May 1, 20224 min read

About Rathi Raja

Updated: Aug 11

Rathi Raja is the Executive Director of Young Indian Culture Group, in Long Island, for the past 28 years. She is also the resident teacher for high school youth and adults in exploring the traditional texts of Itihasas, Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and Yoga Sutras. She brings her professional Wall street background in Systems Design to all aspects of her work, exploring contemporary tools to engage her students in self reflective insightful work.

She started Games for Seva nine years ago as a result of developed expertise in building innovative tools for teaching Vedic Heritage. Her classroom is known for dynamism, student engagement and collaborative communication. She launched ‘VediCon’ in 2015, an annual festival of games to showcase the learning tools developed for exploring Vedic Heritage.

Chariots of Fate

Battle of Purusharthas

The students are involved in all aspect of design, prototyping, marketing and branding. The ‘Wisdom Without Borders~Values Series’, a toolkit of games, was launched in 2017. The published games can be viewed at our Shop Portal. The flagship Eco-Dharma game 'Ganga~River Rescue' was successfully launched on Kickstarter in 2021, bringing a 5 year journey of design to a thrilling culmination.

She is a pioneer in developing these amazing tools to educate, entertain, and enlighten. The ability to retain a complex web of values, symbology, stories, and contemporary issues while furthering one’s role and purpose in society has been the broad vision at play. She is deeply engaged in designing games at the confluence of heritage wisdom, ecology, values, inspired to make an impact on the crisis of our era - Biodiversity loss, Ecosystem Restoration and Climate Change.

She believes that the modern era requires a much deeper effort to Communicate, Collaborate and Create with youth. This in turn leads to a stronger personal expression and confidence. The timeless wisdom of our heritage can be a source of inner growth, build core skills for living & working in this era and contribute to the community.

The Gita Vicara Leadership Program holds in its vision a complete commitment to developing the leaders of tomorrow by leading today. Inner Transformation workshops interwoven with continued Seva activities provides a view & way of life. The youth involved in game design and development are imbued with the spirit of Seva as they see a higher purpose in what they are doing. This spirit is priceless, enabling them to see the value of leading a life of contribution to society. The past few years she has run an enormously successful week long Game Design retreat with youth and adults at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam.

Rathi has been recognized in many forums, including receiving the New York State Woman of Distinction award. She has served as a distinguished panelist on the NYSCA Board. She has done extensive interfaith work and is called upon to share the Hindu perspectives in many forums. She has been featured in Newsday and New York Times. She was a key participant in Channel 21's 'Asian Indians in America' documentary. She has played a strong role on Long Island through her work with Long Island Traditions.

Hello Friends,

My name is Rathi Raja. All things YICG has been a total thrill ride, with bumps, gurgles and complete toss ups into the surrounding terrain. Folks think I run the organization but the truth is that it runs me! My biggest joy has been to teach and be taught in the process for over 34 years. I continue to be absolutely excited about what we are doing next and it is very hard for me to get nostalgic about how we were or what we did.

There are topics to be explored deeply in the Adult Gita Class, GVLP Retreats to conceive & Games to be released, Youth to be mentored & challenged, Festival & Themes to be pursued, Travel with a Purpose to be engineered, New Initiatives to cajole into existence, RewildLI plants to protect, and occasionally collapse on to a Samosa or Paneer Panini for sustenance! And of course don’t get me started on healthy concoctions to purify liver & kidneys, which I do as a side gig.

I think my guiding principle has been ‘One does not need to know everything as Isvara will take over’ before jumping into the vortex. And Isvara has shown up in the form of totally unique people in the YICG Collective. I am just so full thinking of them, the friendships, aspirations, and sheer grit of working together. We have kept each other sane, challenged our notions on what is a good life, and fiercely protected our bonds. These bonds have always been open to include anyone who wishes to connect. Our human destiny is only connections.

Let’s continue to explore and redefine the edges, with our super strong core. May Isvara bless us with inner freedom and the light of wisdom !

Fun Fact: The most fun & cutest thing was composing a Ganesh Bhajan for my favorite class - Mommy and Me, using simple guitar chords.