We live in uncertain times where there is one certainty. Artificial Intelligence will significantly disrupt our lives over the next fifty years. No field will be untouched, and everyone from farmers to doctors will have to find a way to coexist with this technology. How do we manage such large-scale disruptions so that the people impacted can understand and adjust to this change?
Sanatana Dharma may have some lessons for us. Sanatana Dharma has never had one textbook that determines how you would live. It is a collection of vastly different ideas bound by only one thread. The purpose of human life is to work towards liberation.
That’s why different philosophies of Sanatana Dharma have taken centre stage at different times. These philosophies have introduced radically different ideas that have swept up the Indian subcontinent. Millions of people adopted them because of the conviction and irrefutable logic presented by saints who propagated those ideas. Let’s examine the life of two such saints who had radically different ideas and left their impact on Sanatana Dharma. Then we can derive some lessons from their methods so that we can effectively prepare people for life alongside AI systems.
A thousand years had elapsed since the arrival of the Buddha. Buddha had spoken of Dharma but not of God. He challenged the culture of ritualism spread throughout the subcontinent and preached the message of self-discovery and compassion. The Buddhists evolved a system of rigorous logic to defend their system of thought and rid themselves of what looked like superstition.
The Vedic way of life had crumbled, and saints like Jaimini and Kumarila Bhatta were leading a defence of the ritualistic way of life. The knowledge they preached was codified into sutras called the Purva Mimamsa. People who followed their teachings gradually gravitated toward rituals but forgot the essence of Sanatana Dharma.
Adi Shankara, born in 788 AD, challenged the Purva Mimamsa system. He was a prodigy and completed his Vedic education and Sanskrit studies early in life. He wanted to embrace monkhood, but his widowed mother did not want to part with her only son. One day he was bathing in the river when a crocodile grabbed his leg. He requested his mother to permit him to be a monk before he died. When she agreed, the crocodile miraculously left his leg and swam away.
He searched for a Guru and found him in Sri Govinda Bhagavatpada, who was deeply immersed in Samadhi. The Guru sensed a worthy student and opened his eyes to ask him, “Who are you”?
I am neither the earth nor water nor fire, nor air, nor sky, nor any other properties. I am not the senses and even the mind. I am Shiva, the divisionless essence of consciousness.Adi Shankaracharya
The Guru was impressed by his student’s grasp of the concept of non-duality and accepted him. After completing his studies, his Guru instructed Shankaracharya to go to Varanasi. He had some fantastic spiritual experiences in Varanasi and wrote his commentaries on Gita, Upanishads, and Brahma Sutras.
One would think that after authoring these giant texts, Shankara’s life would be peaceful. Instead, the writing was just the beginning. Every major teacher across the subcontinent put Shankara’s work to the test, including the legendary Ved Vyasa, the original author of the Vedas. After obtaining the blessing of Vyasa, he toured all of India on foot, challenging significant teachers and defeating them with his razor-sharp intellect and ideology. According to legend, Shankara travelled from Kerala to Kashmir, from Puri in present-day Odisha to Dwarka in Gujarat, from Shringeri in present-day Karnataka to Badari in Uttarakhand, from Kanchi in present-day Tamil Nadu to Kashi in Uttar Pradesh, along the slopes of the Himalayas, the banks of the rivers Narmada and Ganga, and along the eastern and western coasts. The spirit of Advaitha flowed through the subcontinent, and he led a massive resurgence of Sanatana Dharma.
The beauty of Sanatana Dharma is that the entire Indian subcontinent went through a massive churn and embraced contrasting ways of thought over centuries. Hundreds of years after Shankara conquered this land through his Advaitha philosophy of non-duality, the legendary Madhavacharya preached his philosophy of duality. He preached the Bhakti marga or the path of devotion to God-realization. He claimed that the infinitely perfect God is independent, and the world of matter and spirit is dependent on God. He laid the foundation of the Bhakti revolution of India, which laid the foundation for saints like Chaitnya Mahaprabhu, Meerabai, and Namdev. He constantly emphasized that Sri Hari or Lord Vishnu is “Supreme,” and worship of Krishna as taught in the Bhagavat Purana was the centre of his religious precepts.
