Tiwari spent three years at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Saylorsburg, PA before relocating to Dayananda Ashram in her motherland of Rishikesh, India where she received her diksha as a sannyasin from her guru.
Sivananda gave him the name Satyananda Saraswati and initiated him as a Paramahamsa sannyasin of the Dashnama sannyasa order, on the banks of the river Ganges on 12 September 1947.