We have got a little girl, perhaps you have all seen, Sarasvatī. She was admitted in a school in Bombay. And because there was no Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting, she began to cry, "No, I shall not be in this school." Practical. There was . . . (indistinct) . . . she was organizing all the children to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. But they began something else, so she said: "No, I am not going to this school." So śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo sañjāyate (BG 6.41). This child must be executing devotional service in her past life. Therefore she has got the opportunity, a Vaiṣṇava father and Vaiṣṇavī mother. And from the very beginning of her life she is becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja is advising his friends, "My dear friends . . ." The friends were replying, "Now we are children, we shall play. Why you are asking us the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa consciousness? This is the business of the old men." "No," Prahlāda Mahārāja said. "No, it is not the business of the old men. You should learn it from the very childhood." Kaumāram. Kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1): the first thing is that human life is for cultivating dharma, religion.
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 (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."