Gunatitanand Swami - Early Life

Early Life

Gunatitanand Swami was born on 17 October 1785 (Aso Sud Punam, Vikram Samvat 1841) to Bholanath and Sakarba Jani in the village of Bhadra, situated near the river Und in what is now Gujarat, India. His father’s guru, Ramanand Swami, named him Mulji. Even from a young age, it was evident that Mulji had a “disinclination towards material objects” and would exhibit a perspicacity that was rare for a child of his age, often claiming while playing with his younger brother Sundarji that he would become a sadhu and inspire Sundarji to become one. Various accounts indicate a close association between Mulji and Swaminarayan, who was born four years before Mulji. One such incident details how a thin line of milk appeared on the lips of a murti of “Thakorji” while Mulji was himself drinking a glass of milk. In response to his mother’s surprise at this, Mulji had explained, ““Mother! Thakorji is always present in my heart. When I eat, Thakorji eats with me”.

As Mulji approached adolescence, his sacred thread ceremony was performed on 13 June 1793 in anticipation of his pursuit of a religious education. After this event, Mulji immersed himself in learning about the various religious beliefs that were prevalent in Gujarat at the time. He openly told others that Narayan (God) would eventually visit his village and hence he had no reason to travel to Kashi, as was traditionally done for one who wished to pursue a serious religious education. Mulji began visiting prominent religious personalities and learnt from them the various religious and social nuances associated with each sect. By the time he was in his early teens, he had grasped the principles of Shuddhadvait from Acharya Gosai Narsinhlalji of the Vaishnav Sampraday and learnt about the Pranami sect. Ramanand Swami’s Bhagvat Dharma appealed to him the most due to its teachings and practices and he accepted him as his first guru.

Mulji would often travel to the village of Shekhpat to visit Ramanand Swami and listen to his religious discourses. He formed a lasting friendship with Lalji Suthar, a native of Shekhpat who shared Mulji’s zeal for Ramanand Swami’s philosophies and who would later become Nishkulanand Swami, one of Bhagwan Swaminarayan’s prominent sadhu disciples. For a period, they would meet every evening at a small shrine to Shiva on a stepwell in the village of Kiri between their respective villages and discuss various religious matters.