Sri U.Ve.Karapangadu Swamy

[Guest guest]

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

One of the glowing stars in our sampradayam, is the great stalwart Sri

karapangadu venkatacharyar swamy, who by his upanyasams lighted the

lives of many. Periazhvar says, “oru magal thannai udaiyEn

thirumagal pOla valarthEn thirumAl thAn kondu pOnAn”. Similarly one

sun-rise occured after many many years in our sampradayam, in the

southern direction in a small village called “karapangadu” in tanjore

district in the year 1906 as the son of one Sri thiruvenkata ayyangar

and was later adopted by his own grandfather Sri singaperumal, who

was a great vidwan, in the same star as rAma bhaskaran, punarvasu.

This sun with his brightness enlightened the hearts of many jeevatmas

through both his upanyasams and his own

actions (“jnana anushtAnamivai nandrAgavE udaiyanAna guru”). But then

the sad time came on this very day August 7th 1971 when the sun had to

set due to the thiruvullam of emperuman. Swamy left this world,

“nannAdhAr muruvalippa nalludhalAr karaindhEnga ennArAththuyar

vilaikkum” for the nithya kainkaryam of emperuman in his divine

abode. Still the light of the sun is spread to this world removing

the ignorance of people through the stars (his shisyas and their

shisyas) glowing even today and spreading the message of swamy

throughout the world.

 

Many of us like adiyen (wasn’t even born when swamy left this world)

would have missed the great bhakyam of listening to the sweet and

enlightening upanyasams of karpangadu swamy. To add more sorrow

adiyen has missed listening to even his prime shisyas, like Sri U.Ve

Velukkudi Varadachariyar swamy, Sri U.Ve.pillailokam bhashyakarar

swamy, Sri U.Ve. sadhAbhishekam govinda narasimhachAryar swamy, Sri

U.Ve. karapangadu rangaramanujAcharyar swamy who have all attained

their acharyan thiruvadi now. Still emperuman hasn’t left us in the

dark. We have some of swamy’s shisyas like Sri pillai lokam

stalasayanathuraivAr, melkote lakshmi tatachar, araiyar Sri rAma

ayyangar, Sri vangipuram pattangi kumAravadi

rAmAnujAcharyar still glowing and spreading our sampradayam and

enlightening the lives of even the lowest of the lowest like adiyen.

Other shisyas of swamy were brindavanam govardhanam Sri rangAcharya

swamy, the three sons of thirumani swamy (who has done kalashepam

along with swamy under Sri Singaperumal swamy) Sri ko.ka.vA.appan

srinivAsAcharyar, kumara venkatacharyar, appan ramanujacharyar and

some more like srivilliputtur vidwan vi.kE.srinivasacharyar.

Following the footsteps of the acharyan his shisyas have also left

great scholars to the world like Sri Velukkudi Krishnan swamy (shisya

of his father Sri varadacharyar swamy), Dr. M.A.Venkatakrishnan swamy

(shisya of both Sri varadacharyar and Sri sadhAbhishekam swamy) and

many more.

 

Swamy was famous not only for his wonderful upanyasams (stuff and

style) but also was one of the few real vaishnavites who practiced in

his life the great vaishnava principles. Sri kumaravadi

ramanujAcharyar swamy, the editor of Thirumal magazine has written a

small book wonderfully on the life history of Sri U.Ve. karapangadu

swamy. The book has been written in a very simple way but flooded

with acharya bhakthi. Just scanning through the qualities of swamy

brings tears to our eyes. Just thinking about the great mahan will

remove all our sins and bad qualities and make us all good

srivaishnavas. It is very essential for

all of us to possess such books so as to make our minds clear with

good thoughts. Bhagavata prasadam has the capacity to change even

the worst of the worst person to a sAthvikan just in a second. On

this day adiyen will just write a few points about swamy taken from

Sri kumaravadi swamy’s book.

 

Some qualities of karpangadu swamy:

 

Swamy had all the qualities of a good acharya. Born in a good clan,

swamy was filled with grace, had deep bhagavat vishaya jnanam and

clarity in his words and speaking talent. Swamy was highly tolerant

and hard working. He was like a mountain in appearance and strength.

