UNITED KINGDOM, November 3, 2025 (By Vendan Ananda Kumararajah): Across the world, humanity faces what scholars call a polycrisis: ecological collapse, geopolitical instability, technological disruption and social fragmentation, all reinforcing one another in unpredictable ways. At the same time, the rise of deep technologies such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and planetary-scale computation is reshaping the fabric of our daily lives.

Over the past few years, I’ve found myself in hundreds of conversations about AI across boardrooms, policy forums, and even quiet family dinners. Again and again, one theme surfaced: a growing unease. It wasn’t only about the speed of technological change, but about something deeper – the ethical drift and the loss of coherence in our systems. The question before us is urgent: how can we navigate these cascading complexities without losing our ethical bearings and cultural roots?

I wanted to respond, but not with yet another technical framework. Instead, I turned to the spiritual grammar I grew up with. Tamil Saiva Siddhantam, with its triadic lens of Aram (ethical grounding), Aanavam (distortion and ego), and Adhikaram (rightful agency), offered a way of thinking that spoke not just to complexity, but to alignment and purpose. From that reflection, the A3 Framework emerged: a set of tools designed to help us diagnose drift, restore integrity, and act with fitness. Following is my essay on the topic:

The Metaphysical Roots: Aram, Aanavam, Adhikaram
Hinduism teaches that life moves in cycles. These cycles are shaped by forces that draw us toward truth, cloud our vision, and challenge us to act ethically. In Tamil Saiva Siddhantam, these are known as: Aram — the axis of dharma, ethical coherence, and cosmic order; Aanavam — the force of distortion, ego, and ignorance that clouds clarity; Adhikaram — the legitimacy of agency, the ability to act with rightfulknowledge and capacity.

These are not abstract categories but living dynamics. Existence is not merely mechanical cause-and-effect; it is recursive. Ethics draws us into coherence, distortion pushes us astray, and agency determines how systems realign. This triad is both spiritual and systemic, speaking directly to how organizations, societies, and technologies evolve.

From Metaphysics to Polycrisis
What happens when this lens is turned onto today’s polycrisis? Climate change can be seen as a distortion of Aram, where technological mighthas raced ahead of ethical coherence. Social media ecosystems reveal the amplifying power of Aanavam -misinformation, polarization, and ego-driven distortion spreading faster thanwisdom. The governance of artificial intelligence hinges on Adhikaram – who has thelegitimate agency to steer these tools: a handful of corporations, or humanity atmlarge? By recognizing these dynamics, A3 allows us to diagnose not only what is happening but also why systems spiral out of control. It reminds us that distortion is not an anomaly to erase, but a constitutive reality that must be recognized and realigned.

How You Can Apply the A3 Framework
1. Spot Ethical Drift Early Tool:
Aram Ethical Viability Test (AEVT)
Ask: Will this decision still hold ethical weight over time? •
Example: A school board considers adopting AI-based grading. Running the AEVT, they see the system offers efficiency but lacks transparency and disadvantanges neurodivergent students. Instead of rushing ahead, they pause, consult stakeholders, and redesign the rollout to include equity safeguards and human oversight.

2. Track Distortion in Real Time Tool:
Aanavam Distortion Resolution Tracker (ADRT)
Ask: Where is distortion creeping into our system’s perception?
Example: A local government uses ADRT to review public feedbackchannels. They discover marginalized voices are consistently filtered outby automated moderation. By mapping distortion patterns, theyrecalibrate governance mechanisms and restore epistemic integrity.

3.Assess Fitness to Act Tool:
Agency Fitness Index (AFI)
Ask: Do we really have the capacity and legitimacy to act here?
Example: A nonprofit preparing a climate resilience program applies AFIand recognizes gaps in local knowledge and governance adaptability.Rather than proceeding unilaterally, they partner with indigenous leadersto co-create a shared governance model.

4. Embed Ethical Recursion Tool:
A3 Loop Integration
Ask: Are we staying true to our purpose, adjusting for distortion, and sustaining legitimate agency?
Example: A tech startup bakes the A3 loop into its quarterly review process. Beyond KPIs, they reflect: Are our actions still aligned with our founding purpose? Where is distortion emerging? Do we retain the fitness to act? Over time, this recursive rhythm becomes a cultural anchor.

5. Start Small, Pilot Locally
Tool: Mini A3 Assessment
Ask: Can we test coherence on a smaller scale before scaling up?
Example: A temple committee evaluates its digital outreach strategy. Their mini assessment shows the interface is overly technical and alienates elders. They redesign using symbolic motifs and multilingual access, restoring inclusivity and community trust.

What unites these cases is a common challenge: when systems lose alignment, distortion multiplies and legitimate agency erodes. The A3 Framework provides a disciplined way of catching drift early, restoring coherence, and sustaining responsible action. It stands not just as a framework, but as a culture of vigilance that is rooted in timeless values yet urgently relevant to our technological age.

Deep Tech and Machine Tempo
Perhaps the most urgent challenge is AI and deep technology. These systems evolve and act at what I call machine tempo, faster than human institutions can adapt. Traditional ethical oversight, whether in medicine, law, or governance, operates in slow cycles: committee reviews, audits, regulations. By the time oversight catches up, the technology has already shifted.

Here ancient metaphysics offers something radical. If ethics is not an afterthought but the gravitational structure of reality itself (Aram), then it can be encoded into the architecture of systems. If distortion (Aanavam) is recognized as a recursive tendency rather than an occasional flaw, we can design diagnostics that continuously track drift. And if agency (Adhikaram) is defined not only by power but by legitimacy and fitness, then we can judge whether human, institutional, or even machine agents are capable of acting responsibly. This triadic lens turns metaphysics into a design principle for the future.

A Civilizational Contribution
In much of the Western discourse, cybernetics and systems theory evolved around control, feedback, and efficiency. Valuable, yes but insufficient. They leave ethics as an external concern, to be “applied” through regulation. Hindu metaphysics, by contrast, insists that ethics is ontological: built into the very fabric of reality.

By formalizing Aram, Aanavam, and Adhikaram into a recursive model, A3 offers a new order cybernetics – one that places ethical coherence at the center of systemic intelligence. This is not only an academic contribution but also a cultural one: it demonstrates that ancient Hindu thought has something distinctive to say to the most advanced questions of planetary governance and artificial intelligence.
Why It Matters Now

To navigate polycrisis, humanity needs more than technological fixes. We need ontological anchors – ways of understanding that bind ethics, agency, and distortion into one living framework. Without them, our tools will run ahead of our wisdom, and our crises will deepen.
By bringing forward the insights of Saiva Siddhantam in a contemporary systems language, A3 is one attempt to show how ancient metaphysics can guide modern transformation. It affirms that Hindu traditions are not relics of the past, but vital resources for a future where ethics must be embedded into the heart of our technologies, our institutions, and our collective choices.

About the Author
Vendan Ananda Kumararajah (https://www.vendan.digital/) is a transformation architect and author of the forthcoming book Navigating Complexity and System Challenges: Foundations for the A3 Model (2025). Author’s Note: This essay is part of an ongoing effort to bring Tamil metaphysical insights into dialogue with global systems thinking. Feedback from fellow seekers, scholars, and technologists is warmly welcomed. vendan@vendan.digital



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