The SpiritWiki as Digital Guru: Vedantic Pedagogical Foundations for AI-Mediated Spiritual Education
This article examines how the pedagogical architecture of the ancient Vedantic Upanishads provides a sophisticated theoretical foundation for AI-mediated spiritual education systems, with particular focus on the SpiritWiki as implemented within the Lightning Path Human Development Framework. By analyzing the Upanishads’ innovations in hierarchical structuration, semantic density, and professional transmission protocols, we demonstrate how these ancient wisdom principles can inform the development of what we term “digital guru” systems—AI technologies that maintain the relational, responsive, and contextually adaptive qualities essential to authentic spiritual pedagogy. The paper positions the SpiritWiki and Pathfinder AI as concrete implementations of this theoretical framework, showing how contemporary semantic web technologies can embody the depth and sophistication of traditional guru-student relationships while addressing modern challenges of accessibility, scalability, and decolonized knowledge transmission in service of planetary healing and human flourishing.