The other day I explained that dharma and religion is not the exactly synonymous. Dharma means which you cannot leave. Dharma, the example I gave the other day, just like sugar cannot give up the quality of sweetness. Similarly, the water cannot give up the quality of liquidity. The fire cannot give up the quality of heat and light. Similarly, every living entity has his original characteristic, which is called dharma. That characteristic is described by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (vanisource:CC Madhya 20.108-109). This is the characteristic. Svarūpa. Svarūpa means original constitutional position. That is called svarūpa. And mukti means to be situated in that original condition.
That is the statement in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, muktir hitvānyathā rūpaṁ sva-rūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ (SB 2.10.6). That is mukti. As soon as you give up your artificial way of life and you become situated in your original position, that is called mukti. That is . . . in other words, mukti means brahma-bhūtaḥ. That is also described in the Bhagavad-gītā, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātma (BG 18.54). When one realizes Brahma, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, that is brahma-bhūtaḥ stage. At the present moment, we are jīva-bhūtaḥ. We are identifying ourself with matter—with this body, "I am Indian," "I am Hindu," "I am Christian," "I am brāhmin," "I am black," "I am white." These are all designations. This is not my real identity. My real identity is ahaṁ brahmāsmi, "I am spirit soul." So Bhagavad-gītā says that:
- brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
- na śocati na kāṅkṣati
- samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
- mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
- (BG 18.54)
Without being brahma-bhūtaḥ, actual devotional life does not begin. It is not that by devotional service one . . . of course, you can take both way. But according to Bhagavad-gītā, it is to be understood that anyone who has taken to this devotional service, he is already in the stage of brahma-bhūtaḥ.