One question and answer will help you to understand that treating everyone equally nicely is what makes one a genuine Vaishnava.

Devotional service items include:

Chanting mantras, Deity worship, fasting, wearing tilak and simple clothing, being vegetarian, refraining from alcohol, tobacco, meat, and going on pilgrimage to holy place like Vrindavan.

A person X, who performs all the above devotional service items says to person Y. You visit the homes of servants and sit on the floor with them, how disgusting.

What is Right and Wrong?

Based on the Bhagavad-Gita teachings, person X is not a Vaishnava, despite performing all the above devotional service items. And person Y is a genuine Vaishnava (a genuine devotee of Lord Krishna), regardless of following the above devotional service items or not. Performing all the above devotional service items does not make one a Vaishnava. It is good behavior that makes one a Vaishnava.

Good behavior is a manifestation of devotion to Lord Krishna due to following His teachings as stated in the Bhagavad-Gita.

“Humility; pridelessness… – all these I declare to be knowledge, and besides this whatever there may be is ignorance.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita 13.8-12)

Humility means one does not want to be honored by others. One will sit on the floor with the servants or will allow the servants to sit on the same chairs.

Pridelessness means one will not be puffed up due to their high position or wealth. One will consider others as equals and will associate with those who are rich and those who are poor.

If a person is not humble and not free from pride, then that person has no spiritual knowledge and cannot be called a Vaishnava.

“The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste].” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita 5.18)

Those with true knowledge and understanding will see the servants as equals and thus will sit on the floor with them or allow the servants to sit on the same chairs.

“A Kṛṣṇa conscious person does not make any distinction between species or castes.” (Swami Srila Prabhupada, purport, Bhagavad-Gita 5.18)

  • A genuine Vaishnava sees everyone as souls and not as bodies and thus will be humble with everyone.
  • A genuine Vaishnava realizes that God is present in everyone and thus insulting anyone will be insulting God and so will be kind and humble with everyone.

“A true yogī observes Me in all beings and also sees every being in Me. Indeed, the self-realized person sees Me, the same Supreme Lord, everywhere.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagaavd-Gita 6.29)

“He is a perfect yogī who, by comparison to his own self, sees the true equality of all beings, in both their happiness and their distress, O Arjuna!” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita 6.32)