Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, born Robert Hansen on January 5, 1927, in Oakland, California, emerged from a conventional American, Christian household in a middle-class setting. Raised in Northern California, he participated in the religious life available to him there, while also cultivating interests that hinted at a deeper spiritual search, including mysticism, disciplined living, and especially dance. His early training as a professional dancer and choreographer, particularly in ballet, instilled a rigorous physical and mental discipline that later harmonized naturally with the demands of yogic practice and monastic life. This combination of ordinary American upbringing and unusual inner intensity formed the soil in which his later Hindu vocation would take root.

As a young adult, he explored various spiritual and metaphysical teachings, seeking something that would fully satisfy his inner awakening. A profound spiritual experience while dancing catalyzed this quest, prompting him to look beyond the religious framework of his birth and to turn toward the philosophies and practices of Hinduism, especially Saivism, the tradition centered on Lord Siva. This inner call led him to leave the United States in the late 1940s and travel to Asia in search of a genuine guru who could guide his unfolding realization. His journey was not merely geographical; it marked a gradual but decisive shift from Western seeker to aspirant within a traditional Hindu path.

In 1949 he arrived in Sri Lanka, where he met the renowned Saivite sage Yogaswami of Jaffna, also known as Jnanaguru Yoganathan. Under Yogaswami’s guidance he underwent intense sadhana, including prolonged meditation and strict austerities, and received formal initiation into Saivism. Yogaswami brought him into the Nandinatha Sampradaya, an ancient Saiva Siddhanta lineage, recognizing in him a disciple destined to teach. He was given the monastic name Sivaya Subramuniya (later widely known as Sivaya Subramuniyaswami) and was eventually acknowledged as a sannyasin, a renunciate monk, within this lineage.

This background, beginning in a Western, Christian milieu and culminating in full adoption into a traditional Tamil Saivite monastic order, shaped him into a distinctive figure: a Western-born Hindu monk who became an authentic guru in the Saiva Siddhanta tradition. His early discipline in the arts, his wide-ranging spiritual search, and his rigorous training under Yogaswami combined to form a life that bridged cultures while remaining firmly rooted in a classical Hindu lineage.