Dec 4, 2021 World Renowned Scholars Clebrate Jeffrey Armstrong
Press Release Dec 4, 2021: World Renowned Scholars of the Hindu Vedic Sanatan Dharma Celebrate Author Jeffrey Armstrong Turning 75 As He Forecasts His Spiritual Teaching Focus for the Next Decade
Turning 75 typically signals your best days are long past, but not for devoted Yogi Jeffrey Armstrong (Kavindra Rishi) who was recently celebrated by Yoga Legends Dr. David Frawley Pandit Vamadeva Shastri (Padma Bhushan), Professor Ved P. Nanda (Padma Bhushan), and Benny J. Tillman (President VFA). Other honored guests were Stephen Knapp, Nilesh Oak, Srinarayan Chandak, Vijay Pallod, Pete McCormack and Richard Raisler.
These and other renowned personalities gathered to recognize the worldwide contribution Author and Yoga Acharya Jeffrey Armstrong is making to the understanding and expansion of Hindu Vedic Dharma among English language audiences.
“For Jeffrey’s contributions to humanity and helping to manifest Hindu Dharma in the Western world, Jeffrey-Kavindra Rishi is a Master of Poetry, the word, and language, which Rishi’s are supposed to be, and his poems are extraordinary at many different levels,” said Dr. David Frawley, Vedic Acharya and author, Founding Chairman of the Vedic Friends Association, regarded as one of the pioneers in the global spread of Yoga and Ayurveda over the last several decades.
“His contributions to Humanity and Sanatana Dharma books follow that and ability to communicate the deeper mantric force even in the English Language, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do, as well as correcting the proper English language with the proper Sanskrit words that it needs to adapt,” Frawley remarked. He is a yoga acharya on all levels and a parma pracharak bhakta of Shri Krishna.”
Armstrong has authored numerous books on Vedic subjects. His most recent contribution is a Sanskrit translated, decolonized version of the Bhagavad Gita called The Bhagavad Gita Comes Alive: A Radical Translation, which was a Best Book Award finalist at the American Book Fest. Published by VASA Publishing in 2020, it is soon to be released in India in Spring 2022 by Rupa Publications.
“The Bhagavad Gita says, “Never is there a time that I did not exist, nor you nor all these Kings.” That means we are eternal,” said Benny Tillman (Balabhadra Bhattacarya Dasa), president of the Vedic Friends Association (VFA) and direct disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. “Krishna also says there is neither birth nor death. So, Jeffrey was never born. He appeared in this world and his appearance in this world has been a blessing for so many of us.”
Jeffrey Armstrong (Kavindra Rishi) was an un likely candidate to become a practitioner and teacher of the Hindu Vedic Dharma, yet for the last 52 of his 75 years, has spent mastering Vedic practices. Of Armstrong, The Times of India said “looks like a typical American till he opens his mouth.” Armstrong aka Kavindra Rishi, turned 75 on December 4th and has dedicated his life to learning about, practicing, and teaching Vedic and yogic wisdom.
“Words are inadequate to express my own deep gratitude for all that he has done,” said Ved P. Nanda, Padma Bhushan and Professor of International Law at the University of Denver in Colorado and President of the HSS Hindu Swayam Sevak Sangha of America. “I heard Jeffrey and I was totally mesmerized. He has touched many lives. He has guided many souls and he has himself not only been uplifted, but he has uplifted others who have come in contact with him.”
You could say that Armstrong is an unlikely Brahmin, not by birth, but by choice and training.
“I am a person who chose to be entirely transformed by a thirst for truth and wisdom that was inherent in my nature,” said Armstrong. “From a very early age, I was linguistically precocious, and I constantly challenged all those around me with social and philosophical questions for which they had no reasonable answers.”
Born in Detroit Michigan in 1946 to a Caucasian Christian family. Armstrong entered a Vedic ashram in North America at age 23 and lived for 5 years as a celibate monk, serving his guru by editing the translations of Vedic texts. To this day he does not eat meat, use drugs, alcohol or any intoxicants and lives a Sattvic lifestyle as befits the principles of what he teaches.
After the ashram, he married his first wife, had a child and went back to university for another degree in History and Comparative Religion. Additionally, he studied Jyotish with M.K. Ghandi for 2 years. He went on to work for Apple Computer in the Middle East and other Silicon Valley tech companies in the United States. Armstrong spent 10 years as a corporate motivational speaker & comedian (as St. Silicon) to fortune 500 companies at the beginning of the tech boom.
