Acharya Prashant responds to a question about why conflict and differences like hatred and jealousy exist if, at a fundamental level, everything is one. He explains that the crucial distinction lies in the presence of consciousness, or 'I-ness'. While a quark or an electron is a material object, it never declares, 'I am a quark.' This sense of 'I' is what separates a conscious being from an inert object. This 'I' identifies with various objects, giving them an active identity, such as when a person says, 'I am the owner of this table.' The table itself never makes such a claim. This 'I-ness' is the root of conflict because it is fundamentally discontented and constantly trying to 'become' something else. This process of becoming, driven by ambition, is the source of all strife. For instance, a boy wanting to become a boyfriend must use another person, the girl, as an object to achieve his goal, which can lead to conflict. Similarly, in any competition, everyone wants to become the winner, but only one can, inherently creating conflict. All human identities, whether based on gender, wealth, or religion, stem from identification with objects, and we are never content with them. Acharya Prashant points out that our entire life is a hustle, a process of becoming, without ever truly reaching a state of satisfaction. Our education and culture emphasize this game of ambition but fail to teach us to understand our current state or 'mental location.' He uses the analogy of a GPS, which requires both a destination and a current location to provide a path. We do not know our current mental state, so we cannot know where to go for fulfillment. We have extensive knowledge of the objective world, like the anatomy of the eye, but we know nothing about the consciousness that looks through the eye. This inner entity, which can be called the ego or the mind, is described as a 'thirsty consciousness,' hungry for satisfaction. In its ignorance, it chases after various material objects—money, power, sex, drugs, knowledge—hoping to find fulfillment. This endless, fruitless pursuit results in a life of striving without ever arriving, leading to widespread frustration and destruction, which manifests as global issues like climate change, biodiversity loss, and mental health epidemics. The core problem is this discontented consciousness that is not at peace with what it is.
