Why Shiva, Who Owns Nothing, Is Called The Richest, Lord of Infinite Wealth

There is a profound treasure hidden in the paradox of Shiva, he who owns nothing yet is richest of all. To grasp this may demand an inner stillness, a pause, like the soft exhalation of an ancient truth. I invite you into that pause.

On the surface, the world measures wealth by possessions, land, gold, houses, fame, influence. But Shiva stands in stark defiance of this measure. In his ascetic garb, in the ashes on his body, in the mountain silence of Kailasa, he appears in nothingness. Yet scripture and reflection call him wealth incarnate. How can this be? Because he shows us a deeper dimension of “wealth”, one not counted by coins, contracts or social status, but by freedom, awareness, interminable capacity.
According to one modern commentary, the name “Shiva” can mean “that which is not”. “The word ‘Shiva’ means literally, ‘that which is not.’” Here is the seed of the teaching: when you “own” nothing, when your claims, your expectations, your “mine” and “not-mine” fall away, you become free. Free to receive life, free to let life go. Free to be wealth, rather than to accumulate it.
Wealth attached to possession is fragile. A business fails, a partner leaves, a cheque bounces, the body ages. Ownership binds you to outcomes. Being has no bonds. Shiva being “nothingness” suggests that he is prior to all definitions, beyond all claims. As the commentary pointed out: “Today, modern science is proving to us that everything comes from nothing and goes back to nothing. … The basis of existence and the fundamental quality of the cosmos is vast nothingness.”This vast nothingness is Shiva. And in that emptiness is infinite capacity. Deep emptiness is the richest soil. So if you feel tied, burdened by what you own or what you desire to own, ask: who is owning? what truly belongs? The awakening is: the self that owns is not the self that is free. And through this, you touch the richness of Shiva.

Wealth inside looks different. It is: serenity when storms rage, clarity when confusion swirls, compassion when wounded, silence when words are loud and spaciousness when demands close in. Shiva, the Lord of Yogis, is the master of this interior domain. When you dwell in that inner expansiveness, you own nothing, yet you possess the unshakeable. You may have no material holdings, but you hold yourself. And yourself, in that moment, holds everything.

• When you lose something, instead of reacting as “I have lost”, you recognise: “what I claimed was never mine to begin with.”
• When you gain something, instead of “I am richer”, you recognise: “this is a passing gift, I remain untouched.”
• When you face relationships, recognise: “I don’t own you; I love you. We live together, we grow together, but I don’t possess.”
• When you face ambitions and outcomes, recognise: “I act, I strive, but the fruit is not mine to claim.”

In all this: you begin to live like Shiva. You don’t renounce life; you see through life’s claims. You don’t collapse into nihilism; you awaken into the infinite domain beyond.

Because richness is not the accumulation of externals; it is the mastery of the self, the freedom from needing, the steadiness in change. Shiva lives beyond name and form, beyond coming and going, beyond the dualities of gain and loss. In that domain, there is no subtraction, only fullness. Fullness not measured by more, but by enough. Enough of peace, enough of presence, enough of being. In that enough lies abundance unending.
Picture your life: your roles, your possessions, your titles. Now imagine a dimension where those drop away. What remains? The witness. The heart. The capacity to receive this moment exactly as it is. When you touch that, you step into Shiva’s domain: the richest of the rich, owning nothing, yet possessing all.

May you carry this paradox with you: own nothing, be richest. Let it challenge you each morning. Let it quiet you each night. Let it reshape your measure of success, your measure of self-worth. Let you discover: the greatest wealth is not in what you hold, but in who holds nothing, and yet holds everything.