In the Caitanya-caritamrta Prabhupada has given another bit of sobering advice, which we ought to take into account.

Caitanya-caritamrta Madhya.1.218 Purport:

“A mundane person in the dress of a Vaisnava should not be respected but rejected. This is enjoined in the sastras as upeksa. The word upeksa means neglect. One should neglect an envious person. A preacher’s duty is to love the Supreme Personality of Godhead, make friendships with Vaisnavas, show mercy to the innocent and reject or neglect those who are envious or jealous. There are many jealous people in the dress of Vaisnavas in this Krishna consciousness movement, and they should be completely neglected. There is no need to serve a jealous person who is in the dress of a Vaisnava. When Narottama dasa Thakura says chadiya Vaisnava seva nistara payeche keba, he is indicating an actual Vaisnava, not an envious or jealous person in the dress of a Vaisnava.”

Prabhupada has written this to guide us. He expects us to discriminate on the basis of his instructions and to follow his advice and practice upeksa. He expects us to neglect those persons who display the symptoms of being jealous or envious, even though in the dress of Vaisnava, in the Krishna consciousness movement.

These “jealous people in the dress of Vaisnavas in this Krishna consciousness movement” cannot be the pot washers. The only reason to be a jealous person and remain in the Krishna consciousness movement, is because one has vested interests in keeping that position.

An envious non-Vaisnava who is not exploiting the role has no motive to remain in the Krishna consciousness movement. To remain, he must have a vested interest. Naturally, such a person will be very careful to do his utmost to maintain his guise of being a Vaisnava. He will protect it at all costs. After all, it is his means of livelihood. Nevertheless, try as he might, he will not be able to hide his envy. When his character is studied, one will find that this person, instead of being non-envious, has a proclivity for controlling things. He will be unable to cooperate with anyone; rather others must cooperate with him. For him, cooperation is not a two-way street. He will be like a petulant child, needing to have his way or be miserable. He will be unabashed about making politics, diplomacy, and intrigue in his attempt to sway the universe to his fancy. All of these are non-Vaisnava symptoms. They are symptoms of envy and jealousy.

Srila Prabhupada’s instructions about such persons in our midst is,

“That they should be neglected.”

That is his recommendation, provided one discriminates enough to detect those symptoms. He says that there is no need to serve such an envious person in the dress of a Vaisnava. Rather he says,

“When Narottama dasa Thakura says chadiya vaisnava seva nistara payeche keba, he is indicating an actual Vaisnava, not an envious or jealous person in the dress of a Vaisnava.”

To neglect such persons, we first of all must spot them. We have to identify them. However, if we are afraid or too crippled to apply critical thinking, we will never be able to make sense of this instruction and will be victimized by the disguised mundane person.

Many of us can remember our failure to apply critical thinking in the past. We have experienced how men in our midst openly behaved in ways unbecoming of a Vaisnava, and were not only tolerated long past the point of reasonable doubt about their motives, but were hailed as great Vaisnavas. The reason: they were clever enough to hold up some symbols of success—books distributed, devotees made, and temples opened—which we allowed to obscure their questionable character. It is such an obvious strategy