Acharya Prashant explains that to discover oneself, the fundamental question must first exist. He states that the problem is not a scarcity of answers but the absence of the question itself. For most people, indispensable existential questions like "what to do, how to live, what to make of life" do not arise because they have already received readymade answers from the crowd, peers, the past, or the system. These pre-supplied answers kill curiosity and prevent the necessary internal "churning" or "productive turbulence," which he likens to the tilling of the soil. This lack of questioning means there is no room for venturing into the unknown, discovering something fresh, or exploring life, as everything becomes pre-decided. Acharya Prashant distinguishes between "worrying" and "wondering," noting that people can worry about not achieving what they have been commanded to get by conditioning forces, but they can never truly wonder. He suggests that an enlightened educational system is needed to foster this habit of wondering, a system he feels is currently lacking. He describes his own work as an attempt to plug this "gaping hole" and identifies himself simply as a teacher trying to convey something useful. To begin the process of self-discovery, he advises that one must first come to the word "I" before considering anything related to "me" or "mine." He quotes the scriptures, saying, "'I' (Aham) comes before 'mine' (Mam)." The primary question is not "What am I searching for?" but rather "Who am I in the search?" The identity one accords to oneself will determine what one finds. He points out that most people passively accept identities given to them by chance and conditioning, such as their religion or profession, without exercising their fundamental freedom of consciousness to choose their identity. He concludes by likening this conditioned state to being a slave in a prison, where the mind itself is the prison. The specific "master" or conditioning force is less important than the fact of being subjugated. If the mind is not free, he questions whether we are truly distinct from animals. The fundamental problem is not exercising the freedom to choose one's identity, instead accepting the identities imposed by chance and circumstance.
