A questioner observes that during crises like floods or the COVID-19 pandemic, people initially show a lot of empathy, but after a few days, this empathy changes, and worldly tendencies take over, leading to selfishness and corruption. He asks why this happens and if the fundamental nature of man is empathy, which is later dominated by the world. Acharya Prashant responds by presenting a counter-situation. He asks to consider a person who is very sick and in the ICU. During the days the person is in the ICU, the caregivers are very disciplined, punctual, and diligent in providing care and medicine. However, after five days, when the person regains consciousness and the doctor says his condition is improving, the attitude of the caregivers changes. They become lax. If they were supposed to meet for an hour, they would arrive ten minutes early before, but now they might come twenty minutes late and stay for only ten minutes. The speaker explains that this happens because there is something within us that is sad and in search of relief. It knows what real relief is. When it sees someone who is unconscious, it feels a sense of dignity in that person. There is a feeling that if this person is brought back from the brink of death, a new life will begin. There is a hope that the person will be transformed. The initial empathy is this hope. However, when the person wakes up and his first concerns are about his shop, the stock market, or his wife's affair, the hope for a new life is shattered. The caregiver then feels, "Is this the person I was working so hard for?" The enthusiasm wanes. The speaker explains that this is the reason for corruption. When our efforts do not lead to the true relief we seek, we turn to embezzlement and fraud. The heart won't be filled, so we might as well fill our stomachs and pockets. The consciousness won't be filled, so we fill our pockets. All corruption stems from this. Even if one works with all their might, what will they achieve? What will change? The entire system is physical and superficial. Corruption is a corrupt response to a corrupt system. It is a form of protest, but a corrupt one. The system is based on the idea of a welfare state, but we know that true welfare is not happening because our own welfare is not happening. There is a hollowness within us. When nothing is going to change, why should we keep our own house hungry? So, we take the goods and fill our own homes. This is why when disasters strike, people feel that maybe this is a new moment of change, and they work with enthusiasm. But then the patient wakes up from the ICU and asks the same old worldly questions, and you realize he is the same person as before he went unconscious. Then you say, "To hell with him."