Hindu history is replete with stories of noble, courageous, high souls who are born to uplift and guide mankind, men and women who come “from up down” in response to humanity’s needs—the more dire the need, the greater the soul sent to meet it. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, affectionately known by his devotees as Gurudeva, was such a soul. He was born in modern times to meet modern challenges—born, he would say, “to protect, preserve and promote the Saiva dharma,” to bring the knowledge, worship and realization of God Siva into the 21st century. How he did that is a story you are about to read. But he would be the first to caution that this is not about him. He was only the latest guru in a lineage that had preserved the knowledge of the Self within man since the dawn of history, a lineage that existed before him, thrived during his lifetime and carries on today. ¶Those close to Gurudeva lived the stories in these pages, saw his communion with the inner worlds, experienced his life of revelation and realization. He looked and acted like Siva Himself, tall, powerful, compassionate, urgent. He did things people don’t do: created a new language, talked to the light-bodied devas, established America’s first South Indian monastery, founded Hinduism’s first international magazine, saw and then recreated the future. Little wonder he was chosen by Yogaswami to carry on the Nandinatha Kailasa lineage. Little wonder he was recognized in the East as the West’s first authentic satguru. Everything he did was to meet a need, to elevate consciousness, to preserve Hindu dharma for the future—not the nearest future, but the far future of thousands of years, what he loved to call “the future of futures.” His temple was built to last a thousand years. His monastery and yoga order were crafted to last even longer. His magazine continues to inspire and transform not merely individuals and institutions but entire nations. His realization of Absolute Reality supersedes it all. Yet he could explain karma to a child. ¶In this tenth year since his Great Departure, we dedicate this book to Gurudeva, an Eastern soul in a Western body, a man who loved all that is modern and used it to protect all that is ancient. We fall at his feet, humbled by the certainty that we have no more captured him and his predecessors here than one can snare the midday sun. Enjoy his story and that of his guru and his guru’s guru and so on back in history, and hope in your heart that you will one day meet someone like him. Jai! Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami! Jai!§