Acharya Prashant asserts that individuals are their own lords and that all gods reside within. He dismisses the notion that external deities like Indra or Shani influence one's life or require material offerings to be pleased, labeling such practices as fraudulent. He explains that gods are created when a person identifies a virtue, such as fearlessness or strength, as worthy of worship and gives it a face and a name. This process is the work of Rishis, whom the Upanishads call poets or artists, because they give form to abstract and conceptual values. Therefore, gods do not exist externally but are names for virtuous qualities within the self. Regarding the concepts of Saman and Daman, Acharya Prashant describes Saman as the act of not encouraging or feeding inner tendencies like fear, lust, or anger once they have arisen. He compares this to firemen dousing a fire rather than providing it with fuel. He observes that people often find the heat of passion pleasurable and fail to see that it will eventually reduce them to ashes. He encourages outsmarting time by recognizing the reality of mortality and the end of all material things today, rather than waiting for years to pass, to avoid being fooled by temporary passions.