298. identity
must constantly be mindful of larger forms of struggle. The larger issue for us is
that, without attention to the greater concerns of survival per se, the study of
Hinduism could simply lose its place in the university curriculum and be ignored
or disrespected in the culture at large. The struggle to prevent this from happen-
ing is more important than any particular interpretation of a point within the
field.
Together, we need to turn our full energies toward this cultural project. We won’t
all contribute to the cause in the same way, and that is fitting. Coexistence requires
acknowledging our different as well as our similar interests. This is key to conflict
mediation. In the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira characterizes various dharmasas the
param dharmam—the “highest duty.” Following his lead, we might coin a Sanskrit
slogan of our own: sarvadharme yuddhate, tat satyam param.To translate: “One
must struggle with the dharmaof everyone”—our global dharma,one might say.
“This is the highest truth.”
Fifth and finally, Indic tradition teaches that the life of the mind is constantly con-
cerned with self-correction and growth. This is the metavalue of reflexivity. The
kavya poet Ashvaghosha inspires us in a similar way in his Buddhacarita.He writes
that the great works of the ancient rishis,or sages, were carried out and approved
by their sons, who were also rishis.They honored their fathers’ work as crucial, and
then tried to adapt it to the roles and concerns of their own times (1.46–51). The
growth of the great commentary traditions of the darshanasillustrates this process
splendidly, as respect is offered to forebears in the process of remembering their
words, and freedom is possible in the process of reading and interpreting them. We
too need to embrace such a self-corrective intellectual tradition.
Presenting wood to those who acted as one ’s teachers was a common, everyday
act in ancient India. It was also an act that acknowledged that one ’s partner in an in-
terlogue had superior knowledge—even if that relationship was temporary. Per-
haps we might conceive of our global interlogue (samvada)in this way—as the
everyday act of presenting wood to those who might be our superiors, even if only
temporarily. In pursuing our global samvadaand in embracing the act of present-
ing wood to all of our teachers, both permanent and temporary, we suggest that we
continually consider the five queries we have raised, and enact in as many ways as
we can conceive the five metavalues taught in Indic tradition. The life of Hinduism
has depended upon such exchanges for millennia, at least since Yaska and probably
before. We would do well to preserve the vitality of these exchanges into the next
millennium as well.