Rhythm Divine

“My father was a passionate, helpful and pious man. His last wish was that his bhajans should not be kept in closed diaries but must be made public so that people can pray and seeks god’s blessings through them,” says Nagesh Sharma, the lyricist’s son. He adds that Murli wrote everyday, starting from August 3, 1983. Nagesh has painstakingly made an archive of the physical, original copies of these writings.

Murli belonged to a religious family and, since childhood, displayed a passion for music. Apart from singing and composing, he also played the harmonium. His family were strong devotees of Durga, especially his father, who introduced him to bhajans and kirtans. After completing his education in Rajasthan, Murli moved to Bengal to take care of his father’s tea garden business. The absence of a temple in the vicinity lead him to take up the initiative to construct the first temple in the area where he often organised pujas and sang bhajans.

Murli belonged to a religious family and, since childhood, displayed a passion for music.

Observing his devotion, the priest of this temple inspired him to compose his own bhajans. He looked upon this as a divine sign and devoted his life to writing a bhajan to Durga every day till his death. “Irrespective of changing circumstances, tough situations and other responsibilities, he made it a point to write. It is astonishing to see that the last lines of the last bhajan written by him emote his desire for Durga to take him away to his final destination, towards mukti, thus establishing his connection with the divine,” says Nagesh. It was composed on the evening on August 5, 2010. Murli passed away the next morning in Pune, from a heart attack.

Nagesh aims to launch a book of 100 bhajans and create a YouTube channel as a platform to upload videos of the same. He intends to publicly introduce these creations in Pune during Navratri this year. Nagesh has also shared the 10,000 compositions with the Guinness Book and Limca book of records.

“Despite the difficult phases of my father’s life, he continued to write a bhajan daily with sheer devotion and determination and would offer it in prayer to God the next day. He also presented his compositions in temple functions. These rare creations deserve to be recognised and I devote my life towards making more albums and videos available to the public,” says Nagesh.