Blueprint of a commemorative engagement with Indian knowledge tradition.

Two decades of Nalanda Dialogue led us to question the very nature of knowledge itself and the traditional modes of engagement with it ! What Knowledge is for ?

Is it Knowledge as such or the way it is configured in our society , which one is more important to take note of ? Is it just the textually preserved form of Knowledge or the way we can be possibly engaged with this , which one is more needed? Is it the concept itself in isolation as a finished product or the way it evolves as a part of a bigger conceptual network, which needs to have more pedagogical or creative attention? Reflections on knowledge expose us to myriad questions. Is knowledge an experience or is it a discourse? Sensing knowledge and engaging with it in life is more important, or a conceptual formulation of it? Can the concept of knowledge be isolated and celebrated from a larger network of which it is a part-where the larger milieu has pedagogical and creative potential in the very process of living?

What should possibly be the modes of engagement with a whole philosophical or knowledge tradition which has stopped producing 'new ' knowledge for the last few centuries, but remains as a very essential part of our psychic being till date in modern times ? Further, how do we engage with a disrupted and wounded tradition of knowledge which lives on without generating novel or creative signs-but a knowledge which continues to impact or intimate of our ingrained responses even in a radically altered social milieu?
What happens ultimately to Knowledge? Are they really eternal members of some Platonic world or are they created in a transient social situation leaving some imprints of different form ? This point would raise another question. Is knowledge some kind of Platonic eternal form or is it contingent upon social situations which leave their imprints on it?
There is little disagreement that any conceptual connotation can often unpredictably undergo a semantic transmutation in course of time . The transmuted residue can be a very different thing from its originally intended meaning spectrum. This is particularly true for Indian Knowledge tradition after the colonial reorientation. Surely, one just cannot take for granted some untouched conceptual status of what is called knowledge across time and space. It is exposed to linguistic and temporal changes. We cannot assume and strive for some originary conception of knowledge. This is especially so in the case of India after the colonial encounter of cultures.

These are the collateral issues that eventually came out during our last two decades of engagement in the Nalanda Dialog mission.

These all motivates us to rethink the traditional modes of engagements with and institutionalisation of any knowledge system - by normal classroom engagement or by participating in a normal conference and alike ?

But what does it mean to say Philosophy in a neo-engaged mode ?

This is something which can also be described as experimental philosophy, which is fundamentally about working out our modes of interaction with particular knowledge statements. In fact the most common and obvious mode of engagements with a knowledge system is to be engaged with its Textual versions - just to read it and to make sense of it ! But neo-engagement demands something more .

Parallel to the textually underpinned modes of engagements we would like to perform something which can ensure more interactive engagement in a Dialogical form-for example ,walking together in places of traditional importance and taking part in kind of commemorating discussion about some events of historical impact recorded in Texts or local myth or even folklores.

We now prefer a more interactive engagement with the concerned questions, literally through 'country path conversations' by walking together in places of traditional importance. Indeed, such places and pathways which were originally trodden by the thinking minds of ancient India. Such country path walking together, we hope, helps us to explore the conceptual formulations long cherished in the Indian traditions - kind of reconnecting memories - of the present with those of the enduring past.

This way we will start a new informal commemorative engagement to have a fresh look at different interfaces of present socially and intellectually synthesised form of concepts long been introduced in Indian philosophical traditions - Sunya , maya, apurva, adrista, jnana, brahma,purush , prakriti, kaivalya , kalpa...and like.

We have already started this basically in Jharkhand or what was once known as greater Magadha . We frequently organize walk along the river Mohani and the villages near Hazaribagh down to Falgu near Gaya where Mohani merges to commemorate the Buddha's journey through this river before enlightenment. The local myths and tribal folklores still prevalent here corroborate the fact that before getting finally into the path of austere penance Siddhartha used to roam around in these places in search of right path . In fact Buddhist iconography and local tribal Arts like Sohrai and Kovar have many symbolic representations in common . In fact the Buddha's footprints in present Jharkhand can still be read in different forms of remains scattered over the forests, hills and distant villages here, though our so called mainstream history is almost silent about the tribal connection of the Buddha !

Our journey through these places are recorded both in video as well as in Books and articles