Acharya Prashant explains that our troubles arise not from our deficiencies, but from our excesses. We carry a lot of unneeded, useless, and burdensome things within us, such as thoughts, emotions, fantasies, and ideologies. The basic principle of the spiritual process is, therefore, one of unburdening, letting go, and dropping these excesses. This process of unburdening can happen through two primary ways: the path of knowledge and the path of devotion. On the path of knowledge, which is also called renunciation, you come to see that the inner content you hold is unnecessary and toxic, and you simply drop it. This is a negative process of discounting what is not right or good, often described as "not this, not this" (Neti Neti). This path is typically for those who believe they are capable of achieving their own liberation, where the ego itself is the actor. However, there is an inherent contradiction in this path: one needs a path because one is not alright, yet one believes they are capable of walking it to freedom on their own. Surrender belongs to the path of devotion. This path is for the practical and mature seeker who has realized their own powerlessness to drop their inner burdens. In humility, one acknowledges being too "dirty" or "feeble" to achieve purity alone. Acknowledging this inability, the devotee establishes a goal outside of themselves—the Lord or the beloved, which can be with form (Sagun) or formless (Nirgun). There is a sense of separation (Viyog) between the devotee and this higher ideal. Surrender is the process of getting rid of one's inner nonsense by directing it all towards this one higher ideal. Knowing you are too feeble to drop your attachments, you direct your attachment towards the Lord. If you are obsessed with image-making, you stick to the one beautiful image of the Lord and forget all others. If you are talkative, you talk only of the Lord. This act of directing all that you have towards your ultimate goal, because you are incapable of dropping it, is called surrender. At its core, surrender is nothing but inner cleaning. It is for the ripe seeker who, after many failures, confesses they cannot make it on their own and entrusts the mission to a power mightier than the ego.