Acharya Prashant addresses the question of how to use the Gita to achieve a good rank in the Civil Services examination, calling the question itself very strange. He asks if the Gita is like a spice mix to be sprinkled on something one has already prepared to make it more palatable. He explains that the Gita is a guide and a master; it is meant to tell you which direction to go. The Gita should come first and direct you on which path to walk. The speaker states that the questioner is trying to make the river flow backward by first choosing a direction and then asking how to use the Gita to move forward in that direction. This is not how it works. Spirituality, the speaker clarifies, is not an instrument or a tool that one can simply use. He criticizes the common propaganda where people claim to have achieved success by reciting scriptures like the Isha Upanishad, calling this a form of spiritual advertisement. He points out that people have all kinds of desires—an alcoholic wants alcohol, a lustful person wants to fulfill their desires—and questions what kind of mantras are being distributed that promise to fulfill any worldly desire. He gives examples of people misusing spiritual practices to win court cases or influence others, highlighting that the desire to do so comes from a deep place within the ego. The ego, he explains, does not want to dissolve or surrender; instead, it wants to use even the Supreme Being to fulfill its own wishes. For the ego, the Supreme is supreme only in name, while one's own desires are more important. When one stands in a temple and asks God to fulfill their wishes, they are making God a servant to their desires, placing themselves and their wishes as the highest authority. The Supreme is then just something to be used. The speaker notes that an aspirant might think reading the Gita will prevent the mind from wandering and help them study with more focus to get a better rank, but spirituality is not for getting ahead in a competition. He elaborates that even if one wants the mind to stop wandering, the intention is not for the mind to become established in the Self (Atmasth). The authors of the Gita and Upanishads taught that the mind's wandering is futile and that it should be established in the Self, in Truth. However, the aspirant's demand is different: they want the mind to be established not in the Self, but in the bureaucracy. The speaker compares this to the mindset of demons (asuras) like Hiranyakashipu, who performed great austerities (sadhana) not for liberation, but for personal power and immortality. He suggests that for petty self-interests, the ego can perform any amount of sadhana, which is dangerous. The Gita must come first to show the direction for one's life, rather than being used to serve a pre-decided goal.