Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.9.13
—
Melbourne, April 12, 1972
Although we find in the neophyte devotee some bad behavior due to his past experience, so we should not take him as nondevotee. Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ [Bg. 9.30]. He is sādhu—if he sticks to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And the bad habits which are visible now, it will disappear. It will disappear. So we have to give chance because we see some bad habits of a devotee, we should not reject. We should give another chance. We should give another chance because he has taken the right thing, but to past behavior he appears to be again going to the māyā's clutches. So we should not reject, but we should give chance. One may take little more time to come to the standard, but we should give him chance. If he sticks to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, very soon all these defects will be disappearing. Kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā.
He will be completely a dharmātmā, a mahātmā. Why? Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati: [Bg. 9.31] "Anyone who has taken seriously My lotus feet, seriously surrendered to Me, he will never be anxious. He will never be anxious, although sometimes it appears that he is coming down." So this should be our principle. We stick to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then everything will be all right in due course of time. So the varieties of life there is. That variety is actual variety.