/* START Google Analytics Code*/ /* END of Google Analytics Code */ A home called "Parvathi": In Memorium: Shri B.M.N. Murthy

Sunday, March 23, 2014

In Memorium: Shri B.M.N. Murthy



The Hindu: The man who knows everything
[ http://www.hindu.com/lf/2004/03/15/stories/2004031508690200.htm ]


We live in a world today where it is not uncommon for a person in the media to likely interrogate you (when you discuss someone not given to essential mainstream) in a capsuled fashion such as “Can you describe this person in two sentences or less?”

In remembering Shi B.M. Narayana Murthy we would say “Yes” with an aplomb, though rather with a certain sadness today. He passed away last week.

“Yes, we can and we are honored that we knew him. He was a man who lived his whole life in dignity and treated all those whom he came across with that same said dignity”.

He was of course many, many things more, as we have leaned on him a few times ourselves in this blog to borrow some of his articles from that vast fund of his resourcefulness.

He had retired professionally as Chief Engineer, Life Insurance Corporation of India. But after his retirement he dedicated his entire time to guiding and informing "the younger generation" in India of the spiritual wisdom of their country, reminding them to know something of the great traditional lineage to which they belonged. Many of them did listen to their "Nani Uncle" and endeared themselves to him.


BMN Murthy - Chennai Industrialist A.N. Srinivasa Rao


He was a voracious collector from his youngest days of books and periodicals and a very well read person on “any subject under the sun” which could project a value. He applied himself by sharing his fund of knowledge in penning beautiful articles in not only jogging our memories but in introducing us to names and events about which we may have hardly known anything.

His house was a veritable library and we came to know of his prodigious writing when we realized that by July 2013, he had completed the penning of a staggering 700 weekly articles spread over a period of twelve and half years.

No subject would escape his serene mind . On music you could find him waxing on the mastery of a Veena Seshanna or a Madurai Mani Iyer; on religion it could be the exemplary teachings of a Chandrasekhar Bharathi or the MahaPeriyava of Kanchi; in poetry he would be at home equally to a Kalidasa or a Keats; or in a cheerful bid towards inculcating positive thoughts he would bring to our attention that "Poverty and Humble Beginnings Are No Impediments to a Success in Life". He would bring any number of examples to bear testimony to that in a Rt. Hon. V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, a Michael Faraday, a Charlie Chaplin or a Justice Kapadia.

We close with our prayers to the essential memory of a very decent and good man.