Living Veda 2026: Puducherry meet to trace the divine feminine in the Vedas
Representative image: Veronika_Andrews / Pixabay
Living Veda 2026, 'From Shruti to Shakti', meets in Puducherry on October 24-25 to study the Vedic goddesses through Sri Aurobindo's reading.
What Happened
Scholars of the Veda will meet in Puducherry on Saturday and Sunday, October 24 and 25, 2026, for Living Veda 2026, an international conference titled "From Shruti to Shakti". It will be held at the Sri Aurobindo Society's Society House on St Martin Street in the city's White Town. The Sri Aurobindo Society, SAKSHI Trust of Bengaluru, Central Sanskrit University and the Maharshi Sandipani Rashtriya Ved Vidya Pratishthan (MSRVVP) are organising it together, and the organisers say it marks the centenary of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and of Siddhi Day.
Key Facts
- Event: Living Veda 2026, described by the organisers as an international conference on applying Vedic knowledge in the light of Sri Aurobindo's work.
- Dates and place: October 24 and 25, 2026, at Society House, 11 St Martin Street, White Town, Puducherry.
- Title: "From Shruti to Shakti".
- Organisers: the Sri Aurobindo Society, SAKSHI Trust (Bengaluru), Central Sanskrit University and MSRVVP.
- Occasion: the organisers link it to the centenary of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and of Siddhi Day.
- Themes listed: Shakti and the divine feminine in the Vedas, the Vedic goddesses, Sri Aurobindo's book "The Secret of the Veda", and Vedic perspectives on education and leadership.
- Series: this is the fourth Living Veda conference, after Bengaluru in 2023, Jaipur in 2024 and Mathura in 2025.
- Cost: the SAKSHI Trust says participation is free.
Why It Matters
The two words in the title name two large ideas in Indian thought. Shruti, literally "what is heard", is the name the tradition gives to the Vedas, which it regards as heard or revealed rather than composed. Shakti means power or energy and, in Hindu tradition, the divine feminine, worshipped as the Goddess. The conference sets out to trace how the second idea appears in the first: the goddesses of the Vedic hymns and the place of feminine power in Vedic thought.
The conference is built around one way of reading the Veda, the one set out by Sri Aurobindo. His book "The Secret of the Veda" is listed among the suggested topics, and the conference describes itself as applying Vedic knowledge in the light of his work. This matters for readers who want to place the event correctly. It is a gathering on interpretation and philosophy, where papers explain what the hymns mean and how their ideas might apply to life today. It is not a forum that tests historical or scientific claims, and its conclusions are views within a school of thought, not findings that settle debates about the Veda.
The list of organisers is also worth noting. Central Sanskrit University is a multi-campus central university for Sanskrit studies, headquartered in Delhi. MSRVVP, based in Ujjain, runs a national-level Veda and Sanskrit school board that awards the Veda Bhushan and Veda Vibhushan certificates, recognised as equal to Class 10 and Class 12. With two public institutions joining a private society and a trust, the event links the formal Sanskrit and Veda education system with the community that studies Sri Aurobindo's writings.
The themes also reach beyond the texts. Sessions on Vedic perspectives on education and leadership aim to ask what an ancient body of ideas can offer to schools, workplaces and public life.
| Edition | Year | City |
|---|---|---|
| First | 2023 | Bengaluru |
| Second | 2024 | Jaipur |
| Third | 2025 | Mathura |
| Fourth | 2026 | Puducherry |
Impact
Short-term: Participants interested in the Veda can take part in the two-day meeting in Puducherry without a fee, according to the SAKSHI Trust.
Long-term: Papers on the Vedic goddesses and on Vedic ideas of education and leadership add to the material that universities draw on as they build courses in Indian knowledge traditions. The link with Central Sanskrit University and MSRVVP may carry the discussions into Sanskrit and Veda teaching.
Who is affected: Students and teachers of Sanskrit and Vedic studies, readers of Sri Aurobindo, researchers in Indian philosophy, and the institutions that organise the conference.
Key Takeaway
Living Veda 2026, "From Shruti to Shakti", brings Vedic scholars to Puducherry on October 24 and 25 to discuss the divine feminine in the Vedas through Sri Aurobindo's reading of the texts.
Questions and Answers
When and where is Living Veda 2026?
It will be held on October 24 and 25, 2026, at the Sri Aurobindo Society's Society House, 11 St Martin Street, White Town, Puducherry.
What does "From Shruti to Shakti" mean?
Shruti, "what is heard", is the tradition's name for the Vedas. Shakti means power and, in Hindu tradition, the divine feminine. The title signals a conference on how feminine power and the goddesses appear in Vedic thought.
Who is organising the conference?
The Sri Aurobindo Society, SAKSHI Trust of Bengaluru, Central Sanskrit University and the Maharshi Sandipani Rashtriya Ved Vidya Pratishthan are organising it jointly.
Is there a fee to attend Living Veda 2026?
The SAKSHI Trust says participation is complimentary, which means there is no fee.
Disclaimer: Prepared by the Peepals newsroom from publicly available sources with AI assistance. Information is accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication and may change. Images may be representative. Not professional advice. Report an error via our contact page.
Sourced and fact-checked by the Peepals Global Editorial Team
Reported, fact-checked and published by the Peepals Global Editorial Team.
