Acharya Prashant addresses the question of why he chose a spiritual path over a successful career. He explains that every individual acts based on what they deem important. He began to see with clarity that there was something far more important to be taken up as work than the tasks commonly performed in the worldly, economic domain. Recognizing its importance, he submitted to it. The conversation then shifts to the nature of the ego. Acharya Prashant refutes the notion that the ego is an enemy to be vanquished, stating that to treat the ego as such is to become a self-hater. He clarifies that the ego is at the center of all our thoughts, feelings, actions, and even involuntary bodily functions. The aim of spirituality, he explains, is not to annihilate the ego but to provide it with what it truly seeks: fulfillment, completion, and relief. The ego, by its nature, is a small, fragmented part that desires to be total and is constantly aiming for totality. The sense of self, or the ego, is what makes a person wander in search of peace. Therefore, the ego is a lover of fulfillment, the absolute, and, in religious terms, a lover of God. The ego's fundamental mistake is not its desire for fulfillment but its ignorance of the correct path to achieve it. Further, Acharya Prashant discusses the relationship between science and spirituality. He posits that science is inherently limited because its very definition confines it to studying the objective, perceivable, and finite world. Science relies on the perceiver (man) to certify the existence of the perceived, yet it does not investigate the perceiver itself. The perceiver is the ego, and science is afraid to delve into it. Spirituality, in contrast, transcends science by addressing the subject—the perceiver. It is about dis-identifying from the entire physical apparatus. He explains that the body, as part of nature, knows how to take care of itself, and the 'I' belongs to a different dimension and should not interfere. This non-interference is what he calls Dharma. The suffering of the body should remain the suffering of the body, not become 'my' suffering. The fundamental belief should be that health is our nature, and all other beliefs that contribute to sickness should be discarded.
