We are serving our senses whimsically. I want to become this. I want to become that. First of all I want to become a big businessman, or I want to become a prime minister, I want to become the president. And when I am frustrated, then I want to become God. That want—"I want to become master"—is going on. So this is also māyā. How one can become God? Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). Nobody can become equal to God or greater than God. Asamaurdha. In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa is described as asama urdha: "Nobody is equal to God, and nobody is greater than God." Asama urdha.
So this disease . . . this is called material disease. I want to lord it over the material nature, and when I fail to lord it over, then I want to become one with God. Of course, there are five kinds of liberation: sāyujya, sārūpya, sāmīpya, sālokya . . . by liberation you can become one with God. That is not very difficult. If you want to become . . . merge into the existence of God, that is not very difficult job. God is all-powerful. You are emanation from God. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1).
So if you want to—sāyujya mukti—if you want to finish your individuality and merge into the existence of God, that is not very difficult job. Even the enemies of Kṛṣṇa—Kaṁsa, Jarāsandha, Dantavakra, Śiśupāla, and many demons—they also merged into the existence of Kṛṣṇa. The enemies also given the liberation to merge into the existence of Kṛṣṇa. That is not very difficult job. But to keep your individuality and serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that is your actual position, constitutional position.
That mukti . . . the Vaiṣṇava philosophers, they want that mukti. They want to keep . . . nitya-yukta upāsate. Nitya-yukta. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, nitya-yukta upāsata. The upāsana, the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead—man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65)—this is not stopped after liberation. The same business goes on. That is Vaiṣṇava philosophy. Vaiṣṇava, even if he is offered mukti . . . dīyamānaṁ na gṛhṇanti. Even if he's offered that, "You take mukti," they do not accept it. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said in His prayer to the Supreme Lord:
- na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ
- kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye
- mama janmani janmanīśvare
- bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi
- (CC Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4)
Na dhanaṁ na janam. The karmīs, they are hankering after wealth, riches, great following, great dependents. Na dhanaṁ na janam. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu says: "I don't want. I don't want riches. I don't want many followers." Na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye. Another demand of the karmīs is that "I must have very nice, beautiful, obedient wife." Caitanya Mahāprabhu said: "No, I don't want that." Na dhanam. This is finishing materialism.
In the material world people want these three things: dhanam, janam and sundarīṁ kavitā. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye. "Then mukti? You take mukti?" "No." Mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī (CC Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4): "I don't want to finish My repetition of birth and death also." That is called mukti. Mukti means stopping the repetition of birth and death. So those who are hankering after . . . the jñānīs, the jñānī-sampradāya, they want to merge into the existence of the Supreme Lord. But that merging is possible in the brahma-jyotir. Brahmajyoti.