56
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 7, Ch. 11]
then may be offered the order of  sannyāsa . Unless one is qualified in terms of the brahminical symptoms, one cannot take  sannyāsa . In designating a person a  brāhmaṇa ,  kṣatriya ,  vaiśya  or  śūdra , birth is not the essential symptom. This understanding is very important. Herein Nārada Muni distinctly says that one may be accepted according to the caste of his birth if he has the corresponding qualifications, but otherwise he should not. One who has attained the qualifications of a  brāhmaṇa , regardless of where he was born, should be accepted as a  brāhmaṇa . Similarly, if one has developed the qualities of a  śūdra  or a  caṇḍāla , regardless of where he was born, he should be accepted in terms of those symptoms.
Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Seventh Canto, Eleventh Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled “The Perfect Society: Four Social Classes.”