Those who are in the quality of goodness, they are called brāhmins, or the intelligent class of men. In Sanskrit language, because intelligence, intelligence does not mean to know, to have some knowledge of the material things. Intelligence means to know about the spiritual world also. That is intelligence.
Because as you know that I am combination of matter and spirit . . . I am spirit, and I am now entangled in this material body. I am spirit, consciousness. As soon as I am out of this body, I can distinguish or . . . I cannot distinguish, because I will go away. You can distinguish that, "Now this real Swāmījī's spirit is gone, the Swāmījī's material body is here." So it is very plain thing. So therefore we should not only have perfect knowledge of this matter, but we should have perfect knowledge of the spirit also, if you are actually intelligent.
Therefore the brāhmins . . . why they are called brāhmins? Brahma jānāti iti brāhmaṇaḥ. Brahmin, it is English transcription. But real word is brāhmin, brāhmin. And wherefrom this brāhmin word comes? Brahma jānāti iti brāhmaṇaḥ. That means one who knows the spirit, the spiritual. One who has got complete knowledge of the spiritual world, he is called brāhmin.
How one becomes brāhmin? Now you will find distinctly that cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13); "The four divisions of qualitative divisions is set by Me according to quality and karma." Never said that, "According to birth," you will find. "According to birth," it is not said here. Although in India it is now misrepresentated that a brāhmin's son is trying to designate himself as brāhmin, but according to Bhagavad-gītā, that is not sanctioned. Bhagavad-gītā says, "according to quality."