Always Prepared for the Unexpected

In this world we never know what is going to happen at any particular moment. Although things normally go on in a more or less routine way, sometimes apparently out of the blue we are hit by a devastating experience which completely overrides our normal life style. But a Krishna conscious person maintains his equilibrium in all circumstances without being disturbed because he sees how everything is going on under the perfect arrangement of Krishna.

Answers According to the Vedic Version

Question: Who is an Advanced Devotee?

How do you recognize who is an advanced devotee or a senior devotee? Is he the one who joined ISKCON before others? Or is it or something else? Please explain.

Your humble servant

Isvara Puri Dasa

Answer: The One Who is the Most Krishna Conscious

There are a number of ways by which a devotee may be considered our senior:

1. He is physically older than us
2. He was initiated before we were initiated
3. He is in a higher spiritual position than us such as temple president or sannyasi
4. He is more spiritually advanced than us, ie. more Krishna conscious

If he is more spiritually advanced than us, he is naturally our senior, even if we are senior to him according to one of the first three items. But in spite of this, one of the symptoms of the spiritually advanced devotee is that he is always eager to offer all respect to others. He honors as his seniors all those who are engaged in devotional service and are senior to him according to any of these four items.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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