As soon as in India they took it that by birth one becomes brāhmaṇa, the whole Vedic civilization has been spoiled. brāhmaṇa means this quality. They have taken it in India now by birth one becomes brāhmaṇa. No. In the śāstra it is not stated that. In the śāstra it is said Kṛṣṇa Himself says, jan . . .
- cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ
- guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ
- (BG 4.13)
If you acquire these qualities, and if you work according to that quality, then you are either brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya or śūdra. They should be divided according to, I mean to say, quality and work. Just like a physician, he's a medical man. What is the symptom? He has passed the examination. That means he has got the quality or . . . and he is practicing as medical man. Then he is a medical man. Nobody goes to a medical man to ask him, "Are you brāhmaṇa? Are you kṣatriya? Are you śūdra?" There is no such question. You see what he is by his quality, and by his work you know that he is a medical man. So you understand that he is a medical man. Similarly, by quality and work if you see that he is acting as a brāhmaṇa, with the brāhmaṇa qualities, just as is described in the Bhagavad-gītā: sattva, śamo, dama, tittiksa, ārjavam:
- jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ
- brahma-karma svabhāva-jam
- (BG 18.42)
So we have to accept. Just like we are making brāhmaṇas. The Europeans, Americans, they are not born in brāhmaṇa families, but we are giving and recognizing them as brāhmaṇas because they are being qualified, and they are working. Qualified means they have given up meat-eating, they have given up illicit sex, they have given up intoxication, they have given up gambling. This is the quality. And work: they're chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, they're worshiping in the temple, they're thinking of Kṛṣṇa, they're devotee of Kṛṣṇa. This is karma. This is work and the quality. When the quality and work is there, there is a brāhmaṇa. Otherwise even one is born in a brāhmaṇa family, we reject them. He is śūdra; but he has no quality, he has no work. That is śāstric injunction.