Acharya Prashant discusses the concept of exhausting past actions, or prarabdha karma, and the suffering associated with it. He explains that waiting for the results of past actions to naturally exhaust themselves is a painful, mechanical, and time-consuming process, comparable to keeping one's palm over a burning piece of coal until it burns out. This method requires immense patience and the discipline to not create new cause-effect cycles or fresh karma while enduring the current ordeal. He emphasizes that the coal does not seek to burn the individual; rather, the individual chooses to hold onto it due to attraction, attachment, and a sense of identity derived from the suffering. Acharya Prashant suggests a more intelligent alternative: simply walking away from the coal. He points out that people often hold onto their burdens because they find them glamorous or because these burdens define who they are. To walk away from the unspent residue of previous karma means to renounce the false association with it and to give up the identity built around it. He concludes that the choice lies with the individual: one can either wait for karma to exhaust itself through prolonged suffering or choose to let go and renounce the falseness immediately. The decision depends entirely on whether one is still in the mood to suffer or is ready to drop the burden.