At INDICA, we strive to create learning experiences that are unique, authentic, aesthetic, immersive, and transformative. These values shape each offering, made in the spirit of a sacred act, whether it is a Conference combined with a Yatra, a Grateful to Gurus program, a Festival, or a Weekend With Wisdom or a Meta-Retreat. In each of these, we consciously design for depth, presence, and lived engagement. This is not about packaging tradition. It is about creating the conditions for it to work. The guru-shishya parampara and the gurukulam environment are not relics. They remain central to how Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) are best learned, shared, and embodied.
In continuation of that vision, we’ve taken a conscious decision to evolve the way we design our online courses. Wherever immersion is appropriate and pedagogically aligned, we will build it in. Select courses will now include in-person immersions. Because when it comes to IKS, access to knowledge is only the beginning. The real shift lies in moving from learning to embodying.
Online formats have opened important doors, and we will continue to value and offer them. But some kinds of learning demand more than screen-based interaction. They call for presence, reflection, and shared inquiry. That is why we have started building a hybrid model that brings together the conceptual clarity of online learning with the immediacy of in-person experience rooted in the Guru-Shishya tradition.
This is not a change in format. It is a return to form. Our model begins with online sessions that lay the groundwork. Learners then enter a gurukulam space for a two to three-day immersion, held either at our Bengaluru facility or at a partner location. These immersions are not optional extras. They are where the real work happens, through ritual, dialogue, practice, and presence. This is where knowledge is lived, not just studied.
The First Immersion: Yoga Vasishta Sara with Rajshekar Krishnan Ji
We recently hosted our first such immersion, designed as the culmination of the Yoga Vasishta Sara online course. Over three days, participants from the online cohort joined Sri Rajshekar Krishnan Ji for a residential retreat.
This was not a passive recap. It was a live continuation of the inquiry that began online. The schedule included:
- Focused textual discussions on Yoga Vasishta Sara
- Sādhana and guided reflection
- Guest lectures, including a deeply experiential talk by Vinay Ji on the Upanishads
- Philosophical games and creative inquiry
- Informal conversations that stretched into the evenings
- Communal meals and shared space within the gurukulam
- Each participant brought their own perspective. Together, they created a shared container of learning.
As one of them put it, “We didn’t even notice the passage of time. This is what immersion should feel like.”
This first immersion affirmed something we have always known. IKS cannot be taught purely online. It cannot be flattened into academic formats. The Guru-Shishya tradition becomes essential when the subject calls for transmission, not just explanation.
And this is only the beginning. We are not treating this as a one-off. Wherever immersion is both possible and needed, we will make it part of the learning journey. Not as an add-on. As a principle. Because for such courses, in-person learning is not optional. It is foundational.
Building on this momentum, we are now hosting three more immersions in Coimbatore between the 15th and 23rd of August 2025. These retreats mark the culmination of three recently concluded online courses:
- Hindu Aesthetics: An Introduction (15th to 17th August)
- Introduction to Kāvya (18th to 20th August)
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa: Exploring Cosmology, Bhakti, and Indian Knowledge Systems (21st to 23rd August)
Each of these immersions offers learners an opportunity to move beyond discussion into lived inquiry, in a shared space grounded in the Guru-Shishya tradition. As with every offering, they are held with intention, care, and fidelity to the spirit of IKS.
This hybrid path will continue to unfold, course by course and context by context. But its purpose remains steady. Wherever learning must go deeper, we will create space for it to do so.
