Text 29]
The Lord Tastes Nectar
17
We have seen that a person who is not the son of a doctor and has not attended a medical college is sometimes able to practice medicine. By practical knowledge of how to perform a surgical operation, how to mix medicine and how to give certain medicines for certain diseases, a person can receive a certificate and be registered as a medical practitioner in the practical field. He can do a medical man's work and be known as a doctor. Although qualified medical men may consider him a quack, the government will recognize his work. Especially in India, there are many such doctors who perform their medical services perfectly. They are accepted even by the government. Similarly, if one is engaged in brahminical service or occupational duties, he must be considered a  brāhmaṇa  despite the family in which he is born. That is the verdict of all the  śāstras .
In the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , (7.11.35), it is said:
yasya yal lakṣaṇaṁ proktaṁ puṁso varṇābhivyañjakam yad anyatrāpi dṛśyeta tat tenaiva vinirdiśet
This is a statement by Nārada Muni to Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, wherein Nārada says that the symptoms of a  brāhmaṇa ,  kṣatriya  and  vaiśya  are all described in  śāstra . Therefore, if one is found exhibiting the symptoms and qualities of a  brāhmaṇa  and serving in a brahminical occupation, even if he is not born a  brāhmaṇa  or  kṣatriya , he should be considered according to his qualifications and occupation.
Similarly, in the  Padma Purāṇa  it is said:
na śūdrā bhagavad-bhaktās te tu bhāgavatā matāḥ sarva-varṇeṣu te śūdrā ye na bhaktā janārdane
“A devotee should never be considered a  śūdra . All the devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead should be recognized as  bhāgavatas . If one is not a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, however, even if born of a  brāhmaṇa ,  kṣatriya  or  vaiśya  family, he should be considered a  śūdra .”
In the  Padma Purāṇa  it is also said:
śva-pākam iva nekṣeta loke vipram avaiṣṇavam vaiṣṇavo varṇo-bāhyo ‘pi punāti bhuvana-trayam
“If a person born in a  brāhmaṇa  family is an  avaiṣṇava , a nondevotee, one should not see his face, exactly as one should not look upon the face of a  caṇḍāla , or