Acharya Prashant addresses the confusion arising from the conflicting adages, "service before self" and "self before service." He begins by asking who is capable of performing service. Using the analogy of a sleeping person trying to awaken others who are also asleep, he asserts that to help or awaken others, one must first be awake. He criticizes the common teaching that one should serve others while remaining in their current state, calling it a flawed and inverted principle. He further illustrates his point with the analogy of a sick person. Someone who is ill cannot give health to others; instead, they will only spread their illness. Similarly, a person carrying a virus will only transmit it when attempting to offer help. The speaker points out that we are all "sick" in some way, yet society teaches "service before self" without first instructing us to look at and heal ourselves. We are encouraged to dream of waking others while we ourselves are asleep. Acharya Prashant explains that whatever one possesses internally is what one distributes to others. A confused person will only spread confusion, and someone in a bad mood will spoil the mood of those around them. Conversely, only a person who is genuinely blissful and happy can share happiness with others. He laments that we are never taught to first become happy ourselves. He critiques the cycle of sacrifice, where parents sacrifice their happiness for their children, leading to children who are also unhappy and incapable of bringing joy to others. He concludes by stating that the "self is everything." The self is the root, and service is the flower. If the root (the self) is strong and healthy, the flower (service) will bloom naturally and beautifully. Therefore, one must focus on the self, and service will follow as a natural consequence. A sick person cannot truly serve. The desire to do good for others without first working on oneself often stems from the ego, which feels gratified by the role of a benefactor.