Acharya Prashant clarifies the distinction between how a sage like Maharishi perceives Maya and how a common person perceives it. For a Maharishi, Maya is merely a manifestation of reality, and because he can penetrate through the mind to its source, he sees only the truth in everything. To him, the world is an expression of the truth and poses no threat, as he holds no desires, aversions, or expectations. In contrast, for the common person, Maya acts as an alternative to the truth. We often turn to the world to find refuge from the truth, mistakenly treating the world as the truth itself rather than its expression. Acharya Prashant uses the analogy of a shadow to explain this: while a sage sees a shadow as a beautiful sign that the beloved is near, the common person tries to embrace the shadow as a convenient substitute for the beloved. He concludes that liberation involves realizing that there is no real alternative to what one seeks liberation from, ultimately requiring the surrender of the ego that believes it is in bondage.