Acharya Prashant begins by questioning what people who sing songs about freedom truly desire. He asserts that they do not want genuine freedom, but rather the "freedom to do as they please." This concept, the freedom to do as one wants, is the generally and even academically accepted notion of personal and social freedom, which is to "let each man be free to do as he pleases." However, he explains that those with better sense see this popular idea of freedom as "nothing but the freedom to remain a slave." The kind of freedom the common person craves and passionately defends is merely the freedom to be a "slave of my choice." He paradoxically states, "In the country of slaves, everybody is free," to highlight this illusion, asserting that there is no bigger, deeper, or more malicious slavery than doing what you want to do. The speaker elaborates that we are no longer ruled by society from the outside; we are masters of our own choices. Instead, we are ruled from the inside, through desires and wants that we mistakenly call our own. In the absence of an "illuminated environment," we fail to see that these desires are totally external, originating from our body, the past, conditioning, and influences. They are not ours at all. In a world that only acknowledges the material, slavery is only recognized in its gross, external forms, like being physically dominated. Internal slavery—being controlled from the inside—is not acknowledged as slavery. He concludes by explaining that this "inside" is mistaken for the real self, when it is the farthest one can be from oneself. What we call "inside" is actually more "outside" than the external world. This attachment to our own thoughts, feelings, and desires is what he calls "the freedom to be a slave." In a world that does not acknowledge the subtle, internal slavery is not recognized. If you are controlled from the inside, it is not called slavery at all, because the inside is thought of as the real you, whereas it is the farthest that you can be from yourself.
