Acharya Prashant addresses a questioner's dilemma regarding attraction to women and the fear of death. He begins by explaining that just as hunger and tiredness are chemical reactions in the body that signal the brain, the attraction to a partner is also a physical and chemical process. When a person reaches a certain age, the body releases chemicals that make it seek a partner, similar to how it seeks food when hungry. Spirituality, he clarifies, does not forbid having a person in one's life. Instead, it advocates for a relationship with someone who helps you elevate yourself spiritually, like a ladder. The relationship should be a means for mutual upliftment, where both partners act as ladders for each other. To illustrate the conditioned nature of human attraction, Acharya Prashant cites a psychological experiment on eight-year-old children. Their preferences for various things like toys, subjects, and colors were assessed, and based on this, predictions were made about the kind of partners they would be attracted to after puberty. Years later, these predictions were found to be 80-90% accurate. This demonstrates that our choices, including our romantic attractions, are largely predetermined by our conditioning. He states that what we call love is often not a conscious choice but a manifestation of these deep-seated conditionings. The ego falsely believes it is the doer, but its actions are mechanical. The greatest test for a young person, he says, is to see the falsity of this conditioned love, and realizing this is a step towards self-knowledge (Atma-vidya). Acharya Prashant quotes Kabir Saheb to distinguish between fleeting attraction and true, unwavering love: "That which rises and falls in a moment is not love." He further explains that the ego, the 'I', is a falsehood. The concept of the individual soul (Jivatma) is a delusion arising from the ego's identification with the body and mind. The ultimate reality is the Atma (the Self or Soul), and the Jiva is a myth. Self-knowledge, therefore, is the understanding that only the Atma truly exists. He explains that the human being is like a conditioned, automated machine. The one thing that separates humans from machines is the potential to realize this mechanical nature and yearn for liberation from it. This is the spiritual path. A relationship, therefore, should be a means to aid this upward journey of liberation, not to remain entangled in the same mechanical patterns.