Acharya Prashant addresses the question of what life is, questioning whether it is merely the sum of our daily physical activities like getting up, sitting, eating, drinking, walking, sleeping, and eventually dying. He posits that all these actions, which we consider life, can be performed by a good machine. If one equates life with these physical and biological functions, it is important to recognize that a machine can be built to replicate them. He elaborates by describing breathing as a mechanical process of air intake, chemical reactions, and expulsion, which any machine can do. Similarly, a well-developed robot can be made to walk and even think. He defines human thought as a process based on an internal database and programming, limited to past experiences, a capability that can also be programmed into a robot. Seeing and hearing are also simple functions that a camera can perform. Therefore, these mechanical activities cannot be the true definition of life. Life, he explains, is something that is impossible for a robot but possible for a human. Using the camera recording him as an example, he notes that while the camera records every word and image perfectly, it gains nothing from the experience. In contrast, a human listener can understand and take something away from the discourse. This ability to understand is what makes us human and is the very essence of life. A machine can never possess this understanding. The capacity to understand is life itself. If this is absent, one is as good as dead. A person who lives without understanding, merely following set beliefs, traditions, and customs, is not truly alive but is a slave to others. He may be breathing and eating, but he is completely dead. Acharya Prashant concludes by referencing a sage who, when asked if there is life after death, retorted by asking if there is life before death. He states that most people are dead by the age of 15 or 16, and thereafter, they are just carrying their own corpses. Anyone who does not live with discernment is like a machine, a slave, and is not truly living.