Are You Ready to Call Yourself a Modern Rishi?

The Modern Rishi does not escape life, but transcends illusion.

For many years I have said that Vedanta is not blind belief, ritual repetition, personality worship or spiritual entertainment. It exists to produce clarity. It helps us examine what we have assumed, see the forces that shape our thinking, and recognise what is real beneath inherited identity, fear and conditioning.

The Modern Rishi Movement is the next step in that work.

It is for people who question what others repeat, who examine what others merely believe, and who would rather face an uncomfortable truth than live inside a convenient illusion.

This movement is not for everyone.

If you repeat mantras daily without ever asking what they mean, you will find nothing here. If you prefer inherited belief to direct understanding, or want another guru to follow, another personality to worship, another comforting system to tell you what to think, look elsewhere. And if you are unwilling to question your own assumptions, identities, loyalties and conclusions, you are not ready for this yet.

A mantra is not a mechanical refuge from thought. A teaching memorised while life continues unchanged has achieved nothing. The words of Vedanta and the Srimad Bhagavad Gita have to be examined and understood before they can mean anything at all. They exist to transform perception, bring clarity to action and free the mind from confusion.

Who is a Modern Rishi?

A Modern Rishi lives fully in the world without being ruled by its noise, acts with awareness rather than reaction, and values truth above emotional convenience.

There is no withdrawal from responsibility here. The Modern Rishi works, creates, leads, protects and serves, but is not imprisoned by status, praise, fear, ideology or the demand for approval. Divisions of gender, religion, nationality, class and wealth are recognised as conditions of human life, not as the truth of what one is.

None of this means passivity, detachment or indifference to suffering. It means living with greater attention, discipline, courage and compassion.

Why this movement now?

Information has never been more abundant. Clarity is still rare.

People inherit beliefs before they are capable of examining them. They are taught whom to admire, whom to fear, what to defend and what must never be questioned. Political identity, religious identity, social labels, media narratives and group loyalty colour perception until people can no longer separate what they see from what they have been trained to see.

The Modern Rishi Movement begins with the willingness to examine that colouring. It asks:

What do I actually know?
What have I only repeated?
What has shaped the person I take myself to be?
Am I seeing clearly, or through filters handed to me?

How Tavamithram Led to the Modern Rishi Movement

Through Tavamithram, I have presented Vedanta and the Srimad Bhagavad Gita as instruments of understanding and freedom, never of religious authority or blind faith.

The Modern Rishi Movement carries that work into a wider space. It examines perception, identity, social conditioning, inherited belief and intellectual courage, and how these forces shape the way we think, react and live. Its foundation is Vedanta; what it addresses is life as it is lived now.

The movement formally begins on 15 August 2026. Until then, the new Modern Rishi site will introduce its vision, principles, films and reflections.

Are you ready?

You do not need to agree with me, accept a doctrine or surrender your intelligence to anyone. You do need to be willing to look. Question what you have inherited, investigate what you repeat, and examine whether your convictions arise from understanding or from conditioning.

If you are ready for that, enter.

Atma Bodha: A Complete English Rendering of the 68 Shlokas

Many people spend years looking for guidance, blessings, secret methods, special experiences, and spiritual personalities to follow but somehow never take the small step of reading the texts that actually contain the teaching.

The Srimad Bhagavad Gita, at least a few of the principal Upanishads, Nirvana Shatkam, and Atma Bodha are not hidden. They are freely available. They do not require theatrical devotion, emotional dependence, or loyalty to a personality. They require a serious mind.

Atma Bodha, said to have been composed by Shri Adi Shankaracharya about 1400 years ago, is short enough to be read in about half an hour. Yet, if approached with an open mind, it can give extraordinary clarity. Its purpose is not to create a believer. Its purpose is to remove confusion and delusional beliefs, including religious ones. The 68 Shlokas can be divided in thre movements, which I have compressed the three sections in this post on Substack. CONTINUE READING ON SUBSTACK.

This video is for those who want to approach Vedanta with clarity, seriousness, and direct enquiry.

Watch the full video here, or if you want the compressed version first, you may go to the Substack post.

Don’t believe. Know!

Self-Enquiry in Advaita Vedanta: What Remains?

Sometimes you identify with your body and say, ‘I look good,’ ‘I am fat,’ ‘I am getting old,’ ‘I am sick.’ Other times, you identify with your mind and say, ‘I am excited,’ ‘I am depressed,’ ‘I am angry.’ When life is going well, you say you have a great life, and when you feel low, you say your life is terrible.

Your body changes. Your mind changes. Your story changes.

What are you, then, when everything you call yourself keeps changing?

Give me less than ten minutes.

CONTINUE READING ON SUBSTACK

What Next?: The End of Inner Conflict

He Who Conquers His Mind Is the Mightiest Warrior

People think strength is aggression. They think power is domination. Many think victory means defeating an external opponent.

That understanding does not survive scrutiny.

Real strength has nothing to do with overpowering others. It has everything to do with … CONTINUE READING ON SUBSTACK

The Secret Battle Inside Your Head (And How to Win It)

The mind presents a profound paradox. It is a collection of beliefs, attitudes, delusions, and illusions, yet it remains the core of our intellect. It can craft either ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’ within the span of a single breath. Learning to manage this incredibly powerful instrument, which can also act as a destructive weapon, is arguably life’s most important mastery.

My talk, How to Stop Being Triggered | The Way Out of the Mind Trap, shows how Vedanta provides the ultimate framework for understanding, training, and ultimately transcending the restless mind.

Engage with this talk, reflect deeply, and uncover the hidden mechanism behind every emotion, along with the path to freedom from it. By the end, it becomes clear that whatever is experienced arises in the mind, and that life and one’s world can be transformed by working on one’s perception and reaction.

Where Vedanta Begins, War Ends: How This Ancient Wisdom Can Transform The World

From Dogma to Direct Experience: The Practical Power of Vedanta

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Most people live their lives filled with noise, dogma, and contradiction, making sense of life a challenging task. They have unanswered questions, such as, “Who am I?” or “What’s the point of all this?” They are either caught up in beliefs and rituals, have no inclination to engage with such questions, or, due to their beliefs, are afraid to question traditions, or simply too busy to stop and think.

Religions and ideologies claim to offer answers, but more often than not, they leave us confused and divided. They demand belief, but fail to encourage true understanding.

Vedanta is not another belief system. It offers a unique method – a way of seeing – that helps you distinguish between what is real and what is assumed. It doesn’t require blind faith. Instead, it invites you to look within and engage with your own direct experience.

The power of Vedanta lies in…READ ON SUBSTACK