Prem Saran, a senior member of the Indian Administrative Service, is currently on study leave, working on "Gender, Personhood and Hedonism as Core Themes in Nepalese Tantrism" for his Ph.D in Anthropology at the University of California, USA. A versatile scholar, holding an M.A. (Anthropology) from the University of California, an M.A. (South Asia Regional Studies) from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, and a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, he carries on "the intellectual tradition" of the Indian civil services.

Now in his early forties, Saran was born in Kerala, is married to an Assamese, and is himself an initiated follower of the Tantric cult.