Saiva Siddhanta - An Introduction
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Saiva Siddhanta:
After returning to America, Gurudeva Suvaya Subramuniyaswami spent seven
years in continued spiritual practice in Denver, Colorado, where he had
a series of kundalini experiences, which brought about many siddhis such
as clairvoyance and clairaudience.
In 1957, at the age of thirty, Gurudeva established in California a branch
of the Saiva
Siddhanta Church, which had begun in 1949. He also opened the Palani
Swami Temple in San Francisco that year, and founded the Himalayan
Academy to foster in the West a greater understanding of ancient Hindu
culture and spirituality. In 1970 Gurudeva established the Kauai
Aadheenam ashram and temple on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, where
he lives and guides the advanced disciples of his yoga order. In 1975
he founded a ten-acre spiritual sanctuary on Kauai called the San Marga
Sanctuary, and in 1979 Gurudeva founded the international newspaper
Hinduism Today, which is published in five countries and reaches hundreds
of thousands around the world. Gurudeva lectures around the world, initiating
thousands into Saivite Hinduism.
Gurudeva explains the Self as follows: "The Self, you can't explain it.
You can sense its existence through the refined state of your senses,
but you cannot explain it. To know it, you have to experience it. And
the best you can say about it is that it is the depth of your Being, the
very core of you. It is you. If you visualize above you nothing; below
you nothing; to the right of you nothing; to the left of you nothing;
in front of you nothing; in back of you nothing; and dissolve yourself
into that nothing-ness, that would be the best way you could explain the
realization of the Self. And yet that nothingness would not be the absence
of something, like the nothingness inside an empty box which would be
a void. That nothingness is the fullness of everything: the power, the
sustaining power, of the existence of what appears to be everything."
For information contact:
Himalayan
Academy
Recommended reading:
 Dancing
with Siva: Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
 Merging
with Siva: Hinduism's Contemporary Metaphysics by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
 Weaver's
Wisdom: Ancient Proverbs for a Perfect Life by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
 Loving
Ganesa: Hinduism's Endearing Elephanat - Faced God by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
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