Acharya Prashant explains that the perception of a separate individual existence and a separate physical world is a result of the ego. He clarifies that there is no duality; the idea that 'I am' and 'the world is' arises from the same egoistic belief. When the ego is recognized as non-existent, the questions regarding why the world was created or why the formless became form disappear. He emphasizes that the world, including the sun, moon, and stars, does not have an independent existence outside of human consciousness. The attributes we assign to objects, such as the sun being round, hot, or yellow, are merely sensory interpretations and conceptual frameworks of the mind. Without these sensory attributes, the object as we know it ceases to exist. He further discusses how Advaita Vedanta is often rejected by people because it challenges the material basis of enjoyment. If the material world is seen as non-existent, the ego's desire for consumption and pleasure is threatened. Acharya Prashant points out that the universe is a projection of the 'I-thought' or ego-tendency. This ego-tendency precedes individual birth and is the source from which both the observer and the observed world emerge simultaneously. He uses a thought experiment to show that if something cannot be detected by any human sense or instrument, it effectively does not exist for us. Therefore, the existence of the world is entirely dependent on the nature of the senses perceiving it. Just as different beings with different senses would perceive a completely different reality, our world is a relative projection, not an absolute truth.
