Acharya Prashant explains the nature of the ego (अहंकार) by using an analogy: if you have declared to the world that you are a PhD but are actually a fifth-grade fail, your condition will be one of constant unease. This, he says, is the state of the ego. It is a huge lie. The ego is a frightened entity that can never be complete because it doesn't truly exist, and therefore, it has no peace or tranquility. It is an incompleteness that is always in search of support. No matter how many supports it takes, its falsehood will not turn into truth. The body is not a lie; the ego is a lie. The body is a fact, it is earth, a wave, but the ego is a falsehood. The speaker clarifies the relationship between the ego, the mind, and the world. The ego is the 'I' or the doer (कर्ता). The mind is the collection of subjects and relationships that the ego has formed around itself to protect its false existence. The restlessness of the mind is actually the agitation of the incomplete and fearful ego. The ego constantly seeks support from the world—subjects, relationships, wealth—to validate its false existence. He says that the mind is the neighborhood that the ego has settled around itself. The ego is at the center, and it has created a settlement around it. All its relatives and friends live in that settlement. Whatever the ego has a transaction with, they all live in that settlement. The ego is a doer that takes credit for actions that are merely happenings of nature (प्रकृति). In reality, there is no doing, only happening. There is motion, but no mover; there is action, but no actor. The ego is a false notion that because actions are happening, there must be a doer. The ego itself has proof that it does not exist, and that proof is its constant fear. It is so scared because it understands that its claims about itself cannot be true. It is like a ghost that thrives in ignorance and disappears upon inquiry. Spirituality is for the ego. Sages, out of compassion, first acknowledge the ego's existence and its suffering to pacify it, just as one might acknowledge a child's fear of a ghost. Then, they guide the person to see that the ego, like the ghost, is not real. The high teachings of spirituality are meant to improve our earthly lives. One must question how these teachings are relevant to daily conduct. The Gita, for instance, is not for Krishna but for us. The ultimate aim is to dissolve the suffering by dissolving the sufferer, which is the ego.