SB 4.22.16
vyaktam atmavatam atma
bhagavan atma-bhavanah
svanam anugrahayemam
siddha-rupi caraty ajah
Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is always anxious to elevate the living entities, who are His parts and parcels, and for their special benefit the Lord travels all over the world in the form of self-realized persons like you.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
There are different kinds of transcendentalists, namely the jñanis, or impersonalists, the mystic yogis and, of course, all the devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Kumaras, however, were both yogis and jñanis and finally bhaktas later on. In the beginning they were impersonalists, but later they developed devotional activities; therefore they are the best of the transcendentalists. The devotees are representatives of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and to elevate the conditioned souls to their original consciousness, they travel all over the universes to enlighten the conditioned souls about Krsna consciousness. The best devotees are atmavat, or those who have fully realized the Supreme Soul. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, as Paramatma, is sitting within everyone’s heart, trying to elevate everyone to the platform of Krsna consciousness. Therefore He is called atma-bhavana. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is always trying to give the individual soul the intelligence to understand about Himself. He is always with the individual as a friend sitting by the side of a friend, and He gives facilities to all living entities according to their desires.
The word atmavatam is significant in this verse. There are three different kinds of devotees, namely kanistha-adhikari, madhyama-adhikari and uttama-adhikari — the neophyte, the preacher and the maha-bhagavata, or the highly advanced devotee. The highly advanced devotee is one who knows the conclusion of the Vedas in full knowledge; thus he becomes a devotee. Indeed, not only is he convinced himself, but he can convince others on the strength of Vedic evidence. The advanced devotee can also see all other living entities as part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, without discrimination. The madhyama-adhikari (preacher) is also well versed in the sastras and can convince others also, but he discriminates between the favorable and the unfavorable. In other words, the madhyama-adhikari does not care for the demoniac living entities, and the neophyte kanistha-adhikari does not know much about sastra but has full faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Kumaras, however, were maha-bhagavatas because after scrutinizingly studying the Absolute Truth, they became devotees. In other words, they were in full knowledge of the Vedic conclusion. In the Bhagavad-gita it is confirmed by the Lord that there are many devotees but that a devotee who is fully conversant in the Vedic conclusion is very dear to Him. Everyone is trying to elevate himself to the highest position according to his mentality. The karmis, who have a bodily concept of life, try to enjoy sense gratification to the utmost. The jñanis’ idea of the highest position is merging into the effulgence of the Lord. But a devotee’s highest position is in preaching all over the world the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore the devotees are actually the representatives of the Supreme Lord, and as such they travel all over the world directly as Narayana because they carry Narayana within their hearts and preach His glories. The representative of Narayana is as good as Narayana, but he is not to conclude, like the Mayavadis, that he has become Narayana. Generally, a sannyasi is addressed as Narayana by the Mayavadis. Their idea is that simply by taking sannyasa one becomes equal to Narayana or becomes Narayana Himself. The Vaisnava conclusion is different, as stated by Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura:
saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair
uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih
kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya
vande guroh sri-caranaravindam
According to the Vaisnava philosophy, a devotee is as good as Narayana not by becoming Narayana but by becoming the most confidential servant of Narayana. Such great personalities act as spiritual masters for the benefit of the people in general, and as such, a spiritual master who is preaching the glories of Narayana should be accepted as Narayana and be given all respects due Him.