Acharya Prashant begins by defining a true friend as someone who uplifts your life, mind, and thought process, providing clarity and insight. A friend is someone whose company turns you into a better person. He then applies this definition to the question of whether a boy and a girl can be friends, asking why a girl's company cannot give sharpness to a boy's consciousness and mind, or why a boy's company cannot help a girl realize her inner shortcomings and emerge as a bolder, more inquisitive individual. When the questioner brings up the issue of biological instincts, Acharya Prashant explains that a true friend of the opposite gender is precisely the one who can help you see and address these very instincts. He gives an example of an intelligent girl pointing out to her male friend that he is staring at her instead of listening, thereby revealing the "animal in his eyes." This is an aspect of oneself that might remain hidden in same-sex friendships. He states that when you are with someone of the opposite gender, a part of your personality that is otherwise dormant gets activated, and a wise friend can help you understand and manage it. Acharya Prashant extends this idea by quoting that "some part of your humanness remains unawakened till you befriend an animal." Similarly, he argues that if you cannot be friends with a person of the opposite sex, an important part of yourself will remain unnourished, unawakened, and unaddressed. He asserts that people who only move in same-sex groups remain "boorish," meaning uncultured and undeveloped, because they lack an understanding of half of humanity and, consequently, of themselves. To understand the wholeness of life, one must understand the entire world, which includes both genders. He concludes that it is not a question of whether men and women *can* be friends, but that they *must* be friends to avoid missing out on the wholeness of life. He warns that treating the genders as separate universes leads to misery, over-sexualization, and perversion. When you don't see the other gender, your mind imagines them through fantasies and lust, which breeds desperation. This separation reinforces gender and body identification, which he identifies as the root cause of all personal and global problems.