Not that a teeny devotee can claim that he has overcome the influence of this world. No. This is called paramahamsa. Sa gunan samatityaitan [Bg. 14.26]. Not that because you have taken to devotional…, you have become immediately. The process has begun immediately, curing process. But we should not think that we have become perfect. That is wrong. Yajna-dana-tapah-karma na tyajyam [Bg. 18.5]. Therefore you must follow the regulative principles. As soon as you become a rascal — "Now I have become advanced. I don't require to chant sixteen rounds. I can do whatever I like" — then he has gone to hell. Upstart, immediately he becomes paramahamsa. He's a rascal. He was given the path of becoming paramahamsa. One is admitted in the school, he must learn, and one day he will become M.A. But simply by entering in the school, if he says, "I am M.A.," that is rascaldom. This is a chance. To become jitendriya is very difficult task. But it is easy if he immediately becomes a pure devotee. Anyabhilasita-sunyam [Brs. 1.1.11]: "Everything make zero, all desire, except Krsna consciousness." That is wanted. But that does not become very easily done. One has to try very rigidly; then he'll be paramahamsa. Therefore amongst the devotees, there are three grades: kanistha-adhikari, madhyama-adhikari and uttama-adhikari. So if the kanistha-adhikari thinks that "I have become uttama-adhikari," then he's a rascal. He's a rascal. If he wants to imitate the uttama-adhikari, then he's a rascal.

Srila Prabhupada — February 4, 1976, Mayapur