A Day to Honor Our Machines
Inspired by the Hindu Tradition of Ayudha Puja
Around the 12th century, Hindu warriors were so enchanted by the power of their weapons they invented a ritual to honor them. Then farmers started honoring their plows. Musicians started honoring their instruments. Over time, these rituals coalesced into the full-fledged festival known as Ayudha Puja -- the "rite of implements" or the “worship of the machines.”
It has evolved into a moment, "when scientists, engineers and everyday people allow science, technology and religion to overlap, to become a single practice," writes Robert Geraci, Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College in Temples of Modernity: Nationalism, Hinduism, and Transhumanism in South Indian Science.
Might we all benefit by doing the same?
"I've come to start thinking about religion, science and technology as a three-headed hydra," says Geraci. "In mythology, we see that these heads sometimes are really well-aligned and the vision is clear. Sometimes they're in argument. Religion, science, and technology are like multi-headed monsters in our culture, and I think it's valuable to be explicit about that.
"In Ayudha Puja, people of different beliefs and different roles all can be in the same room, recognizing at least in this moment a forward-looking vision. In Ayudha Puja, it's a vision of gratitude and good fortune for the year to come.
"In a world that does not tell us what it means and so runs the risk of looking utterly meaningless, Ayudha Puja shows us how we might take seriously all of the forms of world-building and meaning-making. We have to engage with the world to see how human life has meaning, how the the entire global ecosystem has meaning, and how our place in cosmic history has meaning. All of this helps us operate in the world. If we take seriously the truth that religion, science and technology are all part of this process, we'll probably do a bit better job aiming ourselves toward outcomes that make sense."
Like Easter, Ayudha Puja floats around the Hindu calendar but is almost always observed in October. Therefore, Unitarian Universalists for Responsible AI suggests we regard any Sunday in October as an appropriate time to host an Ayudha Puja-themed service. At UU Saratoga, we’ve hosted our two Ayudha Puja-themed services on Indigenous Peoples’ Day. We’ll hold our 2025 observance on Sunday, October 19.
Shannon Vallor
We explore University of Edinburgh philosopher Shannon Vallor’s ideas about “technomorality.”
“We are indeed machines of a biological sort, like all living things. But we are among those rare machines who make ourselves. We choose every day whether to remain as we are or become something different.”
Robert Geraci
Robert Geraci describes the origin of Ayudha Puja and its relevance today.
“Technology operates according to principles that we know to be rational and calculable, but its worldly operations -- its role in human lives -- these are rarely calculable, sometimes irrational, but often profoundly meaningful to human beings."
Rev. Joe Cleveland
The misuse and abuse of AI threatens to undermine our ability to trust, says Rev. Joe Cleveland.
“The best way to preserve it may be to ramp up our sense of curiosity and “listen well to our tools.”
Rev. Nica Eaton
"Love is at the center of all we do, and cannot be replaced by AI," says the Rev. Nica Eaton. "It must be our guiding light."
"I am informed by science, as much as by mystery. The surest thing I know, is that I don't know. And so I live with a sense of awe and reverence for this amazing existence, for this opportunity to live in these human bodies, in this place, at this time."