Acharya Prashant explains that the spiritual inquiry of a Rishi begins with the recognition of hurt and suffering in life. He describes the ego as a festering wound that most people learn to live with or become numb toward, accepting suffering as an inevitable part of life. In contrast, a Rishi is like a child who refuses to accept suffering as their nature. This refusal leads to the fundamental question of identity: "Who is it that gets hurt?" This inquiry, referred to as 'Koham', requires a degree of dissociation from the ego to investigate the source of pain and the identity of the one experiencing it.