Acharya Prashant advises to stay away from people who, upon meeting, suggest drinking on the weekend. One should also avoid those who bring gifts like Galouti kebabs when they visit. Such a person has come with the pleasure of the body, and they will certainly corrupt the mind. Similarly, one should be wary of those who bring sweets like Kaju ki Barfi. The speaker humorously suggests creating a box outside for such gifts and telling the person to leave after dropping them off. He likens this to networking, where the person can leave their face on CCTV and thumbprint on a scanner to mark their visit. He extends this advice to romantic relationships. If someone you love brings you perfume as their first gift, you should disappear in the blink of an eye. This is because such a person's entire concern is with your body and its scent. This person is dangerous because they only want to give and receive bodily pleasure, with no regard for the state of your mind. Wherever the body is getting pleasure, the mind is getting corrupted. While not always true, this happens in nine out of ten cases. Anyone who aims to corrupt your mind will surely provide some pleasure to your body. When physical pleasure is offered, we tend to open all our doors. The speaker refers to the old saying that the way to a husband's heart is through his stomach. To dominate his mind, one must keep his stomach happy. He adds that husbands might say the path is a little lower than the stomach, but in both instances, the focus is on physical pleasure. The idea is that by giving physical pleasure, one can capture the heart, not to bring it peace or samadhi, but for other motives. He shares a personal anecdote from about ten years ago when people would mistakenly invite him to weddings or birthdays. He would bring the only gift he had to offer: books. People would feel greatly insulted. For a wedding anniversary, he would bring books by Kahlil Gibran, which they considered a disgusting thing. Although they wouldn't say it to his face, their eyes would curse him, as if asking why he didn't bring something else, like lingerie. Eventually, people understood his nature and stopped inviting him, thinking he was a conspirator who couldn't tolerate their happiness and would sing hymns of death at weddings. He concludes that it is very easy to avoid deception in life if one's fundamental philosophy is correct, as one can immediately understand what is happening.
