From situationships and soulmates to overthinking at 2 a.m., FOMO and the growing influence of social media and AI, young students had a wide range of questions for spiritual leader Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar during an interaction on Thursday.
Thousands of first-year students from more than 1,300 higher-education institutions across India, including IITs, IIMs, NITs and AIIMS, took part in the interaction organised as part of the seventh edition of the National Induction Programme by the Art of Living's Youth Desk.
One of the questions centred on whether young people should choose situationships or look for soulmates. Gurudev responded by asking students to consider the situation from the other person's perspective.
"Put yourself in the shoes of the other person. Would you like it if you chose someone as your soulmate and they only chose to see you as a situationship? What would you choose then?" he said.
A student from Kashmir also spoke about feeling a sense of meaninglessness despite having everything seemingly "okay" in life. Responding to the concern, Gurudev said the feeling was common among young people and pointed to something as basic as the breath as a way to move beyond loneliness and reconnect with a sense of purpose.
On dealing with doubt and failure, he urged students to build resilience rather than allow uncertainty to become a defining part of their personality.
"There is nothing wrong having doubt, but don't let it sink too much into you and become your own personality," he said. He also encouraged students to have confidence in themselves, noting that people who initially fail can go on to become successful entrepreneurs.
Gurudev also spoke about the shrinking attention spans of young people in the age of short-form content and constant digital stimulation. "Attention deficiency syndrome is very common today," he said, adding that while attention spans were earlier around 40 to 50 minutes, they had now come down to around 30 seconds.
He linked better concentration to being free from stress and urged young people to find ways to regain their inner balance.
On anger, his advice was to use humour rather than allow the emotion to take over. He suggested taking a few deep breaths, turning around and trying to see the situation differently.
Speaking about social media and AI-generated content, Gurudev cautioned students against believing everything they see online. "Whatever comes on social media, don't believe everything is true. A lot of it is fake, AI-driven," he said.
He also addressed FOMO, or the fear of missing out, and offered his take on what makes a good friendship. "A good friend is the one with whom you talk and come out of your FOMO. You live in JOMO and give others FOMO," he said, referring to the idea of the "joy of missing out".
Gurudev also encouraged students to retain the curiosity and energy associated with youth. "Stay mischievous. This is the sign of youth," he said, while adding that their actions should not cause pain to others.
Calling young people "the real wealth of this world", he highlighted the achievements of Indians across fields including engineering, medicine, computer science, fashion and hospitality. However, he stressed that success alone was not enough and said resilience was essential to navigating uncertainty and setbacks.
The interaction covered relationships, mental clutter, attention, social media, AI and career uncertainty, reflecting some of the concerns facing young people as they begin their higher-education journeys.
