Acharya Prashant begins by stating that he will narrate a story, as people tend to like them, but he cautions that the story should not remain merely a story. He explains that in India and across the world, the principles behind stories have often been lost, leaving only the narratives, which has caused great harm. He then tells a story about a child born in a land of people with exceptional physical abilities, a place with a long-standing tradition of physical excellence. The people of this land were masters of all physical feats—strength, running, swimming, jumping, and bending. To revive this glorious past, a new training program was established for the youth. However, the trainers set mythical and unattainable goals. For example, young swimmers were told their ancestors swam to the sun. Young climbers were told their forefathers could reach the sky. Young runners were told their predecessors were supersonic. These exaggerated tales, intended to inspire, had the opposite effect. Faced with impossible standards, the children became demoralized and stopped trying. This led to a culture of hypocrisy, where they would pretend to achieve these feats, and the trainers would validate their false claims. The speaker points out that if you tell a child their ancestors swam to a difficult island, it is a great but achievable goal that inspires them. But if you tell them their ancestors swam to the sun, it becomes a joke, leading to either giving up or hypocrisy. Acharya Prashant explains that the problem lies in setting mythical, exaggerated, and unattainable ideals based on a glorified, fictionalized past. This practice, instead of inspiring, leads to demoralization, hypocrisy, and ultimately, the decline of a people. It is an insult to the real achievements of the ancestors to exaggerate them to the point of absurdity. He argues that one should present facts as they are. The ancestors were great, but they were human, born of the same earth. Their achievements were earthly, not celestial. By portraying them as gods who descended from the sky, we do an injustice to them and to ourselves, as we then feel we can never match them and give up on reaching our own potential. When we accept that our great predecessors were human like us, we take on the responsibility to strive for similar heights. He concludes that presenting facts without exaggeration is crucial; otherwise, it fosters a culture of hypocrisy and weakness, where people are content with stories instead of actual effort and achievement.