How to view the devotees.

At one time at the Holy place of Uddharan Thakur who was a great devotee of the Lord and beloved associate of Sriman Mahaprabhu ,Srila Prabhupad remarked to us that when Sriman Mahaprahu gave the command to preach the Holy Name to Nityananada Prabhu, Uddharan Thakur was one of the most beloved of him and stalwarts in view of the help in preaching activities.He was born with humble beginnings in the caste of a suvarna vanik or gold merchant but by his unparalleled devotional activities earned the favour of Nityananada Prabhu and anybody who refers to him as of that that caste will have to earn the retribution of endless suffering in hell.In his actual spiritual identity, he was the associate of Balaram in the mellows of friendship and a pure devotee.
In actual fact there is no difference between Lord Vishnu and the pure devotee .They are both reciprocating in the the mellows of loving service but one always remain the Supreme Lord as the predominating deity while the other is predominated.Many a time we come into the error of trying to evaluate the eternally liberated souls according to the context of our narrow vision and try to identify him as in the same menial caste as ours and thus become implicated by such offence.
In that respect if any person born from a very lowly background is able to perform devotional service comparable to that of great devotees then he is eligible to be entitled for that glory that accrues for any vaishnava otherwise his birth as a Brahman or whatever high standing is to no avail.
In that same respect Srila Gurudeva is non different from Sri Nityananda Prabhu to the disciple though he will never in the least make such abject claims of that order always professing himself as the lowly servant of Sriman Nityananda.However the disciple if he does not visualise his guru as Nityananda or as less then he is most fallen and should be rejected.
It is a fact that many people bear with them the sins of their past lives but to generalise as such in the case of devotees doing unalloyed devotional service to the Lord is a dangerous matter.