During his school days, Ramakrishnan was heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, the then Paramacharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham after they visited Malabar district during the Vaikom and Guruvayur Satyagraha to eradicate untouchability at Hindu temples.
In 1939, he came to Bombay in search of employment and joined the individual Satyagraha movement a year later that was launched by Gandhiji and took an active part in the Constructive Program.
[3] Closely associated with leaders of the Indian independence movement,[4] he later went on to serve as the personal secretary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel after Patel's release from Ahmednagar Fort Jail on 15 June 1945 and during the 1946 Cabinet Mission to India up to a few months after he assumed the office of Deputy Prime Minister and settled down in Delhi.
[5] Not wanting to continue Government service after Indian Independence, Sardar Patel introduced Ramakrishnan to K. M. Munshi who founded Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan which he later decided to join as the secretary in 1947.
Ramakrishnan devoted a large part of his life to spread Gandhian ideas and Indian culture through Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.