Living With Siva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Culture

by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

You will find in this book the deepest truths and insights of Indian spirituality, some of it never published before, all of it relevant to your personal awakening on the path to merging with God. Drawn from fifty years of yogic realizations and sharing the Hindu mystical teachings with aspirants, Dancing with Siva is the first book of a remarkable trilogy called The Master Course. The trilogy is a detailed summary of astanga yoga also called raja yoga, which contains eight successive steps, each one dependent upon the one that precedes it. These eight steps are yama (restraint), niyama (observance), asana (posture), pranayama (breath control), pratyahara (sense withdrawal), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (contemplation). The trilogy articulates in lucid terms why you must begin at the beginning, with a firm foundation of Philosophical clarity and good character, and proceed from there. Dancing with Siva lays out the Philosophical, Vedic –Agamic beliefs, attitudes and expectations of the Saivite Hindu religion.

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniya Swami was a living example of Awakening and wisdom, a leader recognized worldwide as one of Hinduism’s foremost ministers. In 1947, at age 20, he sailed from the United States to India and Sri Lanka and two years later was initiated into Sannyasa by the renowned Siddha yogi, Jnanaguru Yogaswami of Sri Lanka, regarded as one of the 20th century’s most remarkable mystics. For over five decades Subramuniyaswami affectionately known as Gurudeva, taught Hinduism. He was the 162nd Jagadacarya of the Nandinatha Sampradaya’s Kailasa Parampara and Guru Mahasannidhanam of Kauai Aadheernam (also known as Kauai’s Hindu Monastery), a 458- acre temple –monastery in Hawaii, USA.