Acharya Prashant explains Adi Shankaracharya's statement that a human being travels from death to death. He clarifies that if one's inspiration begins from a state of incompleteness, one only creates further incompleteness. Most people live as if they are already dead, moving from one state of death to another, making their entire life journey a process of a 'corpse' traveling through death. He asserts that even birth is the birth of a 'corpse' or a bundle of physical tendencies, and life is merely an opportunity to breathe consciousness into this state. However, most people fail to utilize this opportunity and remain enslaved to their physical instincts and social conditioning. He further elaborates that true life is synonymous with consciousness, which is the ability to distinguish between the real and the unreal, and truth and falsehood. A child is born as a collection of latent physical tendencies like hunger and lust, which manifest as they grow. Without the awakening of consciousness, a person remains a 'walking corpse' regardless of physical activity or technological enhancements. Acharya Prashant emphasizes that while every human is born with the seed of consciousness and the potential for life, they often choose to remain in a state of ignorance and death. Responding to a question about why consciousness is rare despite its potential being present in everyone, Acharya Prashant explains that the Creator provides both the material nature and the potential for consciousness, along with the freedom to choose between them. Once this freedom is given, the responsibility lies entirely with the individual. He concludes that instead of questioning why Maya or ignorance exists, one must introspect and ask why they repeatedly choose falsehood over truth. The journey from death to death continues only because individuals fail to exercise their choice to awaken.
