Dear Professor,
I can’t tell you how fantastic it was to bump into you again on Sunday after so many years. Often in life, as one passes through, one meets people that leave an indelible impression upon you that lasts with you for many years. Most of the time, we are unable to know this whilst we are still in the person’s presence, and only come to this realisation in hindsight. I remember with great fondness the classes I took with you during my time at university, in particular your kindness and character towards your students. I took a lot of understanding from that and have tried over my years since to replicate such character in my own life. In this respect, your influence has been strong, so it truly was a pleasure to see you again over the weekend.
Over the years, I have tried to encourage the learning and understanding of words such as ‘religion’, ‘culture’, ‘tradition’ and ‘values’. I have worked with refugee families, immigrants, and youth from many different countries and backgrounds. In my own ethnic community, which is broadly speaking the ‘Indian community’ (what does this even mean these days?), I feel there is a great deal of ignorance and misunderstanding about Indian history, religions, and philosophy. Some where along the way, we lost the essence and meaning of what it means when we say ‘Indian culture’ or ‘Indian tradition’ and ‘Indian values’. Nowhere is this more evident than in the younger generation....but they are not the culprits, their lack of awareness is in fact the indirect manifestation of their parents lack of knowledge and effort to comprehend.
Gandhi once intimated that his goal was not an Indian republic and independence from the British in law, but rather his goal was an India where Indians can be free to live as Indians in all its beauty and ugliness. To gain independence and yet continue to live like the British do, or how the British have set up, would be no independence at all. Gandhi’s India is becoming a nation no different in nature to any western nation, except we have brown skin. India’s contribution to the world cannot be just cheap intelligent labour with good work ethic – then India is no more than the world’s machine. India needs to contribute to the world’s soul. The beauty and enrichment of Indian philosophical water, is fast being muddied and stagnated by modern religious groups’ deliberate misappropriation of its character for political power, and an apathetic population manipulated and anesthetised into submission. In this spirit, I feel the challenge, Professor, that we have, is not one of provision of information to the masses and the continued presentation of already learnt knowledge – rather, the challenge is to make the teachings, learnings and combined wisdom of centuries of philosophy, meaningful and relevant to the lives and futures of the current generation. This is more a project of communication and ‘packaging’ , than just a promulgation of ‘content’. It has become not enough to just state the truth – one has to state it in a way that resonates. My example, is you. Your character, delivery and attitude to students was not the reason I took a look at Indian Philosophy, however it *was the reason I persisted with it and continued to look deeper and further within it, and contemplated its relevance and meaning in my life, *after I left the course. The packaging (you) is as important as the content (Indian philosophy). Isn’t this the ultimate aim of Indian philosophy – to enrich the soul and fuel its capacity and willingness to contemplate, to examine, to argue, to think, and to understand it’s journey....? Surely it can’t be to define, to know, to restrict, to curtail, to instruct and to shackle one’s capacity to examine outside the given paradigm of the day?
Chaim Potok, the Jewish writer, once wrote in his fictional work ‘The Chosen’, that ‘where there is silence between men, the individual becomes an oasis for himself’ We’re becoming a people of oasis chasers, sold oasis water, while being assured by those who cast us in to the dessert, that the oasis is all we need.
Thank you for inspiring me to continue to think and contemplate.
Kind regards.
