Imagine the following scene. You meet your old best friend Jack that you don’t see since high school. You become emotional in seeing your friend for so many years. You run in his direction, saying: “Jack, It’s me, I’m so happy to see you!”. However, as you get close, you notice he is not happy at all to see you. As a result, you stop. You look around and see some small children scattered here and there. One has hurt his leg, the other one is crying. In your rush to embrace your friend, you carelessly knocked down all these children, his children! How do you think Jack feels?

Sometimes, in our rush to get things done for Krsna, we treat his devotees carelessly and even hurt a few of them in the process. This was of course more common in the past, but it still happens a lot. Usually, the more active a place is, the more it tends to happen. This is like getting close to Krsna by knocking down his children, it doesn’t work very well.
Actually, the way one treats others is one of the most reliable ways to understand one’s level of advancement in spiritual life. As one’s ego becomes more under control, his awareness of others as parts and parcels of Krsna grows.

A materialistic devotee has a very big ego. He sees himself and a few others of the group he identify with as the only pure devotees. Consequently, he mistreats not only people in general but other devotees as well.

An intermediary devotee is capable of understanding the greatness of other devotees of the Lord, and he treats them with respect. However, he still sees himself as better than ordinary people, and he may thus mistreat them on occasion.

A pure devotee sees everyone as parts and parcels of Krsna and under this consciousness, he is respectfull to everyone. If he is preaching, he discriminates amongst devotees and non-devotees, following the guidelines given in the sastras and tries to help people to become Krsna Conscious, but internally he sees everyone as an eternal servant of Krsna, worth of his service.

It’s mentioned that one should try to become an intermediary devotee as quickly as possible. The position of a materialistic devotee is very dangerous because his big ego and his conflictive nature make it difficult for him to serve without vomiting offenses to others, and such offenses can easily push him away from the path of devotional service