Mukti does not mean one thinks himself that "I have become Bhagavān. I have become now. . ." Vimukta-māninaḥ. They have been called as rascals, wrongly thinking that they are vimukta. Vimukta. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. There are so many rascals, they are thinking that they have become mukta, liberated Nārāyaṇas. They're thinking like that. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. So why they are . . .? Now, if they have become liberated, so advanced, and feeling that they have become Nārāyaṇa, so what is the objection? The objection is, ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas tvayy asta-bhāvāt (SB 10.2.32). They do not know what is Nārāyaṇa, these rascals. Śaṅkarācārya admits, nārāyaṇaḥ paraḥ avyaktāt: "Nārāyaṇa is not a being within this material world." That is Nārāyaṇa. And they have become Nārāyaṇa, namo nārāyaṇāya. Nārāyaṇa is so cheap thing? Therefore śāstra says, ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. These rascals, they are thinking they have become Nārāyaṇa, but they do not know what is Nārāyaṇa. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. Why they do not under . . .? Tvayy asta-bhāvāt. They never tried to understand what is really God. They thought, "God is very cheap thing. Everyone can become God." So therefore they have been called vimukta-māninaḥ.
Real mukti is described in the Bhāgavata. Mukti means muktir hitvānyathā rūpam. Muktir hitvānyathā rūpaṁ sva-rūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ (SB 2.10.6). When one is cured of his madness and he is situated in healthy state, that is called mukti. So here in this material world everyone is mad. Somebody is thinking, "I am king." Somebody is thinking, "I am minister." Somebody is thinking, "I am president," "I am this," "I am Nārāyaṇa," so on, so on, so on, all madmen, all madmen, because it will be finished. His so-called conception of becoming this and that will be finished within few years. But he is eternal. He is thinking the temporary situation of becoming an American, Indian, or minister or president or this or that, how long it will stay? It will stay, say, ten or fifteen or fifty or hundred years, that's all. But he is not for hundred years. He—nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). But the rascal does not know. He is thinking, "By chance, I have become minister or president or this or that. For some years this is my position." Dehātma-buddhiḥ. So that is the difference between mukti, mukta and bandha, bondage and liberation.
So liberation means to be situated in his own real position. That is called li . . . So what is our position? If we become little sober, if we become little sober, then we can understand what is my position. So that is called meditation, or dhīra. Dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13).