Acharya Prashant narrates the story of Prince Hemchud and his enlightened wife, Hemlekha, to illustrate the path to self-realization. Hemlekha, raised in a hermitage, remains indifferent to worldly pleasures after marriage. Recognizing a spark of divinity in her husband, she guides him toward spiritual truth. She emphasizes that the principal cause for the destruction of sorrow is association with the wise. Her first instruction to Hemchud is to abandon wrong reasoning and motives, warning that the ego uses arguments as weaponry to resist truth. She explains that true listening requires deep attention and devotion, free from the desire to question or defeat the teacher. Hemlekha teaches that the Supreme Lord is the maker of all, yet transcends all forms like Vishnu or Shiva. She describes God as pure intelligence and supreme consciousness, in whom the world appears like a city reflected in a mirror. For those with a gross intellect unable to grasp the formless reality, she recommends one-pointed devotion to a form, such as Goddess Tripura. Hemchud follows this path, practicing intense penance and withdrawing his mind from worldly obsessions. Acharya Prashant notes that this demonstrates Hemchud's eligibility as a student, as it requires great inner power for a king to bow to his wife and seek knowledge. Upon returning from his practice, Hemchud asks deeper questions about the nature of the self and the mother. Hemlekha explains that to know the divine, one must first know the self through a purified intellect—one freed from objects. She uses the analogy of eyes: one does not need to see their eyes to know they exist; the act of seeing is the proof. Similarly, the self is the pure subject that cannot be perceived as an object. She instructs him to use the method of negation, discarding everything labeled as 'mine' to find the 'I' that remains. This process reveals that the self is independent of all external relationships and possessions. Hemchud eventually experiences states of light and bliss through stillness and hatha yoga, but he becomes perplexed when these states are followed by dreams and a return to normal consciousness. Acharya Prashant explains that the relief or happiness experienced after dropping worldly stress is not the ultimate truth or bliss; it is merely the other end of duality. He warns that neither the tension of the world nor the relief of temporary stillness is the true self. The journey requires moving beyond these dualistic experiences to reach the unchanging nature of reality that transcends both sadness and happiness.