The procedure of taking sannyasa (renunciation) in Hinduism is found the upanishads like Katha Rudra and Paramahamsa Parivrajaka. The procedures are:
- Study of Vedas as a celibate student (brahmacharin)
- Performance of duties as per knowledge texts like Vedas
- Marriage, begetting children and providing them with suitable means
- Permission of elders and members of family for taking sannyasa
- Resorting to the forest and performing the Agnihotra Yajna for twelve nights
- Gifts to be offered to a teacher
- Abandonment of all external symbols like tuft, sacred thread etc and receiving Kashaya vastra (ochre clothes) and a staff from teacher.
According to Paramahamsa Parivrajaka Upanishad, these steps are not necessary for a person who is already detached from the worldly life and whose mind is engrossed in Brahman – the supreme truth.
Such a person may become a sannyasin at any stage in life and need not perform any ritual for taking to sannyasa.