[Advaita-l] Fwd: Rudram Chanting in White House

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan via Advaita-l]

> 
> We better understand who is a real Brahman by birth or by actions? Who is malecha Swami Tadatmananda an American born student of Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati or most of us who know almost nothing about real Vedanta
> Anil Aggarwal 
> a bania by birth
> A spiritual seeker by orientation 

As a moderator of this list, I just want to make it very clear to everybody that we
have never restricted anyone here based on their community or nationality or any
other kind of affiliation. We have also always made it clear that we respect the
traditional rules and niyama-s very deeply, when it relates to anything to do with
the veda-s. And we expect all our list members also to do justice to both principles.

However, we would also like to keep away from anything that does not ultimately
serve the purpose of vedAnta discussion. After all, adhikAra for gaining AtmavidyA
and adhikAra for other ritual practices from the vaidika tradition are two different
things. We should not conflate one with the other. And being interested in advaita
vedAnta need not correlate with interest in India's contemporary politics either.
Needless to say, an interest in or affiliation with one of the various groups headed
by a Swamiji or Babaji or Mataji also need not correlate with advaita vedAnta. There
are many of them today who owe no allegiance at all to advaita vedAnta tradition.
We all have our interests in multiple other things, but this list is not for expressing
our opinions on all of them. It is meant for advaita vedAnta, pure and simple. I hope
this distinction is clear.

On this list, we have Indians, many of brAhmaNa birth, who do not know to recite
more than a few of the veda mantra-s. We have non-Indians who have taken the
effort to approach good guru-s and have made a personal commitment to learn
vaidika precepts and traditions, including some veda mantra recitation.
 
We also have many Indians, of varied backgrounds, who can recite large portions
of the veda very well indeed, and we have Indians and non-Indians with not more
than a passing interest in all of these other aspects of the vaidika traditions.
 
And we have Indians living in India, as well as abroad, and some non-Indians who
spend a great deal of their time in India. Our demographics are a snapshot of how
the world is populated today, which is very different from how it was even fifty
years ago.
 
I would like this list to always maintain a welcoming atmosphere for all these
different varieties of people. This list's founders and moderators don't want this
list's focus to get sidetracked into contentious political and sociological issues. If
a topic will help improve our SraddhA and jnAna about the veda and vedAnta, then
yes, let's talk about it. But if it becomes something that ends up mainly as fault-
finding against others, then it is time to wrap up that discussion and move on.
 
Best regards,
Vidyasankar