You may take birth in high brāhmaṇa family, but by association and culture if you become degraded, then you have to be designated as such degraded person. Not that you become degraded, at the same time, you keep yourself as brāhmaṇa. That is not possible. Yasya hi yal lakṣaṇaṁ syāt varṇābhivyañjakam (SB 7.11.35). In the śāstra it is said that there are symptoms, avarṇa. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā you will find the symptoms, who is a brāhmaṇa. So these are the symptoms: satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjavam, jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). So if you don't find these symptoms, then how one can become brāhmaṇa? That is not possible.
Therefore in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we are trying to develop the symptoms of brāhmaṇa. Not by birth, to educate them how to become śamo damas titikṣā ārjavam. So therefore you all, you should know that . . . you are not born in the brāhmaṇa family. It may not be very hard word, but actually it is mleccha-yavanas. Mleccha-yavanas means the cow-flesh eaters, meat-eaters. They are called mleccha-yavanas. Especially mleccha means cow-eaters.
So you are coming from the mleccha-yavanas' family, but you are being accepted as brāhmaṇa. Why? For the symptoms. You are being trained up to acquire the symptoms, śamo damas titikṣā. If you think that, "Now I have got the sacred thread, I have become victorious," no. You must always examine yourself, "Whether I am possessing all the symptoms?" Otherwise, you are no good. Simply by a thread, you do not become. Sūtram eva hi dvijatvam. Just like Kali-yuga, it is said a sūtram . . . sūtram means this thread. If some way or other one gets this thread, he'll thinks himself he has become brāhmaṇa. No. To become brāhmaṇa is not so easy thing. One must acquire all these qualities: śamo damas titikṣā ārjavam āstikyaṁ jñānaṁ vijñānaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam. Unless you . . .
So you must be always alert whether you are fixed up in the symptoms. Then you are qualified brāhmaṇa. Otherwise you are again the same category as in India. Some of them, they are simply claiming to become brāhmaṇa on account of being born in a brāhmaṇa family. No. That is not this sa . . . just like Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī. Actually, they were born in brāhmaṇa family, but they knew that, "We have lost our culture due to association with the Muhammadans always." Therefore he presented himself, nīca-jāti. Nīca-jāti, nīca-karma, nīca-saṅgī (CC Madhya 1.189).
So if we deteriorate in our symptoms of brāhmaṇa, then that is not brāhmaṇa, that is not qualified brāhmaṇa. Therefore . . . it is a vijñāna. Vijñana-vidhūta-vibhramaḥ. Everyone is uneducated. Everyone is born rascal and fool. He should be enlightened, elevated, by vijñāna-vidhūta. Vijñāna-vidhūta-vibhramaḥ. This can be achieved when one is interested in the matter of self-realization. If one is interested. Ātma-tattvam. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam (SB 5.5.5). If one is not interested in understanding his identification, what he is, ke āmi kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya . . . (CC Madhya 20.102). As Sanātana Gosvāmī presented himself before Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and his question was, "Ke āmi?" Tad-vijñānārthaṁ gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Strictly according to Vedic principle. Sanātana Gosvāmī approached the spiritual master, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, tad-vijñānārtham. What is that? "What I am?" To understand this, tad-vijñānārtham, the ātma-tattvam, self-realization.
So to become a disciple of spiritual master, unless there is awakening of this knowledge, to know, "What I am?" there is no need of making a show, accepting a spiritual master. There is no need. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21). For whom guru is needed? Guru, spiritual master, is not a farce, that "Let me have a guru, nice guru. Then I become perfect." And if you do not follow the instruction of guru . . . first of all, you must have a bona fide guru. And if you follow, then your life is perfect. So two things must be correct: the guru must be correct and the disciple must be correct. Then the business will be correct. And either of them—if guru is incorrect or the disciple is incorrect—there will be no action.
So therefore Bhāgavata says, tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21). Who shall approach? Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). According to Vedic instruction, everyone should approach a guru. But who is that everyone? One who is jijñāsu. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. One who is inquisitive to understand, "What I am? Am I this body or something else?" That is beginning of spiritual instruction.
Therefore, in the Bhagavad-gītā the first instruction to Arjuna was to know that beyond this body, there is the soul.