I have devoted my life to uncertainty. Certainty is the death of

In the words of Shekhar Kapur, the visionary filmmaker who has walked between the worlds of history and imagination, there resounds a truth older than time itself: “I have devoted my life to uncertainty. Certainty is the death of wisdom, thought, creativity.” These words are not the confession of a wanderer lost, but the declaration of a seeker who has chosen the open road over the fortress of complacency. They speak to the eternal tension between the mind that seeks control and the soul that longs for freedom. For it is in the embrace of uncertainty that human beings truly begin to live, to think, to create.

The origin of this quote lies in Kapur’s own journey — an artist who refused to be bound by the expectations of the world around him. Trained first as an accountant, he turned his back on the safe and the predictable to pursue the path of storytelling, a path filled with risk, rejection, and revelation. In his life and his art, Kapur learned what the ancients knew: that to step into the unknown is not to fall into chaos, but to enter the realm where possibility awakens. For certainty is a prison, while uncertainty is the open sky where the soul can spread its wings.

To understand his wisdom, one must see the danger hidden in certainty. When a man believes he knows everything, his mind closes; his heart grows still. There can be no learning, no discovery, no transformation in a soul that clings to what it already understands. The philosopher Socrates, who was called the wisest of men, declared that his wisdom lay only in knowing that he knew nothing. That humble acceptance of uncertainty — of ignorance embraced — became the fountain from which all inquiry and philosophy flowed. Thus, Kapur’s words carry that same ancient pulse: that wisdom begins not in knowledge, but in wonder, and wonder can only exist where certainty has been surrendered.

In the realm of creativity, too, certainty is the great destroyer. The artist who paints only what he knows repeats himself until his spirit fades. The writer who never doubts writes only what is safe, and therefore lifeless. The inventor who fears failure will never touch the edges of discovery. Consider the tale of Leonardo da Vinci, whose notebooks are filled not with conclusions, but with questions — sketches, experiments, unfinished ideas. His genius was born not from mastery, but from perpetual curiosity, from his willingness to dwell in mystery, to see in every question the seed of a thousand answers. He lived, as Kapur declares, “devoted to uncertainty,” and thus became immortal in the realm of thought.

There is also a spiritual truth woven through Kapur’s words. To cling to certainty is to live in fear — fear of change, fear of loss, fear of the vast unknown. But to embrace uncertainty is to trust the unfolding of life itself, to accept that existence is not meant to be mastered, but experienced. The mystics of every age — from the Sufi poets to the Zen masters — have taught that the divine is found not in certainty but in surrender. The ocean cannot be grasped by the hand, nor can truth be captured by the mind. One must wade into the waves, unafraid of their depth, if one wishes to feel the infinite.

And yet, this devotion to uncertainty is not the path of chaos; it is the path of courage. It calls upon us to face the world without guarantees — to act, to create, to love, even when the outcome is unknown. It is the same courage that guided explorers across uncharted seas, scientists toward revolutionary discovery, and saints toward divine revelation. For every great achievement in human history has begun with a single act of faith in the unknown. To live in uncertainty, then, is not weakness — it is the highest form of strength.

The lesson of Shekhar Kapur’s words is simple yet profound: Do not seek to eliminate uncertainty; seek instead to dwell gracefully within it. Let doubt become your teacher, not your enemy. Let curiosity guide you more than fear. In your work, your relationships, your thoughts — leave room for surprise. Be as the seed that falls into darkness before it bursts into light. When you accept that you will never control everything, you become free to create anything.

So remember this, O listener: certainty is the sleep of the soul, but uncertainty is its awakening. Do not be afraid to live in the questions; do not fear the shifting ground beneath your feet. For wisdom grows in motion, thought deepens in challenge, and creativity blooms only in the open field of the unknown. As Shekhar Kapur teaches, the one who devotes his life to uncertainty does not walk in confusion — he walks with faith, with wonder, and with the boundless fire of creation itself.