The Greatest Bhakta?

The greatest Bhakta is—not one who goes on rolling the beads, with selfishness, lust, anger and greed enshrined in his heart but—one who is endowed with all auspicious qualities, and who is devoted to the welfare of humanity. Lord Krishna does not define Jnana as scriptural erudition or an intellectual appreciation of philosophic truths or the capacity and cleverness to string words together and to indulge in vain debating. He defines Jnana as the sum total of the best of virtues. Read the thirteenth Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, you will understand this clearly.

The Lord says: watch for these qualities in a man. If they are present, he is a Jnani, a saint; you can safely follow him and adopt him as your spiritual guide. If they are absent, avoid him, even though he may be an expert in the play of words and has learnt the whole of the Vedas and Sastras by heart.

For, if you find that a tree is full of mango-fruit, you need not dig up the earth to see if the tree has sprung up from mango seed or from any other. "Know him by the fruits." If ignorance dwells in his heart, though the words appear to be words of wisdom, they are in fact the tentacles of the Adharma-octopus that dwells in the depths of his heart. How can a person pour out nectar from a jug that contains the deadliest poison? So, beware. All that glitters is not gold. Here is the touch-stone of true Wisdom-Ethics. Here is the easiest way of distinguishing the real flower from the paper-flower: fragrance! Ethics is the fragrance of wisdom.

Source: pgs 24-25, Ethics of the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Sivananda