Mukti means . . . Just like a person has fallen sick. He cannot walk. He cannot go to his office or . . . So many disadvantages. But when he is cured of the sickness or fever, he again comes to his normal life. Similarly, when we come to our normal life, that is called mukti. Mukti does not mean "Now I have got two hands; I'll get four hands or two heads or five heads." Not like that. Simply to come to our normal condition. That is the definition of bhakti also. Real mukti means to be situated in bhakti. That is mukti. Mukti . . . Simply to understand that "I am Brahman," that is not mukti. That is mukti . . . That is like convalescent stage. Just like a man has no fever, but he is not cured. There may be relapse again. There is possibility of relapse, typhoid fever. So the brahmānubhūti, Brahman realization, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, it is mukti but it is not very secure position. One may fall down again. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukti-māninaḥ. Vimukti-māninaḥ. They think they are Brahma-līna. They think that they have become mukta. But actually they are not muktas. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. He is thinking like that. Why? Aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). His intelligence is not yet purified. As soon as it is purified, then it is bhakti.
Therefore Bhagavān says that bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). He is a jñānavān that . . . Jñānavān means "I am not this body; I am not matter; I am spirit soul." That is jñāna. Jñāna means there must be vairāgya, detestfulness, that "I have nothing to do with this material world." Jñāna-vairāgya. If there is real jñāna, then there will be vairāgya. Because we are suffering on account of an attachment to this material world, so jñāna means that "I have nothing to do with this material world because I am not this material body." Everyone is engaged in this bodily engagement, so-called, so many "isms," all the activities of the world, because on account of this bodily conception of life. So when one becomes freed from the bodily conception of life he comes to the understanding of Brahman identification, and that is the beginning of mukti. That is not mukti.
Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). As soon as one realizes that "I am not this body, so why I should be interested in so-called social life or political life or this life, that life, because they are all due to this bodily conception of life?" So when one understands that "I am not this body, so what business I have got, this bodily conception of activities?" Prasannātmā, "I have no responsibility. I have no more responsibility with this bodily platform," prasannātmā, he gets relieved of so many engagements on account of this body: "I am Indian. I am a Hindu. I am brāhmaṇa. I am chief of this family. I have to take care of the so many persons," and so on, so many responsibilities. And so he feels relieved: "No, I have no responsibility." Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). If he does not identify himself with this matter, then if the matter is lost or gained, what he has got to do with it? Na śocati na kāṅkṣati. Because you have got material attachment, therefore something material lost we lament, and something material we do not possess, we hanker. The two kinds of diseases. So brahma-bhūtaḥ means these things are the symptom: he is joyful, prasannātmā, na śocati na kāṅkṣati, and samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Then he can see, vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇi gavi hastini, śuni caiva śva-pāke . . . paṇḍita . . . (BG 5.18). He has become paṇḍita. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. When these conditions are fulfilled, mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām (BG 18.54)—then he enters into devotional service.