At age 50, Armstrong left the corporate world and took a vow to only teach the Vedic knowledge for the remainder of his life. Then divorced, he fortuitously met and married Canadian Sandi Graham and together they have partnered in this journey.
Armstrong has worked with prominent Indian organizations to help with the revival of Sanatana Dharma culture by teaching at Hindu youth camps, universities, and civic centers throughout India, North America and Europe. He is the Founder of VASA, The Vedic Academy of Sciences & Arts, Co-Chair of the Vedic Friends Association and is active in the British Board of Dharmic Scholars.
Pandit Satish K. Sharma, General Secretary of the National Counsel of Hindu Temples in the United Kingdom, President of the Global Hindu Federation and Chair of the British Board of Dharmic Scholars explains Armstrong’s journey best. “We Hindus are not an easy bunch to please, but Jeffrey-Ji your acceptance by our community, by everyone who has met you acknowledges the delight that they experienced in your company, the wisdom that they received, and the pleasure with which it was given and received. To be able to approach the 75th year in the course of one’s life, still laughing and still capable of making other people laugh, not taking oneself too seriously. So, in the remaining time, I am certain that you will set an example for the rest of us as to what it is we are supposed to be doing whilst we are here. Not just with your words, but also with the way in which you deliver them. It is an absolute pleasure.”
Except from his talk…
Jeffrey Armstrong speaks of the next Renaissance
Today, one could say Armstrong is a Jyotishi by profession; a Vedanti or scholar of the Vedas by practice; a Kavi or poet by compulsion, disposition and training; and a Nirukti or etymologist by skill and disposition. But retiring or stopping and basking in the works he has already accumulated is not on Armstrong’s agenda as his work is needed now, more than ever before in world history.
“I believe that all of us who have come in from the outside, back into the Sanatan Dharma, asked to be of service and were close friends with all of our friends who came in at this same time on the inside,” explains Armstrong. “This coming together that we’re doing is truly historic, even in the Vedic sense. It’s moving the whole conversation to another level. Because we are now proving that our relationship with one another, our love and respect for one another has nothing to do with material circumstances and everything to do with truly seeing each other.”
Armstrong calls this particular moment in history “The Hindu Vedic Sanatan Dharma Renaissance.” He explains that because the world has run itself to the end of the trail it has been following — the trail of rape, pillage and colonizing and just taking from the Earth — that the world needs a new way forward, by looking back at ancient wisdom.
Armstrong is pledging his scholarly focus for the next decade to be in four areas of contribution: Cosmology, Etymology, Ecology and Poetry. He explains: (excerpt from the presentation Jeffrey Armstrong Dec 4th, 2021)
Cosmology
Cosmology gives us a world view that is Maha Atma. Jyotish, Vedic Astrology is the light of Brahman descending down into the realm of matter. The linguists of Sanskrit say the letters of Sanskrit alphabet and their sounds came from the stars. The aksharas came from the nakshatras, and this worldview where we see ourselves and each other as immortal beings on an amazing and courageous journey of learning together in what he calls the “Uni-Versity.” We are all here to learn.
Jyotish and Ayurveda are the sciences of that individual journey over unlimited vistas of time as we all progress through this learning process, until we matriculate from this “Uni-Versity” and achieve moksha.
It is reducing these messages to a simple, easy to understand and explain worldview and perspective that makes them available to everyone. The distress of our world is what led me on my journey of looking for who I really was, and then, who we really are. And we’re at a new point in that.
Etymology
What I saw was that language is the key because I learned Sanskrit from a professor of Sanskrit (Ramanath Sharma) who had memorized the 4,000 grammatical rules of Sanskrit. And from him, I grasped that the clarity of Sanskrit is the sustained true signal that has been passing through time without being disrupted.
Because of the four departments: etymology, phonetics, grammar, and poetry.
Etymology is the secret. It is the roots of words leading back to the Sanskrit --all of the other languages have just deviated somewhat from that or widely from that. So, at this moment in history, it is very important we learn Sanskrit words and use them regularly so that everyone on the planet starts to get a new vocabulary. Just add them to your conversation, until there is 100 or 200 of them in circulation.
In the previous Renaissance, there was a couple thousand Latin words that were dumped into English that made it able to do science and be intelligent. So, this is the Second Renaissance.
Etymology allows us to reprogram ourselves and everyone with the correct articulation of the necessary language that shows us our True Universal Nature — our True Immortal Nature. It is actually a sacred vocabulary with which we can re-program the situation.
Ecology
You may know there are six vedangas: Jyotish, Siksha, Vyakarana, Nirukta, Chandas, and Kalpa ‘rituals’. It took me a long time to understand what had happened. By calling the Agnihotri yajna “pagan confused idol worship,” the (Vedic) culture was rocked back on its heels and didn’t know what to say in response. and the response is visible to us now.
