My grandmother is an Ayurvedic doctor. She has practiced it from more than 50 years and she is also an author of two books titled Roga Marga: An Unique Approach to Ayurvedic Practice and Roga Marga: The Strength of Ayurvedic Treatment. It was from her that I first heard about Dr David Frawley. She told me about how Dr Frawley, an American born in Wisconsin, USA came to be known as Pandit Vamadeva Shastri, a Vedacharya, Ayurvedic doctor, Vedic astrologer, and a writer.
I was still a school going boy back then and didn’t know much about Dr Frawley but I was pleasantly surprised on knowing about him.
However, now having grown up, I am very much aware about the incredible contributions of Dr Frawley in reviving ancient Hindu/Indic traditions and spreading awareness about them across the world. His first interaction with the ancient Vedic traditions happened in the 1970s when he discovered the Vedas through the works of the great Sri Aurobindo. He founded the Vedic Research Center in 1980 which was renamed as the American Institute of Vedic Studies in 1988. Its website https://vedanet.com/ is the single online repository to access the works of Dr Frawley over the Internet.
In addition to this, he has also co-founded https://vedic-management.com/ in association with U Mahesh Prabhu. Like I stated earlier, he is an authority on Ayurveda. In fact I came to know about him through my grandmother who in turn came to know about him through the ancient, divine, Indian medicinal science. Dr Frawley works with various Ayurvedic institutions such as the The Chopra Center, Kerala Ayurveda Academy, the National Ayurvedic Medical Association, and the Association of Ayurveda Professionals of North America (AAPNA).
He is a strong opponent of the divisive Aryan-Dravidian theory and has written many articles ridiculing it. He has also written a book titled The Myth of the Aryan Invasion of India exposing the fallacies of the theory. His uncompromising and firm stand on the matter has attacted a lot of attention from the so called intellectual circles as it is evident from the article wherein he is described as a “right-wing historian”.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/Right-wing-historian-Frawleyi…
Dr Frawley is not just a historian. He is so much more than that. He is a Vedic scholar and an authority on Ayurveda. He is also a qualified Vedic astrologer and is a strong advocate of Yoga. http://www.thehindu.com/…/an-enlightened…/article5736503.ece
He was awarded with the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2015 for his outstanding achievements. His achievements are incredible and the description of a “right-wing historian” doesn’t do full justice to his stature.
As mainstream media has been now replaced to a large extent by social media, Dr Frawley has also evolved with time. He is active on both Facebook and on Twitter. He is spreading awareness and knowledge about various ancient Hindu/Indic traditions on social media through his page on Facebook and through his Twitter handle. He regularly tweets about Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma which is more apt to describe it, Ayurveda, Yoga, and other ancient Hindu/Vedic/Indic traditions. The 140 character limit on Twitter is no limit to him and his Twitter handle is an outstanding source to obtain knowledge about our culture, history, and traditions. His articles have appeared on DailyO as well. http://www.dailyo.in/user/7804/davidfrawley
With about 48,500 followers on Twitter and about 30,000 followers on Facebook, Dr Frawley has imparted knowledge about our culture to so many people. Today’s generation which is engrossed in smartphones is extremely active on social media and Dr Frawley’s active presence on it is a huge benefit to all of us. We get to know so many things. The best part of Dr Frawley’s social media activity is that he is very dynamic in his approach.
For instance, today is a solar eclipse in the USA. In fact, it is a total solar eclipse. Dr Frawley has shared some interesting details about the solar eclipse from the Vedic perspective. A few days back, we celebrated Sri Krishna Janmashtami and Dr Frawley shared his article on why Sri Krishna remains significant even after all these years. In fact, he stated why Sri Krishna is significant now, more than ever before. https://vedanet.com/…/we-need-to-embrace-shri-krishna-now-…/
His active presence on social media is a huge benefit for India, Hinduism, Vedanta, Ayurveda, Yoga, history, and a great many things. Through his books and articles, he has worked tirelessly in reaching out to people and making them understand these great things. By making his presence felt on social media, even the younger generation is getting inspired to learn about ancient Indian culture and traditions. I sincerely pray to Bhagwan Dhanvantari to grant a long life to Dr David Frawley or Pandit Vamadeva Shastri and grant him strength so that he can continue his great work.