Sri U.Ve.Karapangadu Swamy

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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