Acharya Prashant responds to a question about the practice of reducing the ego by observing its falseness. He clarifies that one cannot work upon the ego directly; the only way is to observe its ways. He states that no trick will work, and one must do it the hard way, which involves seeing everything happening in front of your eyes. This means observing all the distortions, ugliness, and self-deceptions and acknowledging every bit of it, saying, "Yes, this falseness is me. This is me." This process, he explains, involves inflicting humiliation upon oneself, and that humiliation becomes humility. Using the analogy of a mess in one's life, he says that to clear it, one must discipline oneself to look at every bit of it and acknowledge every part and atom of it in its entirety. This is not easy because one desperately wants to avoid looking at one's own mess, as every glance fills one with shame and self-derision. However, this is the only way to get rid of the mess. No technique of simply sweeping it aside will work. He further illustrates this with the analogy of rotten things in a drawer. They remain there because we don't pull out the drawer to see what's inside. The moment you see what's rotten, you can no longer tolerate it, and it gets disposed of. The mind is like this; you have to go into every nook and corner and figure out what lies there. The moment you throw light on it and acknowledge its presence, it disappears. This is the only method. Vanity is what prevents us from acknowledging the rubbish within because it feels shameful. He concludes that much of the new spiritual advice that suggests otherwise is not merely useless but actually evil.