Atmananda Krishna Menon
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Biography
Source materials
Nitya Tripta (S. Balakrishna Pillai), one of Menon’s disciples, included a detailed life sketch toward the end of a collection of Menon’s teachings. M.P.B. Nair, whose family became disciples when he was a child, included biographical material in his Rays of the Ultimate. Philip Renard included a biography in his “I” is a Door, a summary of the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj and Menon. N. Narayana Pilliai, Ph.D., included a biographical chapter in a book on Menon’s teachings concerning the direct path and “I”-principle.
Early life
He was born as P. Krishna Menon in 1883 at Cherukulathu House, in Peringara, near Tiruvalla, in the state of Travancore, now a part of Kerala.
After studying law, he became a Government Advocate and Inspector and District Superintendent of Police and remained in service until 1939.
Sadhana and realization
Meanwhile, his search for a guru led to his day-long meeting with Swami Yogananda (not to be confused with Paramahansa Yogananda) in 1919. In 1923, he assumed the name Sri Atmananda and started teaching Jnana Yoga. After retirement from government service, he resided in his family home, Anandavadi on the river Pampa in Malakara.
He died at Trivandrum (now known as Thiruvananthapuram) in 1959.
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Legacy
Menon's teachings have become a foundation for a spiritual method called the Direct Path. His disciple, Nitya Tripta (S. Balakrishna Pillai), compiled his teachings from 1950 to 1959 into a large volume titled Notes on the Spiritual Discourses of Sree Atmananda (of Trivandrum), which appeared in 1963.
Menon’s eldest son K. Padmanadbha Menon (Sri Adwayananda) continued his teachings from his home in Anandawadi, Malakkara, near Chengannur, until his own death in 2001. He authored several books himself, including Atmaswarupam.
Jean Klein, Francis Lucille, Rupert Spira and Stephan Bodian are prominent members of Menon’s spiritual lineage.
Recollections by Others
American mythologist Joseph Campbell sought out Menon during one of his trips to India in the 1950s. Campbell later recounted, "I wanted to meet a real, first-class master, and I didn’t want to hear any more slop about māyā and how you’ve got to give up the world and all that kind of thing. I’d had enough of that for about fifteen or twenty years." When Campbell eventually found Menon, he engaged him in a discussion about brahman. "Then [Menon] gave me a little meditation: 'Where are you between two thoughts?' That is to say, you are thinking all the time, and you have an image of your-self. Well, where are you between two thoughts? Do you ever have a glimpse beyond your thinking of that which transcends anything you can think about your-self? That’s the source field out of which all of your energies are coming."