Acharya Prashant explains that man is a combination of both the material and the immaterial, existing as both earth and sky. He emphasizes that one must have a mind that understands the world while remaining immersed in the heart, which is the source of all understanding. There is no point in negating or escaping the world; instead, man must have a right relationship with it by having God as the master. When God is the master, man becomes the master of the world; without God, the world appears only as terror and chaos. To have both God and the world in their proper placesâGod above and the world belowâis the correct way to live. He further discusses the concept of 'awe' as a dimension that lies beyond knowledge. While knowledge and ignorance exist on one level, awe is the wonderment that occurs when the mind reaches its limits. Acharya Prashant describes how the mind typically looks at the world from its own center, but a transformation occurs when the 'eye' attempts to look at itself. This shift reveals a deeper center of vision that can observe the mind itself. This state of awe is characterized by a total vision that sees both ends of duality and brings an inexplicable peace that the mind cannot produce through its own efforts. Finally, he describes awe as a state of being a recipient of grace and the intelligence to surrender to the unknown. He warns that being confined to one's own knowledge is the worst form of imprisonment. True progress happens in the absence of the ego's noise and assertion. He points out the mind's inherent contradiction: it is unhappy with its current state yet afraid to leave it. He cautions against the trap of merely gathering intellectual knowledge about the 'beyond' while refusing to actually change, noting that such knowledge often becomes a barrier to true spiritual experience.
