In the Bhagavad-gītā you have read that a learned person, who is actually learned, he sees everyone on the equal level, sama-darśinaḥ. How? Vidyā-vinaya-sampanne. A person who is very highly learned, very gentle, civilized, vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe, and a brahmin, still higher, intellectual personality; gavi, a cow; hasti, means an elephant; śuni, the dog; śva-pāke ca, and the dog-eaters; śuni caiva śva-pāke ca paṇḍitāḥ sama, all these—there are different varieties of living condition—but still, one who is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he sees everyone on the same level.
How it is, that? Has he become a madman, that a highly intellectual person and the dog, he sees on the equal level? Yes. Because he is not seeing on the material platform, he is seeing on the spiritual platform. In the spiritual platform there is no distinction. The all distinction is due to our material conception of life. Varieties, the bodies, there are 8,400,000 varieties of bodies, and because we are under the concept of this bodily, I mean to say, identification, therefore we see so many varieties.
So a person who is actually in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Prahlāda Mahārāja says that if he prosecutes the devotional service under the guidance of bona fide spiritual master . . . that is the beginning of this verse: guru-śuśrūṣayā bhaktyā (SB 7.7.30), beginning with serving the bona fide spiritual master.
- hariḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
- bhagavān asta īśvaraḥ
- bhagavān asta īśvaraḥ
- iti bhūtāni manasā
- kāmais taiḥ sādhu mānayet
- (SB 7.7.32)
So as soon as one is fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he does not see anyone bad. Everyone he sees, he is sādhu. Sādhu means saintly. So that, his vision, completely changes. He does not see any enemy.
There are three stages of development in spiritual life, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The first stage is when he's under the training. That is called neophyte stage. That, in that stage, he offers his respect to the Deity.
- arcāyāṁ eva haraye
- śraddhayā yaḥ iṣṭān pūjān kriyate
- na tad-bhakteṣu cānyeṣu
- sa bhaktaḥ prakṛtaḥ smṛtaḥ
- (SB 11.2.47)
In the beginning stage, he offers respect to the Deity in the church or in the temple or in the mosque, according to different religious conception, but he has no idea who is actually devotee, and what is his duty towards other. He does not know. This is the first stage. But he has got good faith in religion and in God. That is the beginning.