Teaching the Bhagavad Gita to a Machine

 Ram Dutt Tripathi

Kausani, Uttarakhand — High in the serene Kumaon hills of Uttarakhand, nestled within the historic Anasakti Ashram where Mahatma Gandhi once contemplated the Bhagavad Gita, I met a man who has quietly walked away from corporate luxury to embrace simplicity. The room is modest. There’s no hot water, no television, no fridge — not even WiFi.

For most, this would feel like deprivation. But for Srikanth S. Sampara, or simply Sri, it is a conscious choice — a return to essence. Sri is now on a quest to rediscover the eternal wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, not only for himself — but also, remarkably, for machines.

From Silicon Valley to the Spiritual Valley

A pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, he has worked across 18 countries, claims to hold six patents, and has led enterprise-wide digital transformations for Fortune 500 companies. 

Sri says he helped shape early Natural Language Processing (NLP) models — including a Supreme Court text summarisation tool, in 1999 for the Supreme Court of India — long before terms like “Generative AI” and “Large Language Models” became buzzwords.

Despite his deep contributions to technology, Srikanth Sampara maintains a low public profile. He rarely appears at conferences or panels and prefers to work behind the scenes.

“I was there to solve problems, not to be seen,” he says, reflecting on his early years as one of India’s first database architects at Rediff.com in 1998. 

In the early 2000s, he was among the first to explore the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in audit and forensic data analysis.

One of his more recent innovations—an algorithm designed for intelligent document interpretation—was acquired by a global regulatory technology firm. His personal hallmark has been bringing depth to the way complex problems are approached, often leading to solutions that quietly reshape how industries operate.

Over the years, his work has consistently led to practical, widely adopted systems in data-intensive, high-compliance environments.

A Radical Shift: Can AI Serve Sanatana Dharma?

After decades at the cutting edge of tech, Sri took a temporary break at Kausani to live in spiritual seclusion and meditate, study scriptures, and — most unusually — explore how Artificial Intelligence can serve the eternal values rooted in Sanatana Dharma.

Not as a trendy idea or commercial pitch, but as a serious philosophical pursuit.

He’s currently developing a concept he calls a “Dharmic Companion” — a conscious interface that blends machine learning with Indian spiritual wisdom, inspired by the Gita and the teachings of Advaita Vedanta.

Legacy of Wisdom: From Parliament to Pine Forests

Sri comes from a respected lineage. His maternal grandfather, Shri Dronamraju Sathyanarayana, was a renowned Parliamentarian from Andhra Pradesh, famously known as the “Tiger of North Andhra.” Yet, Sri has chosen a path of introspection over influence.

“We’ve all inherited different duties,”— Sri, with the calm conviction of someone who lives the Gita’s principle of detached action.

His daily life in Kausani included writing code, meditating, walking through pine forests, and studying sacred texts. In conversations, he moves effortlessly between neural networks and non-duality, algorithms and Atman.

Why His Story Matters

At a time when the tech world is driven by visibility, valuation, and virality, Sri’s quiet withdrawal was radical. His journey challenges us to ask:

Can technology promote wisdom, not just wealth?

Can AI help humanity navigate not only data — but dharma?

His stay at Anasakti Ashram was, “more than just a spiritual retreat — it was a reboot.”

 He met diverse individuals, exchanged perspectives, and proposed an idea to me — a public-interest initiative titled “AI4ALL” that aims to simplify AI for all sections of society, grounded in India’s timeless wisdom.

 At a time when India is emerging as a global AI hub, Sri represents a rare confluence of technical depth and philosophical clarity.

He is currently back in Hyderabad pursuing both his professional passion of bringing value of enterprise AI and his personal passion of bringing Indian Ancient Wisdom and AI together. His depth is reflected in the patents he holds in Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence in India,

Bhagavad Gita and AI, Sanatana Dharma and Technology, AI4ALL, Dharmic AI, Anasakti Ashram Kausani, Srikanth Sampara, AI and Spirituality.

“In the Himalayas, Srikanth S. Sampara explores how AI can align with Sanatana Dharma. Discover his journey from Silicon Valley to spiritual simplicity at Anasakti Ashram.”