Usually, disciples themselves ask a Master for Sanyās – the initiation into asceticism. But in my case, a Sādhu forced Me to take Sanyās. He was 96 years old and lived in Calcutta. I was staying at his place for 6 months. Every morning I used to bathe in the Ganges at 4 am and meditate till 7pm. I never used to move from that place of meditation. When he saw Me doing this day in and day out, he was impressed and said that I must take Sanyās. I told him that I did not want Sanyās and that I only wanted enlightenment. He said that he was going to die soon anyway, and that this would be the last thing that he would want to happily do. I then thought that the divine was arranging something for me and I agreed. He was not enlightened but he was a great tapasvi, someone who had practiced spiritual penance.

Suddenly, He gave me the name ‘Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda’! Usually, according to the Sanyāsi rule, the person initiating a person as a monk, a Sanyāsi, has to go through a few prescribed steps. He would first have to give what is termed the Brahmacarya deeksha, the first step in four evolutionary stages of first as a student, then a householder, after that renunciate and finally an ascetic. Only three days later initiation into being a brahmachari at the very least, Sanyās deeksha is given. Normally it is much longer. Three days after that, the special initiation of Paramahaṃsa lineage would be given. There would have been three stages. So, it should have first been ‘Brahmachari Nithyananda’, then initiated as ‘Swami Nithyananda’ provided with the stick – danda, water pot and such accessories, then finally ‘Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda’ after dropping the danda. He somehow directly gave me the ‘Paramahaṃsa’ title straight away!
When I asked him about it he said that it simply came out of him. Then I realized with shock that he gave Me the very name that Babaji had called Me by. So I feel that Babaji is the one who actually gave Me Sanyās. He is our Guru Parampara. It traces to him in a way!
I used to feel deeply connected to Kedarnath before Sanyās. At that time, I didn’t know which lineage or parampara I would get My initiation, Sanyās, from. I thought I was an attribute from Shiva, or Shiva’s Energy. But later on, I understood when I had Sanyās from the Puri parampara that Kedarnath is the sacred location of my lineage or kshetra, and that Lord Dakshinamurthy is our Guru, Ganga is our river; God Chandramouleeshwara our deity; Goddess Kamakshi at Kanchipuram is our Devi, Tatvamasi (Thou art That) and Aham Brahmasmi (I am divine) our maha vakyas (scriptural principles), Paramahaṃsa is our Upanishad, and Rig Veda is our scripture.
The summary of our lineage is: Dakshinamurthy- Kamakshi- Ganga Nāḍī- Rig Veda- Paramahaṃsa Upanishad-Tat tvam asi-Aham Brahmasmi.