He was like a balance in clearing the doubts that aroused with a

samadrishti (justice without partiality). While doing upanyasams

swamy was highly punctual and never deviated from the topic of the

day. Swamy maintained his pace while speaking without hurrying or

dragging and clearly established his points in

the minds of the listeners without any difficulty. Swamy had the

peculiar character of wetting his lips with his tongue inbetween

sentences during upanyasams which made his shisyas wonder if he was

none other than the divine serpant, adisesha who took avathara as

EmperumAnAr to give the great Sribhasyam to this world or later as

vishadavAk sigamani (one whose words are crystal clear leaving no

room for any doubt) Sri azhagiya Manavala mAmunigal, ettuperukkar,

who spread the divine arthas of the thamizh vedam, thiruvaimozhi to

the world. Not stopping with that swamy’s qualities of establishing

ideas without hurting anyone, Falling to the feet of even a small

Srivaishnava boy, his simplicity and naichyam (considering oneself

lower than the other bhagavatas), always with a pleasant face filled

with a blossoming smile brings to our memory the great acharya,

Yatheendra pravanar Sri mAmunigal.

 

Swamy’s pravachanams:

 

Swamy concentrated on doing more of grantha kalashepams following the

footsteps of our poorvacharyas. While talking about a grantha

(book), swamy totally became the writer himself and deeply immersed

himself and the listeners into the subject. Though born in

karapangadu, swamy due to the bhakyam of people of chennai spent most

of his lifetime only under the divine feet of Sri Parthasarathi

emperuman in “madamAmayilai thiruvallikeni”.

 

Swamy did upanyasams on Srimath bhagavat geetha (10-11 times fully),

bhagavat vishayam (Edu vurai-3 times), Sribhashyam (fully along with

sruthaprakasikai once and 2 or 3 times as upanyasams), Sri ramayanam

(2 times not even one sloka and more upanyasams), Sri bhagavatham (2

times not even leaving one sloka later on various occasions on

selective topics like dasamaskandham, ekadasam and so on), Sri Vishnu

puranam (2 times fully with engalAzhvan’s explanations), Sri Vishnu

sahasranamam (2 times along with bhattar’s bhasyam), Mahabharatham

(once in thiruvallikeni Vanamamalai mutt without leaving even a sloka

and on April 18th 1966 geetha sattrumurai was done followed by

dharmaraja pattabhishekam).

 

Among the rahasya granthas, Swamy did Srivachanabhooshana kalashepam

(5 times), mumukshupadi (nearly 10 times), Acharya hrudhayam (3

times), tattvatrayam (once fully).

 

Prabhandha kalashepam: Swamy has done kalashepams on nachiyar

thirumozhi, thiruviruththam, thirunedundhandagam. Apart from this

every year during the marghazhi month thiruppavai kalashepams was

swamy’s speciality. Swamy has done more the 50-thiruppavai

upanyasams.

 

Swamy has done kalashepams on ashtasloki and chatussloki in the

stotra’s side. Not stopping with in and around chennai swamy had

done upanyasams in coimbatore, tanjore, mannarkudi, madurai,

thentiruperai,azhvar thirunagari, srivilliputtur, vudumalaipettai,

chittoor, salem, mumbai, Delhi and many other places. Other than the

upanyasams and kalashepams swamy has taken part in many thiruppavai

sadhas and vidvath sabhas and has got the appreciation of many for

impartially establishing our sampradayam.

 

This is just the jist of some of swamy’s greatness. Adiyen has least

capacity to even talk about swamy. Still out of interest to purify

my heart and soul adiyen has tried to write a few words. All errors

are due to adiyen’s ignorance. Adiyen requests all the bhagavatas to

please go through the life history of swamy atleast once to learn a

lot from his life. There is one saying; one person asked, “WhatA did

rama give to this world?” The answer is his life (a lesson to all).

Sri Karapangadu swamy took birth in the same star punarvasu has

chakravarthi thirumagan and has now

given his life as a lesson to all of us. Let us learn and enlighten

our lives. Let us all think about the great mahan today and enjoy

the grace of emperuman who time and again keeps blessing us with such

great stalwarts.

 

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

 

Adiyen rAmAnuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan