He gave to society an asset that will be cherished for all times to come

by Krishna Vattam, Senior Journalist

Dr. Raja Martanda Varma, Founder-Director of NIMHANS (the Bangalore-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences), who passed away on March 10 at the age of 94, was a Karma Yogi and truly symbolised the noble concept of ‘Vaidyo Narayana,’ a patient who sees Narayana, God, in a doctor, the reliever of pain and suffering.

He lived upto the Hippocratic oath he had taken at the time of his graduation that requires a new Physician to swear upon a number of healing Gods, to uphold specific ethical standards. “If I faithfully observe this oath (so goes the other important aspect of the Oath), may I thrive and prosper in my fortune and profession in the estimation of posterity, or on breach thereof, may the reverse be of my fate.”

In his long life and profession, it was the first aspect of the oath, faith, that governed his conduct, and fortune, here in Dr. Varma’s view had been ‘fortune’ to have been blessed not with materialistic wealth, ‘fortune’ to have been blessed with an opportunity to serve the society.

Dr. Varma did not visualise science and spirituality as different streams in the approach to life but he saw the convergence of these two streams and as the Founder-Director of NIMHANS, he pioneered the now globally accepted holistic approach for mental and neurological disorders. It is no exaggeration to say, and it is true, that if NIMHANS enjoys as a pre-eminent position as Asia’s best and one among the leading mental health and neurological sciences teaching hospitals in the world over, it was because of the total dedication of Dr. Varma in the functioning of the Institute.

How conscientious and devoted to his duties Dr. Varma had been can be appreciated from an incident as narrated to me by a close friend of Dr. Varma. It appears that after a long time Dr. Varma wanted to take his wife Dr. Malathi Varma for an outing and was driving in Bengaluru. On the way, he noticed a pedestrian being knocked down by a vehicle and the injured was rushed to NIMHANS. Dr. Varma drove back to the Institute telling his wife he will just find out the condition of the patient and asked her to stay in the car itself. Once he was there, he found that the patient needed immediate surgery. After operation, it appears, he came out and asked one of his assistants to find out who was in the car, unaware of the fact for a moment that he had brought his wife in the car.

In the early years of the Institute, which was known as ‘Hucchara Aspatre’ during those days, when the facilities available there were meagre, a patient urgently needed blood transfusion. The doctors went in a car to Avenue Road, brought the donors and saved the patient’s life. The market economy driving the forces and corporate sectors ruling the roost, with greed being the sole aim and deep erosion of values, how many such persons with such concerns can one find in the society at large.

Dr. Varma, hailing from Travancore Royal Family, was a prolific speaker and while I was the President of the Mysore District Journalists’ Association in 1970s, an independent entity and was not affiliated to Karnataka Union of Working Journalists’ Association then, I wrote to him to deliver the Venkatakrishnaiah Memorial Lecture that was instituted by another great freedom fighter and Editor of Sadhvi with an endowment. (I do not know why our Journalists’ Association has lost sight of the endowment and not continued the lecture).

It was a memorable evening and it was here on the occasion the philosopher in him found an expression to expatiate on the limitation of science to perceive certain aspects beyond our comprehension and dwelt on meta-physics and forged a grand convergence of science and spirituality.

Journalist K. Balakrishnan, who profiled Dr. Varma for The Hindu in 2003, summed up the persona of this legendary doctor thus: “Multi-faceted would prove to be an inadequate definition to describe Dr. Varma. A gifted surgeon, relentless researcher, teacher par excellence, exceptional organiser, able and proven administrator, a practical visionary, adventurer, courageous, willing to venture into hitherto untrodden realms, philosopher, artist, a giant among men and above all, self-effacing genuinely caring human being. Dr. Varma is all this and more. He best symbolises the concept of the ideal man who always aspires to better the lot of others without consideration to self.”

I wonder ‘kahan gaye vo log’ (where they have all gone).

[email: krishnavattam@gmail.com]

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / March 22nd, 2015