wamiji was born as Natarajan Shri. Gopala Iyer and Smt. Vallambal. He was the eldest of four sons. His early schooling was done in the District Board School at Kodavasal. His father's death when he was eight, meant Natarajan had to shoulder a significant portion of family responsibility along with his education. After the completion of his education, Natarajan came to Chennai (erstwhile Madras) for earning a livelihood. Natarajan worked as a journalist for the weekly magazine Dharmika Hindu and also for erstwhile Volkart Brothers (now Voltas Limited) for sometime. He also decided to be a fighter pilot at one point and joined the Indian Air Force, but left after six months as he felt suffocated by the regimentation there. While in his absence his younger brother MG.Srinivasan took charge of the agricultural fields of the family household and made sure that the family had the income to survive and live peacefully off the income. Natarajan became interested in Vedanta (Vedanta known also as Upanishad, is a positional name for the wisdom contained in the end portion of the Vedas, the most ancient body of scriptural and religious knowledge known to humankind) after listening to the public talks of Swami Chinmayananda in the year 1953. He became actively involved with the then newly formed Chinmaya Mission in various roles and he was made its Secretary within the first year of its inception. He attended the Sanskrit classes of P.S. Subramania Iyer, a retired Professor of English. It was Iyer who introduced the mode of chanting the Gita verses that is still followed by Chinmaya Mission centres, Arsha Vidya centres and others as well. Swami Chinmayananda instructed Natarajan to set up Chinmaya Mission's Madurai branch which Natarajan was able to fulfill. In 1955 Natarajan accompanied Swami Chinmayananda to Uttarakashi and helped him in the preparation of a Gita manuscript for publication. In Uttarakashi, he met Swami Chinmayananda's Guru, Tapovan Maharaj, who advised him, 'You have a duty to yourself which is also important. Stay here. Do japa, meditate and study.' Natarajan could not take up that offer at that point in time. However, he promised Swami Tapovana Maharaj that he would be able to come after one year and he did. Natarajan returned to Madras and took up the editorship of 'Tyagi,' a fortnightly magazine of Chinmaya Mission. Upon the advice of Swami Chinmayananda, Natarajan shifted to Bengaluru (erstwhile Bengaluru) in 1956 and continued to edit Tyagi which was also moved to Bengaluru (erstwhile Bangalore). During his stay there, Natarajan joined the Sanskrit College in Chamrajpet and had the privilege of studying one on one with Prof. Veeraraghavachariar. In 1961, with the permission of Swami Chinmayananda, Natarajan went to study under Swami Pranavananda at Gudivada (near Vijayawada) to clarify many of his doubts on Vedanta and self-enquiry. The stay with Swami Pranavananda helped Natarajan learn one thing clearly – that Vedanta is a pramana (means of knowledge) to know the truth of the Self. This critical shift in his vision about Vedanta impelled Natarajan to once again study the sastra with Sankara's commentaries. In 1962 he was given Sanyasa by Swami Chinmayananda and was given the name Swami Dayananda Saraswati.[5] In 1963 he went to Mumbai, (erstwhile Bombay) to the newly inaugurated Sandeepany Sadhanalaya of Chinmaya Mission, where he undertook the responsibility of editing the magazine of the mission Tapovan Prasad. In addition, Swami Dayananda taught chanting of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads to the students of Sandeepany. In November 1963 Swami Dayananda undertook a study-pilgrimage to Rishikesh and stayed in a grass hut in Purani Jhadi now known as Dayananda Nagar. He spent three years there, studying Brahma Sutras under Swami Tarananda Giri at the Kailash Ashram