A brahmana may be a very learned scholar, but this does not mean that he is free from material contamination. A brahmana's contamination, however, is in the mode of goodness. In the material world, the three modes are goodness, passion and ignorance, and all of these are simply different gradations of contamination. Unless a brahmana transcends such contamination and approaches the platform of unalloyed devotional service, he cannot be accepted as a Vaisnava. An impersonalist may be aware of the impersonal Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth, but his activities are on the impersonal platform. Sometimes he imagines a form of the Lord (saguna-upasana), but such an attempt is never successful in helping one attain complete realization. The impersonalist may consider himself a brahmana and may be situated in the mode of goodness, but nonetheless he is conditioned by one of the modes of material nature. This means that he is not yet liberated, for liberation cannot be attained unless one is completely free from the modes. In any case, the Mayavada philosophy keeps one conditioned. If one becomes a Vaisnava through proper initiation, he automatically becomes a brahmana. There is no doubt about it. The Garuda Purana confirms this:

Unless one is a fully qualified brahmana, he cannot advance in the spiritual science. A real brahmana is never envious of Vaisnavas. If he is, he is considered an imperfect neophyte. Impersonalist brahmanas are always opposed to Vaisnava principles. They are envious of Vaisnavas because they do not know the goal of life. Na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum. However, when a brahmana becomes a Vaisnava, there is no duality. If a brahmana does not become a Vaisnava, he certainly falls down from the brahmana platform. This is confirmed by Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.5.3): na bhajanty avajananti sthanad bhrastah patanty adhah.

We can actually see that in this Age of Kali many so-called brahmanas are envious of Vaisnavas. The Kali-contaminated brahmanas consider Deity worship to be imaginative: arcye visnau sila-dhir gurusu nara-matir vaisnave jati-buddhih. Such a contaminated brahmana may superficially imagine a form of the Lord, but actually he considers the Deity in the temple to be made of stone or wood. Similarly, such a contaminated brahmana considers the guru to be an ordinary human being, and he objects when a Vaisnava is created by the Krsna consciousness movement. Many so-called brahmanas attempt to fight us, saying, "How can you create a brahmana out of a European or American? A brahmana can be born only in a brahmana family." They do not consider that this is never stated in any revealed scripture. It is specifically stated in Bhagavad-gita (4.13): catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah. "According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me."

Thus a brahmana is not a result of the caste system. He becomes a brahmana only by qualification. Similarly, a Vaisnava does not belong to a particular caste; rather, his designation is determined by the rendering of devotional service.