Saiva Siddhanta Church

Saiva Siddhanta Church is a spiritual institution and identifies itself with the Śaivite Hindu religion. It is based on the precepts of the Nandinatha Sampradaya, and traces its origins to a two thousand year-old lineage of the Kailāsa Paramparā Gurus.

The Church was founded in 1949 by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, a Saiva Hindu guru from the United States.[1] The name of the Church is from the Sanskrit language and could be roughly rendered in English as "The Church of God Śiva's Revealed Truth."

Kauai Aadheenam, also known as Kauai's Hindu Monastery, located on the Garden Island of Kauai in Hawaii, is the headquarters of Śaiva Siddhanta Church. The Church is currently constructing the Iraivan Temple on Kauai.

The current head of the Church is Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami.

Criticism

Referring to the Iraivan Temple, New York Times reporter Michelle Kayal wrote:[2]

Some critics question the temple's religious significance, saying Hinduism is a matter of birth and inheritance, not of spirituality. Saiva Siddhanta's founding guru and most of the monastery's monks are Westerners who adopted Hinduism. "It's sort of white people's Hinduism," said Lee Siegel, a professor of Indian religions at the University of Hawaii. "It doesn't say much about India or India and the Diaspora. It says something about people of my generation, George Harrison Hindus. Most Indians that I ask about the Hindu temple on Kauai say it's very nice. But in a real Brahminical sense, I don't think it can be taken seriously."

Contrary to the perception that it is a western movement emulating Hinduism, however, the Saiva Siddhanta Church is also active in India and the Indian diaspora in countries such as Mauritius where Hindus form a majority of the population. In that country a temple and spiritual center has been established known as the Panchamukha Ganapati Shrine, and the vast majority of attendees are of Indian Hindu background, expressing no qualms that the Guru is non-Indian in origin. [3]

It should be noted that there is no evidence that Lee Seigel has ever visited the temple and monastery on Hawaii (the headquarters of Saiva Siddhanta Church) and may not realize that 80% of the pilgrims coming to the center are Indian Hindus. Furthermore, Hindus themselves do not believe that Hinduism is only a matter of birth and inheritance. Kayal offers no citation from any Hindu authority to support this view. One cannot take seriously the criticism of a western, non-Hindu, reporter making statements and quoting a western non-Hindu professor. A good reporter would get quotes from Hindus themselves. Anyone who accepts the Vedas as their scripture is a Hindu.

Notes

  1. ↑ Don Baker (31 May 2010). Asian religions in British Columbia. UBC Press. pp. 26–. ISBN 978-0-7748-1662-5. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
  2. ↑ Kayal, Michele (7 February 2004). "Religion Journal; For Temple, 1,600 Tons, 8,000 Miles and 1,000 Years". The New York Times. p. 5.
  3. ↑ http://www.hheonline.org/funds/fund_31.html

External links

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