When the 13th Congress took place in 1898 in the nearby town of Amrawati one of his Professors, Bhageerath Prasad, decided to attend it and took along with him his student Ravishankar Shukla to the Congress. This was the first contact between Pt. Shukla and the Congress. Later the authorities removed Prof. Bhageerath Prasad from the college for attending the Congress and for his anti British views. Pandit Shukla graduated in 1899, aged 22 years. Among his friends in the college were Bhagwati Charan Dubey, Moolchandra Tiwari, Pyarelal Mishra and Madhav Rao Sapre. The same year he joined Hislop College as a Fellow for six months to study Law. During this period the British Government charged Bal Gangadhar Tilak for treason and the case went into the court of British Judge Mr. Strachi. Pandit Shukla and his colleagues in the law college would often delve deep into the proceedings of the case. This, combined with the articles published in 'Kesari', tremendously inspired young Pandit Shukla. He read the translation of "Geeta-Rahasya by Tilak", compiled by his colleague Madhav Rao Sapre.