Acharya Prashant provides a profound reinterpretation of Kabir Saheb's famous couplet regarding the avoidance of excess. He explains that the common understanding of 'excess' (ati) as a mere quantitative measure—doing too much of something—is a distortion. Instead, he defines 'excess' as anything that is unnecessary, superfluous, or stemming from the ego (Aham). The ego itself is the ultimate excess because it lives in a false sense of incompleteness despite the availability of wholeness. He warns against using such spiritual verses as an excuse to justify small vices or to limit righteous actions, noting that people often mistakenly believe that as long as they don't go to an extreme, their minor greed, jealousy, or violence is acceptable.
