Acharya Prashant explains that his decision to leave his corporate job was not the primary objective, but rather a consequence of seeing a cause that needed to be addressed. He states that there was a lot that was asking to be changed, and if he could have done it from within a corporate setting, he would have. He mentions that his current organization is still a private limited company, so he hasn't entirely opted out of the corporate structure. The core motivation was seeing an important cause that was crying out for attention but was being neglected by most people. He describes this as a form of "opportunism," where upon seeing a necessary task, he thought, "Why not me?" Elaborating on this cause, he points to a paradox prevalent among knowledgeable people, or "knowledge workers." Despite possessing extensive and detailed knowledge in various external fields like technology and science, they are often plagued by basic life issues such as jealousy, possessiveness, and insecurity. He questions whether this vast external knowledge contributes to a more secure and composed inner life, suggesting that the probability of being worried might even increase with more education. He illustrates this by noting that people with varying levels of education, from illiterate to post-doctorate, are not fundamentally different internally. The root of this problem, he explains, is that all our knowledge pertains to something external. Our entire education and training, from schools to corporate environments, focuses on the outside world and never encourages us to turn within and understand ourselves. This results in a situation where even the most knowledgeable individuals can be internally infantile and immature. They are filled with information about various external subjects but remain largely ignorant of the self. This disconnect between external knowledge and inner ignorance is what he found to be a worthy and important issue to address. He observes that people are afraid of genuine intimacy and authentic conversations, preferring to discuss trivial matters. When confronted with something real, they become tongue-tied or terrified. He notes that while we ostensibly seek closeness, we retract when real intimacy beckons because it threatens our established mental structures. He felt that this widespread ignorance of the self was a worthy, complex, and challenging cause that someone needed to take up, and he decided to be that person.
