Acharya Prashant clarifies the statement that thoughts begin at birth, rather than the individual. He explains that while a person exists before birth and after death, it is not the identity or the 'I' that they currently understand themselves to be. The egoic self, including every thought, tendency, and identity, is completely destroyed by death. He emphasizes that nothing remains—no subtle body or impressions—and warns that the hope of something surviving death is a deception used to preserve the ego. He asserts that death is total and leaves nothing behind. Using a story of Guru Nanak Dev and a wealthy man, Acharya Prashant illustrates that true wealth is only that which can transcend death. Since one cannot even take a needle beyond death, worldly riches and personal identities are meaningless. He explains that impressions are merely thoughts stored in a physical form, and when the body turns to ash, those impressions vanish. While existence itself continues to take new forms, like a flower growing from ashes or a new wave rising in the ocean, there is no personal continuity. The ocean reborns its waves, but the individual wave has no connection to the previous one. The individual 'I' is completely finished at death.