Koil Vidwan Sri U. Ve. Narasimhachariar Swamy
The Emperuman of SriVaikuntam, though ever in receipt of the services of Nithysooris and Mukthatmas, had a worry brewing at His Heart. Like the father who ,though anointed with the love and care of the children living with him, places his heart in the son abroad, Emperuman's heart was with us struck in the vicious cycle of samsara. Hence, He sent the Vedas and the sashtras to guide us to His feet. We, with the invincible ability to put even the best of things to the worst of use, either didn't touch these texts which came to bail us out of samsara or used them to achieve ordinary ends.
Hence, He himself came down to us in the garb of various avatharams. But still we failed to give Him recognition as He was not of our ilk (He being paramathma and we jeevathma). All His efforts went in vain as he could not take back enough souls to justify the hardwork He put in His avatharams. This prompted Emperuman to choose amongst mortals, pour His kataksham on them and change the society through them. Is not an elephant trained to catch other wild elephants? This was the tactics Emperuman adopted to rescue us and thus were Born the Azhwars.
But even their works needed elaborate explanation owing to our eroding intelligence and understanding. This paved way for the birth of our Poorvacharyas. But then, we people of the modern era neither understand the outpourings of the Azhwars or that of the Poorvacharyas. We needed someone to spoon feed us everything about Sampradayam, someone to showcase How gnyanam and anushtanam can go hand in hand.
And for this task Emperuman chose Sri U.Ve. Vidwan Narasimhachriar swamy.Swamy was born in the year 1926 in the pristine soil of Srirangam as son of Sri U.Ve. Rangaraja iyengar.
Sri U.Ve. Vidwan Narasimhachariar swamy was born in a family that led a very spiritual life. Swamy's father was Himself a great Vidwan. Swamy has been living all these years by the side of Lord Ranganatha in West Uthra street,Srirangam. He studied Mimamsa in the Sanskrit college at Chennai. He also studied Hindi and was working as a school teacher in Hindi for many years. Swamy also knew Telugu which paved way for his deep understanding of Srivaishnava siddantha since many ancient works were in Telegu script.
Dravida Vedanta and Sanskrit Vedanta are the two eyes of vishishtadvaita philosophy. It is a special honour for srivaishnavas to be addressed with a prefix sri U.Ve. meaning ubhaya vedantacharya. Such of those srivaishnavas who have a profound knowledge of the divine pouring of Alwars (dravida Vedanta) and the great Rishi Vyasa's Bramha sutras and sriBashyam, the commentary thereto of Sri Ramanuja (Sanskrit Vedanta) are the true ubaya vedantacharyas.
At present there are only a few such scholars and it is no exaggeration to say that our Swamy stands foremost amongst them. Be it the tongue twisting and highly logical Sanskrit works or the simple and down to earth Pasurams of Azhwars, swamy had the ability to handle them with equal dexterity. He received his spiritual education under his own father.
Sri swamy has created record by doing Kalakshepam at morning everyday in Udayavar Sannidi (Ramanujacharya sannidhi) at Srirangam for the past more than 40 years. The lectures covered the whole gamut of SriVaishnava Sampradayam including the 4000 divyaprabandams, with their varied commentaries in particular and other Rahasya granthams in general. He took 18 long years to complete lectures on "Edu" an exhaustive and illuminatory commentary on Nammalwar's Tiruvaimozhi.
Should it take 18 years to complete the commentary on one work? Yes, it is because of his sincere and inimitable style in which he delivers the pravachana. He goes even to the extent of using a blackboard to explain certain difficult topics and their esoteric meanings. Yet another reason is that he will be repeating and repeating the subject till everyone of his disciple has a complete grasp of the subject. And just as a tree well watered and cared bears juicy and tasty fruits, many of today's Sampradaya Pracharakas are his disciples. They are the fruits of His labour. Our own Founder Acharya has been a recipient of Swamy's Abhimanam and knowledge.
"Paratve sati sowlabyam" (one's accessability to everybody however great he may be) is one important kalyana gunas of SrimanNarayana. So also our Swamy, inspite of his age, experience and knowledge made himself readily available to each one of his disciple and left no stone unturned to explain and clarify even rudiments. His abhimanam for the family of acharyapurushas was enormous. Just as our Poorvacharyas walked to the houses of others to explain the intricacies of Sampradayam, our swamy would tread to the Thirumaligais of acharyapurushas and enlighten them on the tenets of Sampradayam. Swamy was the epitome of simplicity. Never did he bear the air of a Vidwan. Well, that made him a Vidwan! He was simple and unassuming. An invitation by word was enough to find him at the specified venue well before time. At the age of 75, swamy was doing upanyasams at 4 places a day at Chennai, each place located at corner of the city. His mental stamina was immeasurable. To a mind occupied in Sampradayam, energy seemed to flow from everywhere.
Just as vyakyana chakravarthy sri Periavachanpillai has rendered illustrious commentaries for all the 4000 stanzas of the Divyaprabandam, this Acharya has done kalakshepam for all the great Alwar's srisuktis including Tiruviruttam which is very often sidelined under some misconception. Our Acharyas stress more often than not that the laudable teachings and principles contained in SriRamayana, the ithihasa sreshta and Tiruvaimozhi are mutually supplementary and complimentary to teach other. Our Swamy's correlation of Sri Ramayana to Tiruvaimozhi and vice versa is so exhaustive; one should listen to his discourse to enjoy his erudite scholarship. He was not be just satisfied by quoting examples as cited by poorvacharyas but would strive to point quotations from various other teachings. He will quote Kalidasa, Tulasidas, Kambanaattazhwar and so on. His repertoire of knowledge was way beyond the grasp of others. He would stress very often that he who explains in details the commentaries of poorvacharyas and correlates other teachings concerned with the subject, is a real vidwan. In this regard he excels all others. And yet, there He was, sitting amidst everyone, chatting with them, sharing his views with them and partaking theirs. Do mountains share space with pebbles? Swamy did.
One striking feature of swamy was that at any cost and under any circumstance, swamy would never mince matters. What he told was straight from his heart. There was absolute integrity in what all emanated from his tongue. His commitment to every task was laudable. Age was never a concern for Him. The heart that is entrenched in the thoughts of Nithya Yuva ( SrimanNarayana) would ever remain young. Swamy was a living example of this. Even in his last days in bhoomandalam, swamy was constantly engaged in some or the other kainkaryams. When we at the 20s, 30s and 40s complain of a failing physical and mental health, swamy proved that the mind pre-occupied with the thoughts of the Supreme could defeat such failures and rise above them.
Swamy has been showered with many awards. These awards gained stature by associating their names with Swamy. This doyen amongst vidwans did selfless service to propagate spiritual knowledge among men and women in this kali-ridden society. His exit from this world has plunged the Srivaishnavas into great joy and sorrow, the Joy Being His attainment of Emperumaan's abode and performance of Nithyakainkaryam at His thiruvadi and the sorrow being His departure from us. Where again can we find another Narasimhachariar swamy? It is for Emperumaan only to think.... It is for Him to send us another tributary of His to quench our Sampradaya thirst and guide us in our endeavours.
We have selected a few photos of swamy. The link is here. Please go through them and seek His grace :
https://picasaweb.google.com/117130310845842769959/KoilVidwanNarasimhachariarSwamy?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCN6009Hd-ryZywE&feat=directlink