IKS Meta-Retreat: Tech For Dharma, Tech With Dharma

INDICA is pleased to organise a MeRetreat on ”Tech for Dharma, Tech with Dharma” from 26-29 April 2024 under the leadership of Surendranath C, INDICA Leader and IT Professional and Ajit Padmanabh, IT Entrepreneur.

IKS Meta-Retreats are immersive intellectual explorations spanning 2-3 days, led by an Acharya in the ambience of a Gurukula and conducted with an attitude of Shraddha. Acharya, is the subject matter expert (SME), seeking to explore a specific topic, discipline, or domain along with a cohort. 9-12 participants who possess shradda and the right experience in the chosen theme form the cohort. This cohort then comes together with an upanishadic attitude of learning through immersion at a location that echoes the ambience of a Gurukula.

Our success as a civilization will depend on how well we craft a Technology future for ourselves – where it serves our purposes and develops an intrinsic harmony with Dharma. Both have been a significant challenge for us in the previous decades. In this light, this Meta-Retreat explores critical elements of a Dharmic Technology future.

The objective of the Meta-Retreat is two fold. Firstly, how do we leverage current Technologies towards our national renaissance ie., to organise life for Dharma in our times. Secondly, how do we transform Technology itself to protect, develop and nurture Dharmic sensitivities? What does it even mean for Technology to be intrinsically Dharmic – in the process of its creation, in its form and the outcomes it generates. We shall cover technologies touched upon ranging from Food processing, Healthcare, SocialMedia to AI and Metaverse.

The 2-Day program broadly has 8 sessions which were organised around the following elements weaving together an immersive and transformative experience.

• Invocation
• Cohort Introduction and Concerns around the subject
• A Stock Taking of the Present
• A Deep Dive into the Past to understand the Present
• Problems, Concerns, Conflicts that require Resolution
• The Emergence and the Opportunities
• Desired Future
• How do we get to the Desired Future
• The Next Steps

The Evenings shall be spent in informal conversations around the subject with a visit to the Arunachala Shiva Temple and Ramana Maharshi Ashram.

As an outcome, we seek to create a Vision Paper to be produced and published in 2024-25 along with another focused Group Project of immediate impact.

INDICA is pleased to invite applications to be part of this distinguished cohort. We seek applications from practitioners, scholars, thinkers with a good appreciation for Dharm, experience with Technology and with a passion to transform it, invested in the renaissance of our civilization.  The cohort will be carefully selected by the SME and INDICA consisting of practitioners, academics, thinkers, and activists. Please send us your bio at namaste@indica.org.in. A 300 word summary mentioning the subject, domain, or discipline you seek to explore along with the names of cohort participants they would like to invite should also be furnished.

Travel, logistics, and accommodation at the Retreat will be hosted and managed by INDICA

Speakers

Ajit Padmanabh

Founder and CEO at Who VR | TEDx Speaker | Culture & Heritage, Metaverse Advisor, India Blockchain Alliance (IBA)

Passionate about Art, History and Spirituality - in search of our roots through a multi-dimensional team of historians, chant-healers, artists, neuroscientists and content creators - Retelling History like never before!

C Surendranath

Surendranath Chandranath is a columnist and speaker on various topics relating to India’s History and specifically the traditional knowledge systems. He is the Consulting Editor at Indic Today. Surendranath has run workshops on the 6 vedangas, written on issues of cultural encounters that India has had in the past several centuries. He is a rasika of Carnatic music and folks art forms like therukoothu. He has also received basic training in Vedic chanting and is an avid student of ritualism across cultures. Surendranath has been a software engineer for 22 years and has Undergraduate and Master’s Degrees in Technology from IIT, Bombay. He lives in Chennai with his wife of 20 years and two children.