  We show how gauge coupling unification near the Planck scale $M_P\sim
10^{19}$ GeV can be achieved in the framework of supersymmetry, facilitating a
full unification of all forces with gravity. Below the conventional GUT scale
$M_{GUT}\sim 10^{16}$ GeV physics is described by a Supersymmetric Standard
Model whose particle content is that of three complete $\mathbf{27}$
representations of the gauge group $E_6$. Above the conventional GUT scale the
gauge group corresponds to a left-right symmetric Supersymmetric Pati-Salam
model, which may be regarded as a ``surrogate SUSY GUT'' with all the nice
features of SO(10) but without proton decay or doublet-triplet splitting
problems. At the TeV scale the extra exotic states may be discovered at the
LHC, providing an observable footprint of an underlying $E_6$ gauge group
broken at the Planck scale. Assuming an additional low energy $U(1)_X$ gauge
group, identified as a non-trivial combination of diagonal $E_6$ generators,
the $\mu$ problem of the MSSM can be resolved.
