Acharya Prashant explains that the rightful place of self-knowledge in the mind is its eventual absence. He distinguishes between functional knowledge, such as technical or economic information, and self-knowledge. He asserts that the only valid purpose of acquiring new spiritual knowledge, such as reading the Ashtavakra Gita, is to wipe away previously accumulated knowledge and identities. If a book or a teacher provides a new set of beliefs or a new identity, it is a regression rather than progress. True knowledge acts like a fire that burns away everything, including the notion that 'nothing is,' because even that is a mental construct. A worthy teaching or teacher does not add to the mind's burden but instead leaves the individual feeling lighter. The defining characteristic of real knowledge is that it makes old knowledge disappear and then disappears itself, leaving behind a vast emptiness and silence that cannot be known as an object of knowledge.