Shankaracaria mentions asarto the deeply empty or unsatisfactory nature of things. He calls it asara, which means without essence. All things in the world are empty, empty of essence. They cannot give lasting satisfaction. None of it can give us lasting fulfilment. If they could give the happiness they seem to promise, everybody wants them. So there's a promise there that the'll give you a lot of happiness. But they can't. That's an astonishing thing which we don't look at. We think, what we think is we think, oh, let me try another restaurant. Let me try another acar, another relationship er, another spiritual teacher.
Swami Sarvapriyananda teaches the Katha Upanishad, which is one of the most popular Upanishads. The scripture concerns the story of a young man who goes to the house of death to find out what happens after death. The reply describes the nature of reality and the meaning of life.