Acharya Prashant addresses the question of how the inert (Jad) and the conscious (Chetan) came together. He explains that this question cannot be answered through thought because the thinker (vicharak) is itself a product of the union of the inert and the conscious. The thinker wants to know about itself, but it cannot do so while trying to preserve its own existence. The desire to know can only be fulfilled when the desire itself ceases. Similarly, contemplation (chintan) can only bear fruit when contemplation stops, because contemplation preserves the contemplator (chintak), who is born from the union of the inert and the conscious. The speaker elaborates that the questioner wants to understand how the inert and conscious were separate and what brought them together, but the very act of thinking about this question involves the joining of the inert (the brain, which is matter) and the conscious. The thinker is a combination of the inert and the conscious, and without this combination, there is no thought. Therefore, thinking contains both consciousness and inertia. The only way for the thinker to truly know the answer is to dissolve, to separate these two elements within itself, but then the thinker would cease to exist. The one who asks the question is not the one who receives the answer; the entangled one is different from the one who gains understanding. This paradox is explained as being contrary to the logic of nature, which dictates that one must run faster to reach a destination. Here, to reach the destination, one must stop running. The speaker uses the analogy of a rabbit who says, "I am a rabbit, so I will eat carrots," to illustrate how we use our identity as a justification for our actions. The central point is that the answers to life's fundamental questions are found only when "you"—the questioner, the thinker—are dissolved. The speaker then introduces the concept of God (Parmatma) as the element beyond nature, our hope for liberation from this prison. Theism (aastikta) is not a cheap belief but is founded on the rejection of one's own smallness and pettiness. It is a rebellion against our limitations. Every form in the world is a reflection of the formless, reminding us that there is nothing in the form itself.
