• Home
• People
• Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927–2001), also known as Gurudeva by his followers, was born in Oakland, California, on January 5, 1927, and adopted Saivism as a young man. He traveled to India and Sri Lanka where he received initiation from Yogaswami of Jaffna in 1949. In the 1970s he established a Hindu monastery in Kauai, Hawaii and founded the magazine Hinduism Today. In 1985, he invented Pancha Ganapati as a Hindu alternative to December holidays like Christmas.He was one of Saivism's Gurus, the founder and leader of the Saiva Siddhanta Church. Subramuniyaswami was described by Klaus Klostermaier as "the single-most advocate of Hinduism outside India".In 1986, the World Religious Parliament in New Delhi honored him as one of five modern-day Jagadacharyas, or international religious teachers, that had most dynamically promoted Hinduism in the past 25 years. He became a spokesman for Hinduism at global gatherings, despite (directly) representing fewer than three million of the world's estimated one billion Hindus. His influence reflected the reach of his publications, including the approximately 30 books he wrote. He represented Hinduism at the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders in Oxford in 1988, Moscow in 1990 and Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The book Religious Leaders of America explained Subramuniyaswami's role as "a pillar of orthodox Hinduism"