Madhvacharya was born in 1238 of Tulu speaking Brahmins — Narayana Bhat(also called Madhyageha Bhat) and Vedavati in the village of Pajaka, about 20 km from Udupi — Karnataka. Like Shankaracharya, as a child, he was extraordinary in every respect, repeatedly astounded his teachers, and is said to have performed miracles. He was not only good at Vedic studies but also excelled in sports like swimming, wrestling, athletics, and other physical activities. Out from the Gurukul, he announced to his parents his intent to take Sannyasa. He waited for a brother to be born before leaving home. When his Guru attempted to educate him, he surprised the Guru with his analysis and erudition. Vasudeva challenged his Guru several times. When learning the noted Advaita text Ishhta-Siddhi, Madhavacharya pointed out that there were 30 errors in the very first line of that work. He reasoned out the mistakes with such sharp logic everyone accepted his arguments. His Guru wasn’t miffed by his disciple challenging him or proposing his designs and encouraged independent inquiry. Even as a student, he debated with Pandit Vasudev, a famous Advaita scholar, for 40 days and won the debate. He started preaching his own philosophy that the world is real, the individual souls are different from Brahman, and Sri Hari is the highest entity in the Universe. He toured many kingdoms in South India to spread his thoughts and propagate his philosophy. He humbled scholars from other schools of thought everywhere he went with his undisputed and sharp analysis and brilliant oratory. One kingdom after another accepted his philosophy and gave up the tenets of Advaita in some instances. Soon after returning from his pilgrimage, he wrote the Gita Bhashya — a commentary on the Bhagavadgita. He also did immense Sadhana and got the blessings of Ved Vyasa. He then toured through North and East India sowing the seeds of Krishna bhakti and the Vaishnava philosophy. Those seeds blossomed into strong trees — as the Bhakti movement sprouted and was led by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Did you note that Sanatana Dharma is vast enough that two completely contrasting philosophies swept the Indian subcontinent? Advaitha focused on the fact that the world is an illusion and the one true self is the only reality. Dvaitha concentrates on the fact that the world is real and God is separate from the self. The Indian subcontinent transitioned from ritualistic Hinduism to the formless Advaitha and then adopted a path of devotion. These revolutions were successful because the spiritual leaders spent time realizing their truths. Then they traversed the length and breadth of the country. Their intellect and logic helped convince sceptics and won people’s hearts and minds.
How does the life of these saints have any lessons for us at the workplace? Think about the most significant disruption that is about to hit the human race. Everyone agrees that it’s Artificial Intelligence. A PWC report analyzed 200,000 existing jobs across 29 countries and summarized that up to 30% of jobs could be automatable by 2030. That’s not very far away. AI guru Kai-Fu Lee posits that AI will automate 50% of all jobs within 15 years. Everyone agrees that the world will go through massive disruption, and we need to retrain millions of people to make them employable in the future. Some even argue that this change is good, and we should give people universal basic income so that no one dies of hunger. However, none of the people impacted are being asked if they want to live in such a world.
The executives of large technology companies are making decisions that will impact millions and expect the governments to keep pace with them. The governments, in turn, rely on these companies to educate them about the best way to deal with such massive disruptions. Everyone is parroting the same line about retraining people. You need to walk into any disadvantaged community to see how far behind they already are in today’s world. Expecting them to leapfrog into an AI-driven world tomorrow is a fool’s dream. Everyone knows this, but no one wants to admit it openly.
We are walking into a hugely divided, disproportionate, and polarized society because we are unwilling to stop, debate about the world we want to create, and discuss the change with people who would be most impacted by it.
Do you think it would have been easy for Shankara or Madhavacharya to walk the length and breadth of the subcontinent and convince people about their ideology? They showed us the way to disrupt the status quo. They spent a long time contemplating the current situation. Next, they worked on creating an intellectually convincing theory that became their truth. They validated it with the best minds in around them. Finally, they took it to millions of people and did not leave anyone behind. Don’t you think we should do something similar when preparing for a world driven by artificial intelligence? Do organizations need to start collaborating with governments to decide what kind of world we want to shape collectively? Do we need to spend time understanding the position of our most vulnerable population by engaging with them? Do we need to create systems to care for them before bulldozing them with so much change? Do we need to reframe what it means to be human before asking people to take universal basic income and sit at home? Do we need to be in such a tearing hurry? Maybe we can take a leaf from these saints who managed to change the thinking of millions of people by walking amongst them.
This article is a submission at the lotus feet of my guru Om Swami – the founder of the Vedic Sadhana app. The app helps you identify your ishta and then perform daily rituals that deepen your relationship with them. This incredible app makes the ancient rituals and practices followed by the sages of India available to you.