In response to a question about whether rapists should receive the death penalty, Acharya Prashant delves into the root cause of such heinous acts. He begins by presenting a hypothetical scenario involving three men: a 35-year-old rapist, a 65-year-old man who is physically incapable of rape but harbors the same thoughts, and a 35-year-old so-called religious man who forces himself upon his wife, an act which the judiciary may not even consider rape. He points out that while the minds of all three are the same, only one is labeled a rapist. This raises the question of whether we are punishing the act or the mind behind it. Acharya Prashant explains that the legal system operates on a transactional basis, essentially providing a 'rate card' for various crimes. This system, by its very nature, acknowledges the ego of the criminal. When the law sets a price for a crime, it inadvertently validates the criminal's ego, which is the very source of the crime. The criminal might even see the punishment as a fair trade, a deal he is willing to accept. This approach fails to address the fundamental problem, which is the ego's sense of incompleteness. The speaker asserts that the same assumption of incompleteness that drives the rapist also underlies the justice system that punishes him. The real crime, he argues, is the ignorance of what is happening within oneself, a crime committed by both the perpetrator and those who judge him. He further critiques society's reaction to rape, noting that when a woman is raped and murdered, the outrage is often greater for the rape than the murder. This, he suggests, indicates a societal obsession with a woman's sexuality. He points to the spike in Google searches for a victim's explicit videos after a rape case becomes public, asking whether such a society is fit to punish a rapist or is itself a rapist. He broadens the definition of rape to include all forms of exploitation, such as the cruelty inflicted upon animals in the dairy industry, and questions the complicity of consumers. He also highlights the hypocrisy of men who harass women while claiming to protect their own sisters, adding that statistics show most sexual abuse occurs within the family. The speaker concludes that the ultimate solution lies not in punishment, which is a superficial remedy, but in a system that fosters true humanity through the wisdom of scriptures like the Gita and the Upanishads. He identifies the 'rape of the mind'—the corruption of consciousness through societal conditioning—as a far greater crime than physical rape, yet one that is rarely discussed. The prevailing materialistic philosophy, which posits that happiness is derived from the consumption of material things, turns everything, including people, into objects for consumption. This, he states, is the distorted philosophy that must be addressed to solve the problem at its root.