Editing Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

{{Short description|Hindu leader from the United States}}

{{Infobox religious biography

| name = Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

| image = Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (Gurudeva).jpg

| caption = Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

| birth_name = Robert Hansen

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1927|1|5|df=y}}|

| birth_place = [[Oakland]], [[California]], U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2001|11|12|1927|1|5|df=y}}|

| death_place = [[Kapaa]], [[Hawaii]], U.S.

| religion = [[Hinduism]]

| sect = [[Shaivism]]

| initiator = Jnanaguru Yogaswami

| initiation_place = Jaffna, Ceylon

| initiated = [[Sannyasa]]

| initiation_date = 1949

| predecessor = Jnanaguru Yogaswami

| successor = [[Bodhinatha Veylanswami]]

| subsect = [[Shaiva Siddhanta]]<br/>[[Nath]] ([[Nandinatha Sampradaya]])

| guru = [[Yogaswami|Jnanaguru Yogaswami]]

'''Sivaya Subramuniyaswami''' (born '''Robert Hansen'''; January 5, 1927 – November 12, 2001) was an American Hindu religious leader known as [[Guru]]deva by his followers. Subramuniyaswami was born in [[Oakland, California]] and adopted [[Hinduism]] as a young man. He was the 162nd head of the self claimed [[Nandinatha Sampradaya]]'s Kailasa Parampara and Guru at [[Saiva Siddhanta Church#Kauai Hindu Monastery|Kauai's Hindu Monastery]] which is a {{convert|382|acre|adj=on}} temple-monastery complex on [[Hawaii]]'s Garden Island.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.himalayanacademy.com/monastery/lineage-philosophy/gurudeva/|title=Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami|website=Himalayanacademy}} [[Wikipedia:Independent sources|(Source closely affiliated with the subject)]]</ref>

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami was born in [[Oakland, California]] on January 5, 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."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.himalayanacademy.com/view/the-guru-chronicles | title=Himalayan Academy Publications - the Guru Chronicles }}</ref>{{third-party inline|reason=Source closely affiliated with the subject|date=April 2023}}<ref name=autogenerated1>{{Cite magazine|title=The Making of a Master |magazine=Hinduism Today |publisher=Himalayan Academy |year=2002 |issue=April/May/June |url=https://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3875 }}</ref>{{third-party inline|reason=Source closely affiliated with the subject|date=April 2023}} He was most inspired by the life of [[Swami Vivekananda]] and his four small volumes: ''[[Raja Yoga (book)|Raja Yoga]]'', ''Bhakti Yoga'', ''[[Karma Yoga (book)|Karma Yoga]]'' and ''[[Inspired Talks]]'', and most particularly by Swami Vivekananda's 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 the ageof nineteen.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Neubert |first=F |date=2018 |title=Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami |doi=10.1163/2212-5019_BEH_COM_9000000266 |url=https://doi.org/10.1163/2212-5019_BEH_COM_9000000266 |archive-url=}}</ref> 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 [[moksha|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."<ref name=autogenerated1 />

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 [[Kartikeya|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 (knowledge)|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."<ref>''Merging with Siva'' {{ISBN|0-945497-95-4}}, page 909</ref><ref name=":0" /> This event was witnesses by several Jaffna area devotees, notably a local magistrate named Thiru S. Subramaniam.

| quote = }}</ref> 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]]. In [[Switzerland]], 1968, he wrote of Shum, a mystical language of meditation that names and maps inner areas of [[consciousness]].

===Subramuniya in the 1950s and 1960s===

The biographies of Subramuniya showatime of transition between 1950 and 1957. Subramuniya states that he was ordered not to teach until he turned thirty in January 1957. He spent some of these seven years traveling around the United States, teaching hatha yoga classes and exploring various non-traditional religions, such as [[Christian Science]], [[Theosophy]], and the scienceof the mind, the closest Western religions to Hindu thought.<ref name="home-grown">{{Cite book|last=Mann |first=Richard D. |year=2013 |chapter=Life in Progress: The Biographies of Sivaya Subramuniyaswami |editor-last1=Gleig |editor-first1=Ann |editor-last2=Williamson |editor-first2=Lola |title=Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to American Hinduism |location=Albany, New York |publisher=State University of New York |pages=115-139, [https://books.google.com/books?id=GHxhuLq9-O8C&pg=PA123&lpg=PA123 pages 123-125] |isbn=978-1-4384-4791-9}}</ref> His shift to a teaching ministry as Master Subramuniya in 1957 blends elements of these religious movements with Hindu yogic and Vedanta teachings in a language oriented toward his followers at the time, who were Westerners.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lucas |first=Phillip Charles |year=1995 |title=The Odyssey of a New Religion: The Holy Order of MANS from new age to orthodoxy |location=Bloomington, Indiana |publisher=Indiana University Press |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=IijJRg2MrcIC&pg=PA21 21] |isbn=978-0-253-33612-5 }}</ref>

Subramuniya in the 1950s and 1960s might be placed in an American metaphysical lineage that can be traced from 19th century Theosophy to the New Age Movement in the late 1970s.

Accordingly, Subramuniya's early publications, ''The Self-God'' (1959), ''Cognizantibility'' (1958), ''Gems of Cognition'' (1958) and ''Clear White Light'' (1968) do not mention Saiva Siddhanta, Hinduism, Shiva, his guruorlineage or his avocation of temple worship so prominently found in his later works. All of Subramuniya's early works stress meditation, an advaita based monism and yoga.

