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Dharma Civilization Foundation
Dharma in Digital Age · June 11–13, 2027 · Houston

What if changing the framework changes the solution?

The problems may be familiar.

The way of seeing them doesn’t have to be.

Come explore how Dharmic perspectives can open remarkably natural—sahej—ways of approaching how we work, lead, build, learn, heal, raise families and live.

And meet the people already putting these ideas into practice.

WE HAVE MORE SOLUTIONS THAN EVER.

So why do so many problems keep getting worse?

We are more connected—and increasingly isolated.
More productive—yet struggling with wellbeing.
Surrounded by information—without necessarily becoming wiser.
We pursue sustainability while consuming more.
We build technologies faster than we develop the wisdom to decide what they should do.

Perhaps we don’t only need better solutions.

Perhaps we need to examine the frameworks producing them.

SAME PLANET. DIFFERENT WORLDVIEW.

Picture a circle.

Around its edge: a river, a mountain, soil, a tree, a tiger, a bee, a fish.

Where do you put the human?

THE HUMAN IN THE CENTRE
RiverMountainSoilTreeTigerBeeFishHuman
Place the human in the centre and nature surrounds us—something available for us to manage, protect or exploit.
THE HUMAN ON THE EDGE
RiverMountainSoilTreeTigerBeeFishHuman
Indic thought offers another possibility. Put the human on the edge, alongside the river, tree and tiger. We are part of the ecosystem—not outside it.

Same planet.

Completely different starting point.

And when the starting point changes, so do the questions we ask.

THIS IS DHARMA.
Dharma is that which sustains.

Not simply a religion.

Not a list of commandments.

Not a set of ancient answers waiting to be retrieved.

Dharma asks:

What sustains the individual?
What sustains the family?
What sustains an organization?
A society?
An economy?
The natural world?
Future generations?

DDA brings that question into the realities of contemporary life.

Not to recreate the past.

To see the present differently.

WHAT DOES CHANGING THE LENS ACTUALLY DO?

Same subjects. A different starting question.

SUSTAINABILITY
DEFAULT QUESTION
How do we reduce the damage humans do to nature?
DHARMIC REFRAME
Why did we place humans outside nature in the first place?
THE SHIFT
Center → Part of it.
EDUCATION
DEFAULT QUESTION
How do we transfer knowledge more efficiently?
DHARMIC REFRAME
What kind of human being is education meant to cultivate?
THE SHIFT
Transfer → Transmission.
HEALTH
DEFAULT QUESTION
How do we treat disease better?
DHARMIC REFRAME
How do we create the conditions in which health is sustained?
THE SHIFT
Outsourcing → Insourcing.
TECHNOLOGY
DEFAULT QUESTION
What can AI do?
DHARMIC REFRAME
What should technology enable human beings to become?
THE SHIFT
Capability → Direction.
FAMILY
DEFAULT QUESTION
How do we get the next generation to retain our values?
DHARMIC REFRAME
How do we create relationships through which those values become meaningful to them?
THE SHIFT
Instruction → Relationship.
INNER LIFE
DEFAULT QUESTION
How do I manage distraction?
DHARMIC REFRAME
Who—or what—has agency over my attention?
THE SHIFT
Attention → Agency.
AND SOMETHING INTERESTING HAPPENS.

Again and again at DDA, people encounter an idea and respond:

“It just makes sense.”

Not imposed.

Not contrived.

Not another complicated system to adopt.

There is a word for this:

Sahej.

Natural. Organic. Unforced.

Perhaps because some ideas don’t give us something new to believe.

They help us recognize something we somehow already knew.

BUT DDA ISN’T ONLY ABOUT IDEAS.

It’s about finding the people asking the same questions.

DDA community photo[ STRONG COMMUNITY PHOTOGRAPH ]

Many people arrive at DDA having spent years navigating two worlds.

The values by which they want to live.

And the assumptions embedded in the institutions in which they study, work, lead and raise families.

Then they enter a room full of people wrestling with the same questions.

Some have found answers.

Some have built organizations around them.

Some are still searching.

But suddenly:

You’re not the only one.

At DDA ’26:

8 in 12
substantive feedback respondents said they found their tribe.
9 in 12
said DDA catalyzed collaboration.
7 in 12
discovered practical Dharmic solutions they could apply to life or work.

One participant described DDA as:

“The wonderful opportunity to meet several Dharmic-minded scholars and professionals under one roof.”

Another said:

“Being in a space like DDA helps me to reinforce, structure, and articulate ideas that help make Sanatana Dharma relevant in practical ways.”
WHO WILL YOU FIND IN THE ROOM?

Not just people who study these questions. People working on them.

Scientists
Entrepreneurs
Economists
Technologists
Physicians
Educators
Environmentalists
Sanskrit scholars
Business leaders
Spiritual thinkers
Parents
Students
Institution builders

DDA has brought together Padma award recipients, professors from leading universities, researchers, practitioners and people building organizations in the real world.

Subhash Kak[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Anil Rajvanshi[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
K Ramasubramanian[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Sharda Nandram[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Neerja Gupta[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Anand Yadav[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Shreela Sharma[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Sonal Gupta[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Ashish Pandey[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Sailesh Rao[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Shashi Mandapaty[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Jeffery Long[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Sampadananda Mishra[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Kalika Uttarkar[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Raj Vedam[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
Nitin Seth[ HEAD-
SHOT ]
THREE YEARS. ONE EVOLVING INQUIRY.

Where the conversation has been—and where it’s going

DDA ’24
THE QUESTION
Could Dharma offer another framework for modern life?
A new conversation begins.
Explore ’24 →
DDA ’25
THE EXPLORATION
What happens when that framework enters economics, leadership, media, technology and institutions?
The lens moves into systems.
Explore ’25 →
DDA ’26
THE ECOSYSTEM
What happens when people begin applying the ideas—and finding each other?
Solutions become conversations. Conversations become collaborations.
Explore ’26 →
DDA ’27
THE APPLICATION
What happens when we start building from a different framework?
That is the next conversation.
WHAT DDA IS NOT

Four simple contrasts

Not nostalgia.
A living framework.
Not answers imported from the past.
Better questions for the present.
Not Dharma sitting outside your professional life.
Dharma brought into it.
Not another conference you consume.
A community you participate in.
WHAT WILL YOU LEAVE WITH?

Not necessarily ten answers.

Something potentially more useful:

A different question.
A framework you can use.
Language for something you’ve sensed but couldn’t articulate.
People you want to keep talking to.
An idea you want to try.

And perhaps the realization that another way isn’t merely possible.

It may feel surprisingly natural.

DDA community photo[ FULL-WIDTH COMMUNITY / AUDIENCE IMAGE ]

Come find out what changes when you change the lens.

Three days of ideas, questions, conversations and people exploring what Dharma can mean in the world we actually inhabit.

DDA ’27

June 11–13, 2027 · Houston

Be in the room.

Interest-list members receive programme announcements, speaker updates and early registration information.