Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (born Robert Hansen; January 5, 1927 – November 12, 2001) was an American Hindu religious leader known as Gurudeva by his followers.

Subramuniyaswami was born in Oakland, California and adopted Hinduism as a young man.

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami was born in California in 1927 as Robert Hansen.

He is quoted as relating how, at the age of six, "the totality of the power of the eternity of the moment began to become stronger and stronger within me from that time onward."

He was most inspired by the life of Swami Vivekananda and his four small volumes: Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga and Inspired Talks, and most particularly by Swami Vivekananda's masterful poem, "The Song of the Sannyasin".

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's training in classical eastern and Western dance and in the disciplines of yoga developed him into a dancer.

He joined the San Francisco Ballet Company, becoming their danseur by age nineteen.

At twenty years of age, he took the first ship to leave for India after World War II.

He celebrated his twenty-first birthday just days before going ashore and walking through the grand Gateway to India in Mumbai.

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami spent almost three years on the island of Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka.

Before meeting his guru, he studied with his fourth "catalyst" for a year and a half.

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami just wanted to meditate, but his teacher made him work to help village people with reconstructing rural areas.

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami visited and lived in many Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka.

He was received by the monks there and saw how they lived and dressed.

This experience influenced in a very strict way the monastic protocols that he later put into action in his own monastic order.

In the caves of Jalani, Kurugala Balandha, Sri Lanka, he fasted and meditated until he experienced what he felt to be enlightenment.

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami relates his feelings while returning to Colombo, Sri Lanka: "Returning back to the city, nothing looked the same anymore. I was in another dimension. Everything was different. I had lost something: the desire for the realization of the Self. I felt complete. I felt alone."

Back in Colombo, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami met his final teacher before meeting his guru.

One day, his teacher arranged a meeting between Sivaya Subramuniyaswami and his long-awaited satguru, Sage Yogaswami.

After a deep and inner meeting, Yogaswami gave him the name Subramuniya, an epithet of Sri Murugan.

Subra means 'the light that emanates out from the central source'; muni means a silent teacher, and ya means 'restraint'. Subramuniya means a self-restrained soul who remains silent or speaks out from intuition.

After a few visits, Jnanaguru Yogaswami initiated Subramuniya into sannyasa and ordained him into his lineage with a slap on the back giving the following instructions: "This sound will be heard in America! Now go 'round the world and roar like a lion. You will build palaces (temples) and feed thousands."

This event was witnesses by several Jaffna area devotees, notably a local magistrate named Thiru S. Subramaniam.

In 1947, at the age of 20, he journeyed to India and Sri Lanka and in 1949, was initiated into sannyasa by the renowned siddha yogi and worshiper of Lord Shiva, Jnanaguru Yogaswami of Jaffna, Sri Lanka who was regarded as one of the 20th century's remarkable mystics.

In late 1949 Subramuniya sailed back to America and embarked on seven years of ardent, solitary yoga and meditation In 1956, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami said, he had a tremendous spiritual experience in Denver, Colorado, where "the soul body would finally fully inhabit the physical body".

The following year, in San Francisco, Subramuniya founded what is now Himalayan Academy and opened America's first Hindu temple at 3575 Sacramento Street, near Presidio Park.

Yogaswami continued to communicate with Sivaya Subramuniyaswami through Kandiah Chettiar until his death in 1964.

In Switzerland, 1968, he wrote of Shum, a mystical language of meditation that names and maps inner areas of consciousness.

In the 1970s he established a Hindu monastery in Kauai, Hawaii and founded the magazine Hinduism Today.

In 1985, he created the festival of Pancha Ganapati as a Hindu alternative to December holidays like Christmas.

He was one of Shaivism's Gurus, the founder and leader of the Saiva Siddhanta Church.

He is part of the guru lineage of the Sri Lankan Alaveddy Hindus.

His various institutions form a Jaffna-Tamil-based organization which has branched out from his Sri Subramuniya Ashram in Alaveddy to meet the needs of the growing Hindu diaspora of this century.

He also established a 7 acre monastery in Mauritius, which includes a public Spiritual Park called "Spiritual Park- Pointe de Lascars".

He oversaw more than 50 independent temples worldwide.

His influence reflected the reach of his publications, including the approximately 30 books he wrote.

Subramuniyaswami was described by Klaus Klostermaier as "the single-most advocate of Hinduism outside India".

The book Religious Leaders of America explained Subramuniyaswami's role as "a pillar of orthodox Hinduism."

He was the 162nd head of the self claimed Nandinatha Sampradaya's Kailasa Parampara and Guru at Kauai's Hindu Monastery which is a 382 acre temple-monastery complex on Hawaii's Garden Island.

In the line of successorship, Subramuniya was considered the 162nd Jagadacharya of the Nandinatha Sampradaya's Kailasa Parampara.