Advanced Consciousness

The next stage of devotion recognizes four principles: God, His devotees, those who hate or oppose Him, and the innocent, who can be swayed either way. The man who has advanced to this stage of consciousness is held to be highly beneficial to society. He is sane in the surest sense, capable of distinguishing right from wrong, and is able to preach the philosophy of God consciousness to the world without mangling or perverting it, as tends to happen with devotees in the less advanced stage. He does not hold a Moslem to be different from a Christian, but judges men on the basis of their love for God, and not on the specific way they go about developing that love.

While making it a point to oppose the atheistic section of human society, the devotee in the second stage of advancement attempts to bring the innocent-generally the greater portion of humanity-to an awareness of spiritual life and values. This is his primary endeavor, and is held in all the world's great scriptural texts to be the most elevated form of service to the Godhead.

The final or most advanced form of devotional awareness is very, very rare, and is known as the stage of pure, unadulterated love of God. At this point, the devotee sees all beings of whatever shape or form or position-human and non-human alike as servants of the Supreme Godhead. Even the atheist, even the inanimate objects of Nature are visible to him as instruments of the will of God, aspects of the Lord's perfect plan of Creation.

Such a pure devotee is considered fully merged in transcendental love for God, and in this position he is unable to preach or to chastise, for he sees no ill or harm, no opposition to the supremacy of God. Yet his association, the very sight of him, is enough to awaken the spiritual emotions of love which lie dormant in every being. And this applies not only to humans but to all creatures, as was exhibited by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Perfect Devotee, Who drew even the beasts of the jungle into the service of God.

The worshiper who reaches this platform of pure consciousness is, therefore, the most miraculous of men, for he offers to others-by his very existence-the hope of ultimate perfection, and the taste of true spiritual bliss.