Subramuniya also experimented with combining aspects of Hinduism with Christianity in another context. He opened two centers in San Francisco in 1957: one Hindu, the Subramuniya Yoga Order, and the other a Hindu/Christian hybrid, the Christian Yoga Church.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rawlinson |first=Andrew |year=1997 |title=The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions |location=Chicago |publisher=Open Court |page=541 |isbn=978-0-8126-9310-2}}</ref> A typical Sunday worship at the Christian Yoga Church included the singing of Christian hymns, readings from the New Testament and the Bhagavad Gita or Upanishads and a sermon related to Christian or Hindu mysticism. In this context, Master Subramuniya was known as Father Subramuniya.<ref>{{harvnb|Lucas|1995|page=13}}</ref>

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami moved his ashram to Kauai in 1970, establishing Kauai Aadheenam, on a riverbank near the foot of an extinct volcano. Also known as Kauai's Hindu Monastery, Kauai Aadheenam is a {{convert|382|acre|adj=on}} temple-monastery complex on Hawaii's Garden Island. In 1979 he published the Holy Orders of Sannyas, defining the ideals, vows and aspirations of Hindu [[monasticism]]. In 1979 he founded the [[Hinduism Today Magazine|Hinduism Today magazine]], and in the early 80s, after his world tours, focused his magazine on uniting all Hindus, regardless of nationality or sect, and inspiring and educating seekers everywhere. In Sri Lanka, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami formally took possession of the main building of his Sri Subramuniya Ashram in Alaveddy, founded in 1949.

In 1986 Sivaya Subramuniyaswami founded a [[branch]] [[monastery]] in [[Mauritius]] in response to the government's request that he come there "to revive a languishing Hindu faith."<ref name="nyt_obituary" /> In 1991 he produced the Nandinatha Sutras, 365 [[aphorisms]] that outlines the path of virtuous Hindu living. Especially in the early 1990s he campaigned for fair treatment of temple [[priest]]s, particularly that they should receive the same respect enjoyed by the clergy of other religions. In 2000,he translated the first two books of the [[Kural]] into English<ref name="Manavalan_Compendium">{{cite book | last = Manavalan | first = A. A. | title = A Compendium of ''Tirukkural'' Translations in English | publisher = Central Institute of Classical Tamil | volume = 4 vols. | date = 2010 | location = Chennai | language = English | isbn = 978-81-908000-2-0}}</ref> and also published ''How to Become a Hindu'', showing the way for seekers to formally enter the faith, confuting the notion that "You must be born a Hindu to be a Hindu." In November of that year, he launched Hindu Press International (HPI), a free daily news summary for breaking news sent via e-mail and posted on the web. In 2001, he completed the 3,000-page Master Course trilogy of ''Dancing with Siva'', ''Living with Siva'', and ''Merging with Siva'' – volumes of daily lessons on Hindu philosophy, culture and yoga, respectively.

Learning on October 9, 2001, that he had advanced, metastasized intestinal cancer, confirmed by a host of specialists in three states, all concurring that even the most aggressive treatment regimens would not prove effective, he declined any treatment beyond palliative measures and decided to follow the Indian yogic practice, known as ''[[prayopavesha]]'' in Sanskrit scripture, to abstain from nourishment and take water only from that day on. He died on the 32nd day of his self-declared fast at 11:54 pm on November 12, 2001, surrounded by his twenty-three monastics.<ref>{{cite web |title=Kauai's Hindu Monastery |url=https://www.himalayanacademy.com/monastery/lineage-philosophy/gurudeva |website=Kauai's Hindu Monastery}}</ref>

He followed the [[shaivism]] sect ([[Shaiva Siddhanta]]) of Hinduism. He belongs to [[Nandinatha Sampradaya]]'s Kailasa Parampara. Saiva siddhanta is prevalent in South India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/dancingwithsivah00subr_0|title=Dancing with Siva by Satguru Siva Subramuniyaswami|publisher=Himalayan Academy|year=1997|isbn=9780945497974|location=USA|pages=ŚLOKA 152}} [[Wikipedia:Independent sources|(Source closely affiliated with the subject)]]</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/dancingwithsivah00subr_0|title=Dancing with Siva by Satguru Siva Subramuniyaswami|publisher=Himalayan Academy|year=1997|isbn=9780945497974|location=USA|pages=ŚLOKA 151}} [[Wikipedia:Independent sources|(Source closely affiliated with the subject)]]</ref>

'''Spiritual lineage''' : [[Nandi (Hinduism)|Maharishi Nandinath]] → Sundaranandar, [[Siddhar]] who later becomes [[Tirumular]] → → → Kadaitswami → [[Chellapaswami]] → [[Yogaswami|Siva Yogaswami]] → [[Sivaya Subramuniyaswami]] → [[Bodhinatha Veylanswami]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.himalayanacademy.com/monastery/lineage-philosophy/lineage|title=Our Spiritual Lineage, the Kailasa Parampara|last=|first=|date=|website=|access-date=}}</ref>

* 1986 - [[New Delhi]]'s [[Parliament of the World's Religions]] named Sivaya Subramuniyaswami one of five modern-day Jagadacharyas, means world teachers, for his international efforts in promoting [[Hinduism]].<ref name="nyt_obituary" /><ref name="Living with Siva">{{cite book|url=http://ebooks.gutenberg.us/himalayanacademy/sacredhinduliterature/lws/lws_table_of_contents.html|title=Living with Siva|last=Subramuniyaswami|first=Sivaya|publisher=E-Gutenberg|year=2002|isbn=0-945497-98-9|location=USA & India}} [[Wikipedia:Independent sources|(Source closely affiliated with the subject)]]</ref>

''[[Hinduism Today]]'' is an international quarterly magazine founded by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami in 1979. It is a public service of his monastic order, created to strengthen all Hindu traditions by uplifting and informing followers of the [[Hinduism]] everywhere.<ref name=":0" />

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[[Category:Christian yoga]]