at age eighteen, he left his home to seek a spiritual master. in 1943 at the age of twenty, he met his guru sivananda saraswati and went to live at sivananda's ashram in rishikesh. sivananda initiated him into the dashnam order of sannyasa on 12 september 1947 on the banks of the ganges and gave him the name of swami satyananda saraswati. he stayed with sivananda for a further nine years but received little formal instruction from him.