[Advaita-l] A problem of personal identity

[Mahesh Ursekar]

Pranams,

Please ignore the below post. It was accidental & I would prefer not to
discuss this further.

Sorry for the inconvenience,

Mahesh



On 1/3/08, Mahesh Ursekar <mahesh.ursekar at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Pranams! Hi! Halo! Bonjour!...
>
> Which of the above salutations would make me 'Indian'? Is that even a
> valid question today?
>
> Is Indra Nooyi Indian becuase she spent her childhood in Chennai? Or is
> she American since she lives there? Or are both these false since she heads
> a global organization?
> Is Jaldhar Vyas Indian because he has a passion for Vedanta? Or American
> since he lives there? Or neither since he supports the Open Source movement
> which is a global phenomenon.
>
> This train of thought started because in a past vitriolic thread, someone
> claimed that rituals are 'very Indian'. While Indianness might have been
> valid in the interim past (i.e. not when dinosaurs roamed the earth), is
> it valid today? Hasn't globalization changed the rules of the game?
>
> Let me illustrate. Just a few years ago, a friend I made while doing a
> project in Barcelona, Spain visited me in India. While showing her around
> Mumbai, she happened to remark that she saw no foriengers on the street. I
> appreciated her point becuase wherever she has travelled (mainly Europe &
> Russia) she has seen white people. Naturally the incident was forgotten till
> a few weeks ago. These days every time I step out to go to somewhere
> outside, I see at least one white person. And not near some tourist spot. I
> saw one couple at an Udipi restaurant, the woman in salwar-kameez, the guy
> in a t-shirt. Then a young boy in shorts & tees standing to catch a bus.
> Still another couple travelling by local train. And on & on...r these
> persons Indian or foreign?
>
> If globalization is creating one mix bag of people, does personal identity
> in the form of a country hold any water? Will our children (or at latest
> theirs) harbour such distinctions? Shouldn't we shed this artificial skin
> and just say we r 'Citizens of the World'?
>
> In this regard, the beauty of Vedanta is that there is nothing Indian
> about it, per se. It is based on pure reason. So is Buddhism. And Jainism.
> The tri-ratnas of...do I say it...'Indian' origin? But saying that last bit
> just dilutes their universal message.
>
> The whole point of this post being that the world is changing. Rapidly. We
> are coming closer to each other faster than ever before. We are becoming a
> people of planet Earth.
>
> And isn't it about time?
>
> Salutations! Mahesh
>
>
>