Acharya Prashant responds to the question of whether India is too religious to be spiritual by stating that this is indeed the case. He explains that based on his everyday experience, people from overtly religious backgrounds are more difficult to teach because their listening is filled with prejudice and internal interference. In contrast, those from normal, irreligious, or even atheist backgrounds are far more receptive, and their listening is less corrupted and filtered. He describes this phenomenon as a travesty, explaining it through the Vedantic concept of Maya (illusion). Religion is supposed to be the entire ecosystem that turns one spiritual, but Maya co-opts the very things meant to tackle it. For instance, if you accord sacredness to the water of a river, a deity in a temple, or holy verses, Maya will take ownership of these very things and turn them into its own weapons. Acharya Prashant elaborates that this is the problem with organized religion, which is nothing but a name for frozen methods, traditions, and rituals. While these were designed to be helpful, over time they have not only lost their efficacy but have become active instruments in the hands of Maya. He gives the example of people who, when questioned about a stupid ritual not being in the Gita, will dismiss the Gita's importance in favor of their rituals. Similarly, when talking to Hindus, he points out that theirs is a Vedic religion, yet they engage in practices not sanctioned by the core of the Vedas, which is Vedanta. When asked if the Upanishads or the Gita sanction the caste system, they will discard these core spiritual documents to continue with their rituals and beliefs. This has led to a situation where the core spiritual texts are reviled and denigrated so that people can continue with what they call religion. He asserts that today, religion and spirituality are at odds with each other, and the most important battle to be fought is to bring out the primacy of spirituality over religion. The word "religion" has been sabotaged and needs to be liberated from the hold of those who practice a low-level popular culture in its name. This is why figures like the Buddha had to come up with a new stream, which was essentially the spiritual core of the existing religion, because the priestly class had monopolized it. Acharya Prashant expresses his hope for a spiritual renaissance to begin in India, but realistically sees that such a movement might find more success abroad first, with Indians then following suit. He also touches upon the relationship between science and spirituality, noting that without self-knowledge, science can become just another profession of the ego, and its knowledge can be put to devastating uses, like nuclear energy. He concludes that superstition will be obliterated not by science, but by spirituality, because, in the absence of spirituality, science itself can become a new, modern kind of superstition.