In response to a question about how happiness deceives, Acharya Prashant explains that the deceptive element in happiness is the absence of sorrow. He clarifies that both liberation (mukti) and happiness (sukh) share one common thing: the absence of the experience of sorrow. However, the differences are vast. In liberation, there is freedom from both sorrow and happiness, which is a complete and continuous state. In contrast, happiness is merely a temporary suspension of the experience of sorrow. He uses the analogy of a coin: when you look at one side, the experience of the other side is suspended, but it hasn't disappeared. Being attached to one side (happiness) means you have brought the other side (sorrow) just as close. This deception is a trick of the senses and the mind. Our senses are limited and can only perceive one aspect at a time, which is the fundamental sorrow of our physical existence. We are so easily deceived that even a child hiding behind a pillar can make us believe they are absent. Acharya Prashant states that Maya (illusion) is not some grand external force but our own inherent inability and weakness. Our senses are so weak that they can be tricked by a simple pillar and a child; no great conspiracy is needed to deceive us. Happiness is described as a consolation for the sorrowful. It is like a handkerchief for crying eyes; it wipes the tears but doesn't stop the source of crying. Happiness is self-deception because if its full story were visible, it would not remain. With the disappearance of happiness, sorrow would also disappear, and this state of completeness is liberation. The fundamental state of a living being is sorrow, so there are only two possibilities: being in sorrow or being liberated from it. Happiness is a false liberation from sorrow, a trick of Maya to keep us engaged in the cycle. Maya gives just enough happiness to keep one motivated and running, like a master who keeps a slave alive just enough to continue the slavery.