Acharya Prashant responds to the question of how we become so unconscious by first asking whether the question itself is being asked in a state of consciousness or unconsciousness. He argues that for someone who is unconscious, the crucial question is not to trace back into the past to find out how they first chose unconsciousness. Instead, the pertinent question is how to become conscious immediately, in the present moment. Asking the wrong question implies an unwillingness to walk the right path. By asking how one became unconscious in the first place, one is, even today, choosing unconsciousness. The person who truly wants to become conscious will not ask about what happened in the past, because the chain of past events is infinite. Delving into this infinite chain is a way to grant oneself the right to remain unconscious for an infinite amount of time. He illustrates this with an analogy: if a heavily drunk person is offered lemon water to sober up, but instead insists on knowing the entire history of how he got drunk—who gave him the alcohol, where it came from, the factory it was made in, the farmer who grew the grapes—this entire line of questioning is a tactic to avoid drinking the lemon water and to remain intoxicated. All these questions are born of unconsciousness and serve to maintain it. Acharya Prashant explains that someone who genuinely wants to be conscious will have only one question: "I am unconscious, and I don't like it. How do I get out of it right now?" They would not be interested in any other futile discussion. He states that getting caught in the infinite chain of cause and effect is a trap. He dismisses the concept of causation (kāraṇatā) as a deception, asserting that the cause of any situation is not in the past but is present right now. The cause of one's current plight is the choice one is making in the present. The only reason for any foolishness or dishonesty is the choice of intoxication, which is the choice of unconsciousness. Unlike the intoxication from alcohol, which takes time to wear off, the intoxication of the ego can be shed instantly. The moment you want to, the intoxication can be gone. It is not a compulsion but a choice.