Hare Krsna
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada
SB 1.12.17 - There are three grades of devotees, namely the maha-bhagavata, madhyam-adhikari and the kanistha-adhikari.
Those who go to the temples of the Lord and offer worshipful respect to the Deity without sufficient knowledge in the theological science and therefore without any respect for the devotees of the Lord are called materialistic devotees, or kanistha-adhikari, the third-grade devotees.
Secondly, the devotees who have developed a mentality of genuine service to the Lord and who thus make friendships only with similar devotees, show favor to the neophytes and avoid the atheists are called the second-grade devotees.
But those who see everything in the Lord or everything of the Lord and also see in everything an eternal relation of the Lord, so that there is nothing within their purview of sight except the Lord, are called the maha-bhagavatas, or the first-grade devotees of the Lord. Such first-grade devotees of the Lord are perfect in all respects. A devotee who may be in any of these categories is automatically qualified by all good qualities, and thus a maha-bhagavata devotee like Maharaja Pariksit is certainly perfect in all respects. And because Maharaja Pariksit took his birth in the family of Maharaja Yudhisthira, Yudhisthira is addressed herein as the maha-bhaga, or the greatest of the fortunates.
The family in which a maha-bhagavata takes his birth is fortunate because due to the birth of a first-grade devotee the members of the family, past, present and future up to one hundred generations, become liberated by the grace of the Lord, out of respect for His beloved devotee. Therefore, the highest benefit is done to one's family simply by becoming an unalloyed devotee of the Lord.
Note:
SB 1.14.8 -Sri Krsna functions in a different sphere of transcendental exchange with different grades of devotees.
SB 6.9.33 - The Supreme Personality of Godhead has numerous transcendental names pertaining to different grades of revelation to various grades of devotees and transcendentalists.
Adi 1.52 - We cannot discover the mysteries of the Lord by our mundane endeavors; they are only revealed, by His grace, to the proper devotees. These mysteries are gradually disclosed to the various grades of devotees in proportion to the gradual development of their service attitude.
Adi 6.110 - Lord Caitanya, who is known as Sri Gaurahari, is complete in relishing all the different mellows, namely neutrality, servitorship, fraternity, parental affection and conjugal love. By accepting the ecstasy of different grades of devotees, He is complete in relishing all the mellows of these relationships.
LoB verse 26 - The Lord derives transcendental pleasure by accepting services from His various grades of devotees, who are situated in various grades of rasas. These transcendental rasas are pervertedly reflected in the material atmosphere, and thus the spiritual living being, out of ignorance only, vainly seeks the same bliss in matter.
There are different grades of devotees. The first-class devotees were the gopis, the damsels of Vrndavana. Nobody could be compared with their devotional service. So next were Uddhava, then Arjuna. There are different grades of devotees also.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 20.137-142 -- New York, November 29, 1966
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