Acharya Prashant explains that everything produced by the mind, including science, technology, and academic disciplines, falls within the domain of what can be known. The mind is essentially a collection of past thoughts and crystallized thinking. While the mind is capable of understanding objects and processes because they are its own products, it cannot encompass the act of living itself. Living occurs only in the present moment, which exists entirely outside the mind's control. When the mind, which represents the past, intervenes too much, it suppresses the energy of the present, resulting in a suffocated and frustrated life. He distinguishes between the states of knowing and not knowing. The state of knowing is associated with inertness and the past, much like a stone or a recording device that follows fixed patterns without doubt. In contrast, not knowing represents consciousness and the fresh, unpredictable nature of the present moment. True intelligence and humanity lie in the ability to balance these two aspects. An intelligent person recognizes what belongs to the domain of knowledge and what is unknowable, without becoming a slave to either extreme. One must use the past as a necessary tool for survival and practical tasks without letting it dictate one's entire existence. The speaker introduces the concept of witnessing as the key to an integrated life. Witnessing allows the past and the present to coexist simultaneously. It does not mean stopping the mind's analytical functions or rejecting memory; rather, it involves observing the mind's activities without being bound by them. This tightrope walk ensures that while the mind performs its mechanical duties based on past patterns, the individual remains aware and free. Witnessing is not a tool to suppress natural tendencies or physical needs like hunger, but it is the very essence of living an intelligent, unfragmented life where one is neither a slave to memory nor lost in an imaginary ideal of the present.
