1. Sivaya Subramuniyaswami 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.
21 Facts About Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami was one of Shaivism's Gurus, the founder and leader of the Saiva Siddhanta Church.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami is part of the guru lineage of the Sri Lankan Alaveddy Hindus.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami established a seven-acre monastery in Mauritius, which includes a public Spiritual Park called "Spiritual Park- Pointe de Lascars".
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's influence reflected the reach of his publications, including the approximately 30 books he wrote.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami was described by Klaus Klostermaier as "the single-most advocate of Hinduism outside India".
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami was born in Oakland, California on January 5,1927 as Robert Hansen.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami joined the San Francisco Ballet Company, becoming their danseur by the age of nineteen.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami celebrated his twenty-first birthday just days before going ashore and walking through the grand Gateway to India in Mumbai.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami spent almost three years on the island of Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami just wanted to meditate, but his teacher made him work to help village people with reconstructing rural areas.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami visited and lived in many Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami was received by the monks there and saw how they lived and dressed.
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Back in Colombo, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami met his final teacher before meeting his guru.
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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".
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami 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 science of the mind, the closest Western religions to Hindu thought.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami moved his ashram to Kauai in 1970, establishing Kauai Aadheenam, on a riverbank near the foot of an extinct volcano.
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In Sri Lanka, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami formally took possession of the main building of his Sri Subramuniya Ashram in Alaveddy, founded in 1949.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami died on the 32nd day of his self-declared fast at 11:54 pm on November 12,2001, surrounded by his twenty-three monastics.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami followed the shaivism sect of Hinduism.
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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's works are highly regarded by many contemporary Hindu leaders.