May 17, 2026

When Everything Appears Meaningless

By Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

“When you look within and find emptiness, instead of running away from it, shake hands with it” — Gurudev

When everything appears meaningless, only then do you seek meaning. If everything is already meaningful, then the journey stops right there. There is no journey at all, no question of even stopping. When there is no quest, there is no journey at all. The quest that begins with questions like “What is this?” or “Who am I?” is very important in the spiritual realm. In fact, this is the first step in the spiritual realm, where you find everything else meaningless, and you want to find meaning.

Let this sense of emptiness go deep. Sink into it. Don’t be in a hurry to find the answers. When a seed sprouts, it grows into a little sapling; don’t be in a hurry to cut it, assuming that it has become a tree. Let it grow into a huge tree. Then you can sit under it. Once the tree has grown, even if you prune the leaves or some of its branches, it will benefit you. But don’t cut a sapling that has just sprouted. Keep pondering the question, ‘Who am I?’ Don’t be in a hurry to conclude. Stay relaxed and let go. You will start going deeper into meditation if you just stay with this question.

Once you understand that everything else is meaningless, then the next question that comes up is: What is truly meaningful? What is worth knowing? What is the purpose of creation? Why did God create this earth? These questions, in a very significant manner, begin your inward journey.

That is why a real teacher will not give you an answer to this, though he knows it. Know that you are fortunate that this question arose within you. And, you are in the right place where you will find the answer. When you are on the spiritual path, you’ll find the answer.

Recently, a Bollywood casting director who was in our ashram for the 45 years of The Art of Living asked me why some successful people still felt empty within. I said, “They are lucky!” When they feel emptiness within, their real search begins. They realise that life isn’t only about position, money, and fame. One should welcome and embrace this feeling of emptiness because it leads them towards the main purpose of life.

When you look within and find emptiness, instead of running away from it, shake hands with it. You change your jobs, or change your partners — you do everything to fill up that sense of void. All you need to do is wake up and see — your background is emptiness, your foreground is also emptiness. Deep in your heart, there is emptiness. Shake hands with it. Be strong and steady in it. Then, you will see that misery and sorrow will evaporate. You will realise that you yourself are love. You are what you are seeking.

How do you feel when you experience something? You’ll find that the completion of an experience leads to void or nothingness. In the progression of life, you will leave behind every experience, saying, ‘This is nothing.’ Anything that is completed loses its importance. That is to say, it leads you to void — the feeling of ‘this is nothing’. A sign of intelligence is how soon you arrive at this understanding. Examine everything in life and say, ‘This is nothing’, and what remains after all that is ‘Love’, and that is everything.

When the realisation of ‘This is nothing’ doesn’t come out of knowledge, it comes out of misery. Either through knowledge or through misery, you come to the point of ‘This is nothing’. The choice of how you come to that point is yours.

I want you to realise one thing. Wake up and see: till this moment, whatever has happened in your life for the last 30 to 50 years, is it not like a dream? Take your mind forward and backward in time. You are sitting here and reading this article. Tomorrow you will wake up, brush your teeth, and get on with your work. The next day will roll on, then June will arrive, and so will August and September, and before you know it, you will be having a New Year’s party. It will all be gone! Is it not like a dream? Couldn’t this moment be a dream too? Is this moment real? How do you know it is reality? The future is like a dream, the past is anyway a dream, and this moment that is passing by can also be a dream, can it not? If you can manage to shift your attention and see this reality, you will see something beyond what meets the eye. There is a higher truth beyond this, which is so beautiful. And if you see this, you gain such incredible strength, energy, love, and beauty in your life that nothing whatsoever will be able to snatch your smile away. Immediately, you get connected to the universal power, to the truth that you are made up of.

There is a clear distinction between practical and spiritual life. When you have to work with people, don’t use this philosophy, ie, don’t think that everything is nothing. You will not be able to do your business or your work. However, keep this in mind — everything is nothing. This gives you inner strength, intuitive ability, happiness, contentment, love, and compassion. As you grow more in wisdom and see the changing, dream-like nature of events, you will be touched by events less and less. Know that life is a dream and everything will come to an end.

With this knowledge, the mind becomes pleasant, and the intellect becomes sharp.

Uncertainty seems frightening only when you rely on what cannot be relied upon, which is the relative world. People often try to hold on to things that are changing, and when those shift, anxiety and fear follow. But when you anchor yourself in that which does not change — the Self — then you can sail through even the most uncertain times. The only way you can be at ease with the uncertainty of the world is when you realise the certainty of consciousness.

The world is changing. The Self is unchanging. Only in wisdom can one be enthusiastic amidst uncertainty. Often, uncertain people do not act; they simply sit and wait. Acting in uncertainty makes life a game. A readiness to face uncertainty, coupled with awareness, takes you to a higher state of consciousness, where no one can take your smile away.

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