Shri Balmukund Lohia

Shri Balmukund Lohia was born on January 6, 1940, into the Garga gotra Marwari lineage, son of Shri Hanumanprasad Lohia.

At the age of six, he moved from Kolkata to Varanasi to be with his beloved grandmother, Smt. Saraswati Devi, who wished to spend her final years in the holy city. The family home, Ram Bhavan on Munshi Ghat, was chosen for one reason: from its third floor, one could see Mother Ganga.

In the early 1980s, he began the formal study of Sanskrit under Padma Shri Prof. Bhagirath Prasad Tripathi, popularly known as Vagish Shastri ji.

What began at an institution soon became private tutelage at home, and a friendship that would last the rest of his life. The Bhagavad Gita, the Srimad Bhagavata, and the Ramayana were his lifelong companions.

He inherited his father's foundation in agriculture and made it his own at an early age. From his fields in Magardaha, Uttar Pradesh, he grew wheat and grains, then moved into modern hybrid certified seed production, working with government programs to bring better wheat, rice, chickpea, and green pea to farmers across India.

He gave land to small farmers so they could begin their own livelihoods. He funded scholarships personally for girls in rural India. He supported water projects, schools, and agricultural training.

He adopted a Shiva temple on Ahilyabai Ghat and the Balaram temple puja at Rathyatra. He believed deeply in publishing books that carried Sanatan Dharma forward.

He translated the entire Bhagavad Gita into simple, conversational Hindi so that anyone could read it and feel Krishna speak directly to them.

Published privately in Varanasi, it was his offering to the tradition that had given him everything. Chapters 9 and 12, the chapters of pure devotion, were his own heart.

He spent his last three years in New York, where he had come for medical treatment, surrounded by family. Even in illness, his spirit was undimmed. He absorbed himself for hours in the Gita, the Bhagavata, the Ramayana, and his beloved Sanskrit. He listened to Lata Mangeshkar singing Gita Chapters 9 and 12, M.S. Subbulakshmi, and Morari Bapu's Ramayan.

He was a fighter who smiled through everything and lived every day on his own terms, with grace and gratitude.

On May 3, 2026, in his final hours, he spoke with family in India and friends across the world. To his daughter Aradhana, who was setting out from Mumbai to meet him in New York, he recited a Dohavali verse from Tulsidas as a blessing for her travel:

Three hours later, he began his own onward journey. He chanted the Vishnu Sahasranama and the Sundarkand with his wife Usha. He told his daughter Anannya he loved her. And he left, as he had lived, with Ram Ram on his lips.