Ep 544: How Ancient Wisdom Solves the Modern Meaning Crisis

In today’s episode, we unpack one of the most profound insights from the Advaita Vedanta tradition: meaning is a function of purpose. Drawing on timeless wisdom from the Vedas, the Upanishads, and mystic traditions across religions, this reflection explores how modern life often misplaces the search for meaning without first anchoring in purpose. Whether you're chasing a career, relationships, freedom, or happiness, Vedanta teaches that the deepest fulfillment—and even the discovery of God—is found by turning inward. With references to Christ, Vivekananda, and ancient scripture, this episode offers a powerful reorientation for anyone feeling stuck, burnt out, or disconnected. It's a call to remember the inner divinity and to realign life’s meaning through the lens of your true purpose.

The Daily Vedantic is a daily podcast and YouTube channel dedicated to the timeless wisdom of the Upanishads (https://thedailyvedantic.com/). Dating back to over 5,000 years ago, the source of nearly all Eastern Philosophy, and loved by Western giants from Emerson to Thoreau to Carl Jung and Alan Watts, studied daily by Joseph Campbell to Aldous Huxley to Arthur Schopenhauer and countless others, The Daily Vedantic aims to make this ancient philosophy as modern and accessible as it is simple, practical — and profound.

James Beshara ( https://www.twitter.com/jamesbeshara ) is a renowned startup founder of multiple companies, a prolific startup investor in 200+ others including some of the biggest startup names on the planet, a husband and father of three little girls, and philosophy student and teacher in Los Angeles.

James also co-hosts Yoga For Your Intellect (https://www.YFYI.co), a biweekly long-form conversational podcast with his teacher Joseph Emmett ( https://www.instagram.com/yogaforyourintellect )

James is a student of Swami Parthasarathy, the acclaimed author of Vedanta Treatise (Vedanta Treatise – The Eternities)  and teacher at Vedanta Academy in Malavli, India. As James says often, when you’re ready for the real thing, Swami’s daily lectures are where the true wisdom and systematic discovery of the world’s oldest continually studied philosophy resides: https://www.vedantaworld.org