Acharya Prashant begins by addressing the common human experience of making a resolution to live a better life, only to forget it within an hour. He uses a practical demonstration to illustrate the nature of the ego. He explains that this is the ego. Whenever the ego is troubled, it adds something to itself. This person, representing the ego, cannot move in any direction because for every direction he wants to go, there is an opposing force stopping him. This is the state of the ego, which is trapped by its own conflicting desires and identities. The speaker then discusses the problem of labor for humankind, which has been a great challenge. Historically, man had to work hard to gather food and build or find shelter. He had to protect himself from wild animals and other enemies through labor. However, living beings do not like to labor; rest is our nature and it pulls us. Very few people will say they want more and more hard work. Even those who appear to be working hard often do so with the desire for better rest later, such as working hard during the day for a good night's sleep, or working hard in youth for a comfortable old age. The purpose behind labor has always been to attain rest. Rest is our desired state. Acharya Prashant explains that the problem of physical labor has been largely solved by scientific progress and technology. There was a time when all work was powered by our own muscles. Man had to do a lot of hard work. To reduce this, man first used animals, harnessing the energy in their muscles. Then came machines, which were initially just effort multipliers like a shovel, still powered by human muscles. Eventually, machines were developed that ran on external energy sources like coal, electricity, and oil. This has led to a situation where the problem of physical labor is almost solved. However, this has given rise to a new problem: the problem of internal labor. Today, modern man has a lot of free time and numerous choices, but this has led to a new kind of problem. The issue is not the lack of options, but the inability to choose and commit to one. The ego, with its multiple identities, is pulled in various directions. It wants to go in one direction, but another desire pulls it in the opposite direction. The ego is in a state of constant internal conflict, unable to move forward in any direction, much like the person in the demonstration who was being pulled from all sides. This internal friction is exhausting and leads to no result. The ego is incomplete and seeks to become complete by acquiring things, but it doesn't know what it truly needs. This ignorance leads it to desire everything, resulting in a web of conflicting desires that keep it in bondage. The solution to this internal conflict and the problem of inner labor is self-knowledge.
