Acharya Prashant explains that only knowledge exists, and there is no such thing as an absence of knowledge. When a person says, "I do not know," they are being humble, not accurate. In reality, there is nothing in the entire universe about which a person knows absolutely nothing. There is always some form of knowledge, even if it is just an assumption. For example, regarding eclipses, today we have a scientific explanation involving the alignment of the sun, moon, and earth. In the past, people had different stories, but they never claimed to know nothing. There was always some knowledge. The speaker categorizes knowledge into three levels: lower knowledge, which is based on beliefs and assumptions; higher knowledge, which is based on facts; and the highest knowledge, which is to know the known object and the knower together. Ignorance is defined not as an absence of knowledge but as illusory knowledge. We are never short of knowledge; even a person considered ignorant is full of it, albeit illusory. For instance, if shown a new fruit from Africa, people will immediately form assumptions about it rather than admitting they know nothing. This is illusory knowledge. Ignorance is the belief that one knows, which is why the great work Shiva Sutra begins with the declaration, "Knowledge is bondage." The spiritual person must start as a skeptic, being doubtful and unsure, as spirituality is not for the cocksure. It requires the courage to have one's beliefs and internal structures ruthlessly attacked and dismantled. The speaker uses the classic example of seeing a snake in a rope to illustrate illusory knowledge. He further states that even taking a rope as just a rope is an illusion. In spiritual terms, one is not in illusion only when they look at the rope and see Brahman. This means seeing the entire process of perception, the looker and the looked-at, simultaneously. This is witnessing.