Acharya Prashant explains that there is no such thing as a final state of "understanding"; rather, there is only the continuous "process of understanding." This process is not a destination but a journey. You continue to understand as you see that it is impossible to understand any one thing in isolation. Any thing you look at is linked to many other things. The process begins when you want to understand something specific, but you soon discover that the thing is nothing in particular and that your initial, narrow definition of the problem was mythical. To illustrate, if you want to understand your annoyance with your son, you will discover that the annoyance is not just between you and him; its scope is much wider. As you widen the scope of your inquiry, you find that the problem is not external but internal. This journey of discovery is self-knowledge—coming close to oneself and realizing the basis of one's instincts, reactions, and urges. The problem is ultimately you. As long as the self remains, the need to understand will also remain, because you are the problem. This process of understanding also changes the nature of one's suffering. While suffering continues, its dimension or level can be altered. One can move from suffering for petty reasons to suffering for sublime reasons. This happens by getting involved in bigger, wider problems. The circle of what you perceive as the problem area keeps expanding. You become disinterested in petty battles because you realize the real problem does not lie there. Understanding cannot happen in a narrowly defined situation because there is nothing to understand there. Ultimately, the process of widening the problem's scope leads to the realization that the problem encompasses everything in your life. At this point, you see that everything is interconnected. Instead of trying to solve every peripheral issue, the only option is to address the one thing that lies at the center of everything. When the center is addressed, all other problems are resolved. This first requires seeing that if there is one problem, then everything is a problem. As long as you see some things as alright and others as problematic, there is no possibility of a solution.
