While doing his post-graduation in Sanskrit and then graduation in Law at Madras, Krishna Menon came in touch with Swami Ramakrishnanandaji at the Madras Math. In 1917 he received mantra diksha from Swami Brahmanandaji. After a brief Law practice, he did another degree in Education and worked as the Headmaster of Vivekodayam School in Thrissur. One of the first in India to serve the Harijans, in 1927 he started two schools for Harijan boys and girls. He had a warm friendship with Mahatma Gandhi.
He joined the Order in 1924, and received his sannyasa-diksha from Swami Shivanandaji. In 1938 he became the Head of the Bangalore Ashrama, where in 1943 he started Vidyarthi Mandiram, home for college boys, where many poor boys were accommodated. His extraordinary scholarship is revealed in his commentaries on some Upanishads, Narada Bhakti Sutras, and writing on Vedanta. He entered into mahasamadhi on 6 August 1951.
Swami Tyagishananda’s favourite verses:
There are good souls, calm and magnanimous, who do good to others as does the spring, and who, having themselves crossed this dreadful ocean of birth and death, help others also to cross the same, without any motive whatsoever.
— Vivekachudamani, Verse 37
An intelligent man should seek the essential teachings of all scriptural texts of varying importance, just as a honey-bee sucks the essence of all flowers.
— Srimad Bhagavatam 11.8.10
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