Acharya Prashant explains that there are two processes always and concurrently at work in the domain of the ego. Firstly, the ego says it feels insecure, so it is constantly seeking vistas of security. Secondly, all the securities that the ego arranges for itself are necessarily false, not by chance, but by design. This is the nature of the ego: on one hand, it says, "I want security," but on the other hand, it deliberately arranges only false security for itself. The reason for this is that true security would be the end of the ego. The ego tells itself, "I do not like the situation I am in, unsafe, insecure. I want to be carefree, fearless." However, it will purposefully avoid doing that which will give it true fearlessness. The position of the ego is unenviable; with insecurity, it is uncomfortable, and without insecurity, it is dead. Faced with the choice between discomfort or death, the ego obviously chooses discomfort. This means it consciously arranges false comfort for itself. You dare not tell yourself that you are arranging discomfort for yourself, as that would make you appear a lunatic in your own eyes. So, you convince yourself that you are arranging comfort, security, and safety, but you go out and fetch false versions or substitutes of these. This is what mankind is doing: telling ourselves that we want to do good for ourselves, but then we arrange false goodness, which in the complete analysis is worse than actively harming oneself. We arrange this false security by hedging our bets, having multiple plans and backups. This means you are never really committing yourself to one thing, which is useful to the ego because it saves you the burden of finding that one thing worth committing to. The Rishis called this one thing 'Brahman'. The only way of living is to commit yourself to one central thing and then negotiate all that comes in its wake.