Eligibility of the Candidate for Accepting Devotional Service 29

first-class devotee is one who has strictly followed the rules and regu-
lations under the training of a bona fide spiritual master and has sin-
cerely obeyed him in accord with revealed scriptures. Thus being
fully trained to preach and become a spiritual master himself, he is
considered first-class. A first-class devotee never ‘deviates from the
principles of higher authority, and he attains firm faith in the scriptures
by understanding with all reasons and arguments. When we speak of
arguments and reason, it means arguments and reason on the basis of
revealed scripture. The first-class devotee is not interested in dry
speculative methods meant for wasting time. In other words, one
who has attained a mature determination in the matter of devotional
service can be accepted as the first-class devotee.

The second-class devotee has been defined by the following symp-
toms: he is not very expert in arguing on the strength of revealed
scripture, but he has firm faith in the objective. The purport of this
description is that the second-class devotee has firm faith in the pro-
cedure of devotional service unto Krsna, but he may sometimes fail
to offer arguments and decisions on the strength of revealed scrip-
ture to an opposing party. But at the same time he is still undaunted
within himself as to his decision that Krsna is the supreme object of
worship.

The neophyte or third-class devotee is one whose faith is not
strong and, at the same time, does not recognize the decision of the
revealed scripture. The neophyte’s faith can be changed by someone
else with strong arguments or by an opposite decision. Unlike the
second-class devotee, who also cannot put forward arguments and
evidences from the scripture, but who still has all faith in the objec-
tive, the neophyte has no firm faith in the objective. Thus he is called
the neophyte devotee.

Further classification of the neophyte devotee is made in the
Bhagavad-gita. It is stated there that four classes of men—namely
those who are distressed, those who are in need of money, those who
are inquisitive and those who are wise—begin devotional service and
come to the Lord for relief in the matter of their respective self-
satisfaction. They go into some place of worship and pray to God for
mitigation of material distress, or for some economic development,
