Kavayaḥ means first class. Ato vai kavayo nityam. Perpetually, eternally. Bhaktiṁ paramayā mudā: devotional service. Transcendental, paramayā. The devotional service . . . for the third-class devotee, the devotional service is also third class.
And the . . . although third class, first class, second class, we are distinguishing, it is not ordinary, material first class, second class. Even in the spiritual world there is such divisions. The same division. Just like in the light, in the sunlight, there is division: the sunshine, the sun globe and the sun god. There are three divisions. It is not that because you are in the sunshine you know what is the sun globe or what is sun god. That is another stage.
Similarly, just to become a devotee on the devotional service, there are stages. Stages. That is kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, madhyama-adhikārī. So uttama-adhikārī, uttama-adhikārī first class. He's firmly convinced, "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Nobody can deviate. He can convert others to understand Kṛṣṇa, that He's the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but nobody can convert him that Kṛṣṇa is not God. That is not possible. That is first class.
So here it is said: ato vai kavayo nityaṁ bhaktiṁ paramayā mudā vāsudeve bhagavati (SB 1.2.22). Therefore those who are actually in the knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, science of God, they firmly fixed up in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa, Vāsudeva. Vāsudeve bhagavati. Then what about the third class? The third class also, if he stick to the devotional service according to the rules and regulation, vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ nayojitaḥ . . . (SB 1.2.7). Nayojita means "Just begun." Janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam. Then that devotional service to Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, will gradually help him how to become vairāgya, how to become detached with material attraction, and how to acquire knowledge about Kṛṣṇa. Everything will come.
So for the kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, we must stick to the principle. Gradually, everything will be revealed. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ (Brs. 1.2.234). In the beginning, because we have got blunt material senses, we cannot understand what is Kṛṣṇa, what is Kṛṣṇa's service; ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi . . . what is Kṛṣṇa's chanting of name. We are thinking that this is chanting, just like we chant so many vibrations, this is also like that. We cannot understand. But if we take up all this devotional service in right earnestness to serve the Lord, then everything will be gradually revealed.