  We show that, in a model based exclusively on constituent-quark degrees of
freedom interacting via a potential, the full axial current is conserved if the
spectrum of \bar QQ states contains a massless pseudoscalar. The current
conservation emerges nonperturbatively if the model satisfies certain
constraints on (i) the axial coupling g_A of the constituent quark and (ii) the
\bar QQ potential at large distances. We define the chiral point of the
constituent quark model as that set of values of the parameters (such as the
masses of the constituent quarks and the couplings in the \bar QQ potential)
for which the mass of the lowest pseudoscalar \bar QQ bound state vanishes. At
the chiral point the main signatures of the spontaneously broken chiral
symmetry are shown to be present, namely: the axial current is conserved, the
decay constants of the excited pseudoscalar bound states vanish, and the pion
decay constant has a nonzero value.
