means “unto the  ācāryas ” and  nara-matiḥ  means “thinking like a common man.” To think of the  Vaiṣṇavas , the devotees, as belonging to a particular caste or community, to think of the  ācāryas  as ordinary men, or to think of the Deity in the temple as being made of stone, wood or metal, is condemned.  Niyamena : one should offer the greatest respect to the  ācāryas  according to the standard regulations. A devotee should also be compassionate to the poor. This does not refer to those who are poverty-stricken materially. According to devotional vision, a man is poor if he is not in  Kṛṣṇa  consciousness. A man may be very rich materially, but if he is not  Kṛṣṇa  conscious, he is considered poor. On the other hand, many  ācāryas , such as  Rūpa Gosvāmī  and  Sanātana Gosvāmī , used to live beneath trees every night. Superficially it appeared that they were very poverty-stricken, but from their writings we can understand that in spiritual life they were the richest personalities.
A devotee shows compassion to those poor souls who are wanting in spiritual knowledge by enlightening them in order to elevate them to  Kṛṣṇa  consciousness. That is one of the duties of a devotee. He should also make friendship with persons who are on an equal level with himself or who have the same understanding that he does. For a devotee, there is no point in making friendships with ordinary persons; he should make friendship with other devotees so that by discussing among themselves, they