Just like take for example this finger. The finger is the part and parcel of this body. So when the finger can understand that "I am part and parcel of this whole body and my duty is to serve the whole body," that is self-realization. So long one is not understanding this point, he is illusioned. What is the position of this finger? Suppose this finger is a person. Any individual spirit is a person. That we have discussed in the Second Chapter. Everyone, every one of us, individual person.
So as individual person what is my position? My position is . . . just like you are individual citizen of the state. What is your position? To serve the state. That is your position. That is good citizenship. What does it mean, a good citizen? One who is trying to serve the state. Take, for example, in Russia, in China: they have made the state as worshipable.
Any component part of the state, citizen, is to sacrifice everything for the state. In your country also, the draft board is calling, "Come on. You have to go to the fight." But you cannot say "No," because you are component part of the state. If you deny, then you are not a good citizen. You'll be arrested, you'll be harassed by the government.
Similarly, we are component parts of the whole, supreme whole. This is self-realization. It is very simple thing. Self-realization does not mean anything very extraordinary. Hitvā anyathā-rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ (SB 2.10.6). Mukti, this is called . . . mukti means liberation or self-realization. What is that? Hitvā anyathā-rūpam: giving up a different identity. In the conditioned state we are identifying, "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am human being," "I am this," "I am that," "I am white," "I am black." These are all designation. Actually, this is not self-realization.
Self-realization is that "I am neither American nor Indian nor black nor white, nor anything. I am a spirit soul, part and parcel of the whole, Kṛṣṇa." This is self-realization. So long it is not completely realized, so long we have got doubt, we have to make progress. And as soon as we come to the point and firmly convinced, that is self-realization.
Therefore here it is stated, "A self-realized man has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his prescribed duties." Prescribed duties, either take for . . . any scripture—take your Bible, take Koran, take Vedas—there are some prescribed duties. Just like in your Bible, there are ten commandments: "Thou shall not kill." So for whom? One who is not self-realized.