Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #23 – AI and the Dumbing of Vaiṣṇava Learning and Scholarship
Dhanurdhara Swami June 2nd, 2025
AI and the Dumbing of Vaiṣṇava Learning and Scholarship[1]
There is a very interesting concept in Bhāgavatam philosophy (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.9.43) called māyā-sukhāya, illusory happiness. Śrīla Prabhupāda would sometimes explain māyā-sukhāya in terms of material advancement. It temporarily gives the appearance of happiness but ultimately ushers in misery.
One example would be the advancement in our modes of transportation. Where would we be in today’s world without air travel? But have we truly advanced when in old age instead of being surrounded by family and community in the same village or town, one’s own children often reside in different states, or even continents, thousands of miles away?
New technology always starts off with promises for a better life. Didn’t the Internet and social media promise a more broad-minded, educated society with enhanced feelings of community? But in fact, as a result are we not more divided and lonelier than ever?
AI promised to give us the facility to think faster and better and increase our knowledge. But will it?
A good way to foretell the impact of technology on the whole of society is to see first how it plays out in schools. Are students equipped with AI deepening their knowledge? Or are they discouraged from learning by never having to use their intelligence to struggle to understand things or even to read a book?
My thought this week is to examine how this technology will play out in the Vaiṣṇava world in terms of learning and scholarship, where directly engaging with the text is not just an intellectual exercise, but a revelatory one, a direct communion with God.
Śrīla Prabhupāda said his books were written by Krishna. Those who deeply study and write on śāstra know something of what he means. The texts talk to those who serve them with prayer and deep thought. Will there be something lost in terms of the depth of our realization, and our nuanced and creative understanding of our philosophy, to the extent we turn the struggle of learning over to an artificial third party? Will there come a time when our minds become so atrophied that the Vaiṣṇava society never again produces geniuses in wordcraft like the Six Gosvāmīs who could write volumes of the most brilliant philosophy and poetry in perfect verse with just the tool of their minds?
Of course, with any technology there will be a minority of people who know how to selectively use the technological advances in communication and learning without withering their intellectual, creative and devotional muscles. And certainly there are devotees who will be able to do that effectively in the service of Krishna. I am not denying that.
What I am doing here is just raising some concerns based on the history of technology and this principle of māyā-sukhāya. Have we not seen played out again and again in history, including within the Vaiṣṇava world, the initial excitement and happiness in engaging in a new technology turning into misery, amplifying the worst in us by dumbing down our intellect and feeding our self-centeredness and taste for distraction?
So what will be the effect of AI?
Sādhu beware! “The medium is the message” was a phrase coined by the renowned late Canadian philosopher and media theorist Marshall McLuhan. He argued strongly, based on his extensive research, that the form a medium of communication takes has always had more effect on society than the content it carries, and the effect is not always pretty. We therefore need to be thoughtful on how we bring AI into our lives.
Will AI, despite our initial euphoria, result in amplifying our communication of spiritual teachings, or will it weaken Vaiṣṇava learning and scholarship and deteriorate our intellectual and devotional prowess?
Has history already spoken or will time tell?
[1] Many of the ideas I got for this article on the effects of AI came from a debate on the subject https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHMxDKPa_BQ