Best devotee thinks "Everyone is better than me"- From The book PQPA

Continued from the book " perfect questions and perfect answers"

Bob: I ask you this very humbly, but do you feel diseases and sickness?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Hm-m?

Bob: Do you personally feel disease and sickness?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bob: Is this a result of your past karma?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bob: So one in this material world never escapes his karma completely?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes, he escapes. No more karma for a devotee. No more karmic reaction.

Bob: But you must be the best devotee.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Hm-m... No, I don't consider myself the best devotee. I am the lowest.

Bob: No!

Śrīla Prabhupāda: You are the best devotee.

Bob: [Laughs.] Oh, no, no! But, see, you say—what you say... always seems right.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bob: Then you must be the best devotee.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: The thing is that even the best devotee, when he preaches, comes to the second-class platform of a devotee.

Bob: What would the best devotee be doing?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: The best devotee does not preach.

Bob: What does he do?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: He sees that there is no need of preaching. For him, everyone is a devotee. [Bob laughs heartily] Yes, he sees no more nondevotees—all devotees. He is called an uttama-adhikārī. But while I am preaching, how can I say I am the best devotee? Just like Rādhārāṇī—She does not see anyone as a nondevotee. Therefore we try to approach Rādhārāṇī.

Bob: Who is this?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Rādhārāṇī, Kṛṣṇa's consort.

Bob: Ah.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: If anyone approaches Rādhārāṇī, She recommends to Kṛṣṇa, "Here is the best devotee. He is better than Me," and Kṛṣṇa cannot refuse him. That is the best devotee. But it is not to be imitated: "I have become the best devotee."

īśvare tad-adhīneṣu

bāliśeṣu dviṣatsu ca

prema-maitrī-kṛpopekṣā

yaḥ karoti sa madhyamaḥ

(SB 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'sauthor, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja. He says, "I am lower than the worm in the stool."

Bob: Who is saying this?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, the author of Caitanya-caritāmṛta: purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha[Cc. Ādi 5.205]. 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 Kṛṣṇa's service. I am not engaged." Caitanya Mahāprabhu said "Oh, I have not a pinch of devotion to Kṛṣṇa. I cry to make a show. If I had been a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, I would have died long ago. But I am living. That is the proof that I do not love Kṛṣṇa." That is the vision of the best devotee. He is so much absorbed in Kṛṣṇa's love that he says, "Everything is going on, but I am the lowest. Therefore I cannot see God." That is the best devotee.

To be continued....