Anyone engaged in devotional service to the Supreme Personality of
Godhead is known as a devotee, but there is a distinction between pure
devotees and mixed devotees.
A mixed devotee engages in devotional service for the spiritual
benefit of being eternally engaged in the transcendental abode of the
Lord in full bliss and knowledge. In material existence, when a
devotee is not completely purified, he expects material benefit from
the Lord in the form of relief from material miseries, or he wants
material gain, advancement in knowledge of the relationship between
the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entity, or knowledge
as to the real nature of the Supreme Lord.
When a person is transcendental to these conditions, he is called a
pure devotee. He does not engage himself in the service of the Lord
for any material benefit or for understanding of the Supreme Lord. His
one interest is that he loves the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and
he spontaneously engages in satisfying Him.
A mixed devotee may desire to enjoy a comfortable life on another
planet with a greater span of life, such as on Brahmaloka. These are
material desires, but because a mixed devotee engages in the service
of the Lord, ultimately, after many, many lives of material enjoyment,
he undoubtedly develops Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and the symptom of
this Kṛṣṇa consciousness is that he is no longer interested in any
sort of materially elevated life. He does not even aspire to become a
personality like Lord Brahmā.
(Srimad Bhagavatam 3.27.27 Purport)
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