Fact Check: Videos claiming rendition of Sri Rudram at White House In US Are Misleading
Two videos showing foreigners reciting Vedic hymns are in wide circulation on social media platforms, with the claim that they show Sri Rudram recital in the White House, which is the official residence of the President of America.
Claim :
Videos show Sri Rudram being recited in the White House in AmericaFact :
The videos show foreigners chanting Sri Rudram are not from the White House in America, these events took place in different places. The first video is from Croatia and the other is from Chicago, USA.
Two videos showing foreigners reciting Vedic hymns are in wide circulation on social media platforms, with the claim that the videos show Sri Rudram's recital in the White House, which is the official residence of the President of America.
The first video showing a group of people performing pooja and chanting Vedic hymns is shared with the claim that "Shri Rudram Stotram" was recited at the White House in America. It is impossible to imagine that Americans can pronounce it so cleanly. Is it a great pride? "Sri Rudram Stotram" was recited by Jeffrey Arhardt at the White House. Close your eyes and listen quietly. Very awesome video.”
Here are the links.
Another video showing two persons standing and chanting Vedic hymns on a stage is also in circulation with the same claim that this event occurred in the White House in America. In the video, we can see a woman introducing them as Sri Steve Burdick and Sri Jeffrey Erhard chanting Sri Rudram.
This video is also shared with the claim “Shree Rudram stotram was recited at a function in White House USA to celebrate Aadi Shankaracharya Jayanti. No one could have imagined that an American like Jeffery Arhard and his friend could recite it with very clear pronunciation and intonation. Really Good!”
Fact Check:
The claim is Misleading. Though the videos show foreigners chanting Sri Rudram, these events did not occur in the White House.
For the first video, when we performed a Google reverse image search on the keyframes extracted from the video, we found a Facebook video published in September 2019 with the caption “Shri Rudram and Chamakam performed by 400+ Europeans in Croatia. The European Veda association would be performing this across many places in Europe for world peace. Amazing! Absolutely proud to be born in the lineage of Vedic tradition. Looks like others are picking up where we left it.”
Taking a cue from this, when we added the keywords “Sri Rudram chanting by 400+ Europeans”, we found another YouTube video published in August 2018.
Upon further search, we found a website Vedaunion.org, which is a network that unites all European Veda chanting groups.
The organization conducted a Veda Union project named ‘Rudram 11’. This event was conducted in Zagreb, Croatia on March 3rd and 4th, 2018. The pictures of the event which resemble the screenshots from the viral video are shared on the website.
The second video showing Steve Burdick and Jeffrey Erhard chanting Sri Rudram is also an old one. The video shows a Maharudram event that took place on January 31, 2015, at the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago in Lemont, IL.
According to the press release published on the website asianmediaUSA.com, One of the biggest highlights of the evening was the perfect rendition of Sri Rudram by Sri. Steve Burdick and Sri. Jeffrey Erhard, which prompted the attendees to rise and give a standing ovation. Erhard then followed this with a soul-stirring bhajan session on Lord Shiva.
Therefore, the videos in circulation with the claim that they show the rendition of Sri Rudram in the White House are old and do not show events that took place in the White House in America. They show 2 different events showing Foreigners chanting Vedic hymns.
The claim is Misleading.