The term kulpa, the rituals that were performed, are part of what’s known as “Ecology.” The Vedic civilization is the originator, and all indigenous societies reflected this by also practicing it. Any culture that knew what they were doing, harmonized with Mother Earth “Mata Bhumi” in their locale, in their region. And rituals mean “ritualized behavior.” Rituals mean science, but science is not for greed, and that’s what it is right now, as the handmaiden of exploitation and colonization. Ecology is our cooperative relationship with Dharma, with the Laws of Nature.
And so, what we are watching is the failing of Democracy, which by the way, originally came from the Iroquois First Nations on the east coast of the United States. But the point is that Ecology is the Vedic Dharma and a Democracy is one step short of what it really should be, and that is a “Dharmocracy.”
A “Dharmocracy” is when we all cooperate together, using everything in life in a sustainable way so that there is a future for our children and so that we cooperate with Mata Bhumi (Mother Earth) with the Laws of Nature.
Poetry
Over the last 50 years, Armstrong has written thousands of poems about various aspects of Vedic Vidya (knowledge), as well as about the experience and implications of that knowledge landing upon one who was born with no connection what-so-ever to Bharat.
“I began to write poetry at age 13 or perhaps I should say poetry began to write itself through me,” said Armstrong. “It’s as if it Saraswati takes over my pen and the whole poem just comes out in one download.”
The easiest thing to forget is that the Vedic library is all poetry. The Gayatri Mantra is a chandas – a particular meter of poetry…A poet is not something a few people are supposed to be because they like words. The Veda teaches us that poetry is how we remember Truth and that the basis of Truth is to understand this incredible journey that we’re on. And to understand through the Sanskrit language and not forget -- to always remember and never forget who we really are.
That applies to how we live upon the world. My acharya of this subject right now is Vandana Shiva. We must have the right relationship to the soil.
I didn’t tell you the last secret. What is the last step of the agnihotra yajna? Until just a few years ago I didn’t know. We’ve forgotten. It is that the ashes are put back into the garden as nutrients-it is a cycle that we have lost and must now retrieve.
These four subjects: your Cosmology; your Etymology; your Ecology; and your Poetry are what VASA (Vedic Academy of Science & Arts) is dedicated to bringing with clarity to the world. Removing this obscurantism and this chaos that has been created by the colonial era, changing us from greedy humans fighting to get the last few drops of pleasure from the planet before it’s destroyed.
We’re in the midst of a revolution, of a Renaissance. It’s a turning around: “Yogas Chitta Advertising Nirodha” to “yogas chitta vritti nirodha”. Yoga is removing the advertising and being “Truth Tellers” and living harmoniously with the Earth where everyone is poetic. Where everyone respects one another, the planet, and cooperates with one another.
This is Loka samgraha. It is holding the world together.
My beloved partner Sandi and I have dedicated the last 25 year of our lives to doing this with every breath, every minute of every day. And we are so honored, I am so honored that you would assemble in a sanga of this magnitude. From 75 to 100, I believe you could have some difficult moments. In my difficult moments, I will remember you and this, and your kindness and your love and know you and all are my family. I will remember this and never forget this, and this is the secret of Yoga. Always remember and never forget, the Vedic culture teaches us the endless, ecstatic love that this entire experience is based on. Jai Sri Krishna. Jai Sita Ram. Jai Bhagavan. Jai to all the sadhus and gurus who have inspired us.
Namaste.
Where to Find More from Jeffrey Armstrong
You will find Jeffrey Armstrong on the new weekly online TV show, Vedic Vidya, on the Citti Media channel on YouTube, and on his own YouTube channel, Jeffrey Armstrong. Jeffrey and Sandi Graham are developing a legacy of recorded videos of Jeffrey’s teachings for the next generation of yogis to learn from and to inspire the next generation of Yoga Leaders.
VASA Vedic Academy of Sciences & Arts is an online learning academy of Vedic wisdom offering a large curriculum of lectures on the Vedic teachings.
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WEBSITES:
jeffreyarmstrong.com
gitacomesalive.com
SOCIAL MEDIA:
facebook.com/VASAJeffreyArmstrong
facebook.com/TheBhagavadGitaComesAlive
facebook.com/KavindraRishi
twitter.com/JeffreyVASA
instagram.com/jeffreyarmstrong.author
youtube.com/user/JeffreyArmstrongVASA
pinterest.ca/VASABhagavadGita
