Anyone on the spiritual path knows it's rare that the illumined lives of yogis and gurus are laid before us. We have but a handful: Autobiography of a Yogi; Milarepa: Tibet's Great Yogi; Ramakrishna and His Disciples and a few of others. Now comes an amazing book, The Guru Chronicles, filled with the magical and highly mystical stories of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, his Sri Lankan guru Siva Yogaswami and five preceding masters, who all held truth in the palm of their hand and inspired slumbering souls to "Know thy Self." The swamis at Kauai's Hindu Monastery in Hawaii began this masterpiece 39 years ago, so they can't be accused of hurried effort. Yes, this is the same team that produces the sought-after international magazine Hinduism Today and the popular books Loving Ganesha, Dancing with Siva and What Is Hinduism? Their writing and design skills explode in this 832-page ride through 2,200 years of yogic history.The swamis know how to tell a tale, but to their credit they know also when to step aside and let the great sages speak for themselves, quoting directly and often from the seven masters' oral and written legacies. This brings an intimacy and immediacy to the stories. You are hearing about God directly from those who knew God within.The book would be a triumph if that was all there was, but the precious illustrations are wind under the wings of the words. The late S. Rajam sequestered himself for two years in a tiny studio in Chennai, India, crafting hundreds of paintings, all grounded in the ancient South Indian art language, all speaking subtly of the Hindu culture and the mystic's ways. Parents will find this gives a child immediate access to and interest in the stories.As the book begins, a young man, who will one day become Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001) sails for India and Sri Lanka in 1947, aboard the first vessel to leave America after World War II. He is off to find his guru. After years of arduous training, he falls at the feet of the Tamil master, Siva Yogaswami. Following his guru's orders, the enlightened yogi returned to America to teach the path to God Realization. Ultimately, he was recognized and befriended by India's spiritual leaders as the first Hindu guru born in the West. Gurudeva, as he was affectionately known, founded the Saiva Siddhanta Yoga Order and established Kauai's Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. Hinduism's many guru lineages are the spiritual rivers that pass the power on through the ages. The lineage that he joined extends to his guru's guru, an unkempt sage named Chellappaswami, and before him to the magic-making Kadaitswami, then to a nameless rishi and countless others, back to Rishi Tirumular and his guru, Maharishi Nandinatha, some 2,200 years ago in the high Himalayas.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 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 revealed in a collection of stories. 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 in his successor, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami.Those close to Gurudeva 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, created the West's only pan-Hindu endowment to financially support all lineages and traditions, 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. Now, at last, the swamis explain him to us.