This was the question that was placed before a panel comprising Swami Sarvapriyananda of the Ramakrishna Mission and Sadguru of the Isha Foundation. You can watch the clip of their answers here.
My answer is a little bit different and more detailed.
Position of Priests is Certainly at Risk
So, it is conceivable that a large portion of the work performed by priests is replaced by AI in the future. Perhaps not in temples, but certainly when priests come home to perform rituals. Why? Because the knowledge of priests is purely intellectual.
It is written down in the scriptures. The reason priests have traditionally played a pivotal role in Hinduism is because the masses did not know Sanskrit—the language in which the scriptures have been written. People needed someone to chant the mantras and explain the scriptural texts to them.
Today these Sanskrit scriptures have all been scanned and placed online. AI can access them, gather and translate the information and explain it to anyone in the world. To be a scholar of Sanskrit is no longer essential.
So, the time is not far when people will no longer require the intervening medium of priests, scholars and katha vachaks to understand their own sacred books. They will simply put their question to AI and receive the answer. Even if they don’t know Sanskrit, AI will explain the meaning of each and every shloka.
Furthermore, Hindu rituals and yajnas such as those performed during the various pujas, as well as those that are performed at birth, marriage and death—all use a prescribed set of mantras.
Thus, in future people will be able to perform all these rituals on their own, using an AI guided robot. The robot will explain step by step what needs to be done and chant all the Sanskrit shlokas with the correct pronunciation.
It will be easy for AI to create audio-visuals guides that help a person perform any Hindu ritual successfully.
So, the work of priests to a large extent can easily be replaced by AI.
But can the Guru be replaced? And here I am talking exclusively of God-realized gurus. Can they be replaced by AI? Will they vanish in the future?
Absolutely not!
Realized Masters Being Transmitters of Prana are Irreplaceable
Gurus established in the Self are utterly irreplaceable. Why? Because as we discussed in the recently released Yogic Powers episode, the guru is not a college professor who possesses only an intellectual understanding of the scriptures.
The guru is a repository of realized knowledge. He or she has experienced the highest truth in the Universe, and what’s more, they can make us too experience these truths!
How can they bestow us with the same spiritual experiences as they themselves had? They can do so because God-realized gurus are the transmitters of prana. It was due to the transmission of prana-shakti to Swami Vivekananda that Sri Ramakrishna succeeded in changing Swamiji’s deep rooted beliefs against Advaita Vedanta.
Through the transmission of prana, the sage bestowed Swamiji with the direct experience of Sat-Chit-Ananda. Having experienced the ultimate reality for himself Swamiji could no longer ridicule Advaita Vedanta, instead he transformed into its staunchest supporter.
We discussed these instances of pranic transmission by Sri Ramakrishna to Swami Vivekananda, in the Yogic Powers episodes released in August & September of 2026. You can subscribe and watch them on TagMango or Patreon.
Similarly, it was through the gift of prana that Pandit Shriram Sharma bestowed Shail Didi & Dr. Pranav Pandya with a vision of the living, breathing, smiling, Ma Gayatri. You can listen to these incidents and their rational explanations by subscribing to our Yogic Powers Archives – Vol 3 Course.
Again, it was through the same transmission of prana that Sri Ramakrishna bestowed Swami Vivekananda with a direct vision of Ma Kali. Prior to this experience Swami Vivekananda had little faith in the existence of Ma Kali and he used to make fun of Sri Ramakrishna’s devotion to the Divine Mother. But after seeing her alive before his very eyes his opposition vanished once and for all.
So, the guru is the bestower of direct spiritual experiences through the transference of prana.
Can AI do this? Absolutely not!
AI has no power to transmit prana shakti to you and help you ascend to a higher consciousness, where you can see God Pratyaksha – before your very eyes.
If a Great Guru has Given up the Body, Are We to be Deprived of His Gift of Prana?
What’s more every disciple need not receive the same magnitude of shaktipath that Swami Vivekananda received. All of us may not be inwardly prepared to ascend to Sat-Chit-Ananda like Swamiji was.
But this does not mean that we are deprived of the pranic transmission of great God-realized gurus. Long after giving up the body these gurus have made arrangements for us too, to receive deeksha on their behalf.
It is during this process of deeksha that we too receive the pranic transmission from these gurus, who are now in their subtle and causal bodies. The degree of this pranic transmission may be less than what Swami Vivekananda received (it all depends on our individual patrata), but each and every disciple receives this pranic transmission.
Now you may wonder, how can a God-realized guru transmit prana to us even after giving up their body? I have detailed the answer in the most recent Yogic Powers episode.
It is through this gift of prana, that every disciple receives during deeksha that the guru helps us ascend to a higher consciousness. It is through this same pranic transmission that the guru cancels some of our past bad karmas during deeksha.
This is why if you are a devotee of the Ramakrishna Mission, you should take deeksha there. This deeksha is given on behalf of Sri Ramakrishna, Sarada Ma and Swami Vivekananda.
If you are a devotee of Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya and Ma Bhagawati Devi then you absolutely should take deeksha from the Gayatri Pariwar.
The same goes for ashrams of other God-realized gurus like Swami Sivananda and Paramahansa Yogananda. Only in the Maharshi Ramana Ashram and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, there is no formal provision of deeksha.
But their devotees must not be disappointed. These Advaita Gurus have not abandoned their devotees. Only a sincere acceptance of these gurus is required in the heart. You will receive the pranic transmission from them in silence.
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