Acharya Prashant explains that the mind is driven by the ego, the 'I', which is at the center of all thoughts and feelings. This 'I' is a scared, troubled, and restless entity that fundamentally believes it is flawed and incomplete. It constantly experiences this lack but doesn't clearly understand its nature. Consequently, the mind, as a slave to the ego, fumbles around in the dark, restlessly seeking its own well-being and completeness. The mind is not running randomly after useless things; it is running at the behest of the 'I', which is the master writhing in pain. The only way to calm the mind is to treat the incompleteness of the 'I', and this treatment is Self-knowledge ('Atma-gyan'). The disease of the 'I' is not knowing itself and what it has lost; therefore, the cure is to know the 'I'. Self-knowledge is not about living in beliefs or images about oneself, but about becoming acquainted with one's reality. Once a person truly knows their condition, that condition changes. We remain in a bad state because we are not aware of it, or if we are, we don't understand its cause. The mind repeatedly falls into the same pit because the pit appears in new forms and disguises, offering new hopes and dreams. The person thinks, "Maybe this time something new will happen," a hope born of ignorance. The things you seek today are not new; you have sought, found, and been disappointed by them countless times. When you see this repetitive game, you can finally do something new in life, because repeating the old only brings boredom. The ego is not the soul; the soul is truth. The ego is the entity at the center of all your activities, the 'I' in "my mind" or "my hand." This 'I' is never satisfied and constantly seeks more from the world. Choosing the path of wisdom over foolishness is not running away. Life is difficult in both directions. By leaving the path of foolishness, you abandon its associated difficulties but choose the new, more arduous challenges of the path of wisdom. This is not escaping hard work but choosing a different kind of labor. It is renouncing foolishness, not valor or enterprise. If one must work hard, it should be for creation, for building a magnificent new life, like digging the foundation for a temple.