New Member Introduction: Vishal Agarwal

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

Namaste! I, Vishal Agarwal, am a 30 year old Engineer working for a Medical
Device company that makes instruments for minimally invasive surgical
procedures. I am a Plastics Engineer, and am also currently pursuing an MBA
(Finance and IS). I am originally from Delhi, although I have lived at Pune
and in the USA for a long time. I currenly live in the Twin Cities area.

Born in a regular liberal Hindu family, I have nevertheless been drawn
towards Dharma since I was a kid. I was an Advaitin, but am not so any
longer. I consider my beliefs approximated by the Vishishtadvaita Vedanta,
on which I have also a website. I hope this does not offend list members,
but I want assure them that I donot indulge in Khandana-mandana of Astika
sampradayas. There is a lot to be learnt from all the different schools of
Hindu thought.

My interest in Advaita lies because of the following reasons:
1. A good understanding of Advaita Vedanta is a pre-requisite for
understanding the Vishishtadvaita Vedanta. As I have not had the benefit of
studying under a bonafide guru, I hope to learn a lot about Advaita Vedanta
from the list.
2. I have been compiling data actively for creating a massive website on
Mimamsa and Vedanta. Obviously, I want to gather as much information on the
teachers of Advaita Vedanta as possible. I think that the list members will
be a wonderful resource for the same.
3. I feel that Advaita did not emerge with Bhagvatpada himself, and there
were versions of Advaita Vedanta prior to him as well, as a result of
whatever data I have collected. Advaita Vedanta did proceed to subsume
numerous old Adhyatmic traditions of India (Samkhya, Yoga etc.) and
therefore, a good grasp of the texts of Advaita Vedanta are a pre-requsite
for undestanding the historical development of different darshanas of
Hindus.
4. As a kid, I used to attend the sermons of Swami Swarupananda Saraswati,
the Dwaraka Mathadhipati, and have a soft corner for Advaita Vedanta. While
in Pune, I had darshana of the Sringeri and Puri Acharyas as well. It is
beyond doubt that the paramapara of Bhagvatpada has maintained its maryada
akshunna since its inception.
5. I dislike sectarianism and I feel that Advaita Vedanta is extremely
non-sectarian in its core teachings. I hold the Acharyas of the Sampradaya
in deep esteem. Therefore, it is but natural that I should want to join this
list.

I did not join it earlier because I did not have time. Now I do. As an
aside, I am also a moderator of the GHEN discussion forum. In the comming
days, I will be setting up websites on different texts (starting with the
Vajrasuchika Upanishad) and I will consider myself fortunate upon receiving
suggestions and criticisms from the list members.

Yo bhutam cha bhavyam cha sarvam, yaschadhitishthati   |
Swaryasya cha kevalam, tasmai jyeshthaya Brahmane namah||
Atharvaveda (Shaunaka Shakha) kanda X

Regards

Vishal

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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