“Whatever work great or small if done by way of service to God is the real service to God. In this field no service to God is too small nor too great.” said Sadguru Gunatitanand Swami while cleaning his sodden hands and wiping them dry. The visitor was surprised at the modesty of the Mahant (religious manager) Sadguru Gunatitanand Swami who had just returned after manually preparing a mortar mixture for laying bricks at Junagadh temple. The modesty of this great saint was exemplified when the visitor saw him sweeping his own room.
Such was Gunatitanand Swami who lived for more than forty years only on dry bajra (millet) bread and butter milk.
Crippled health was a problem particularly with senior saints, some of whom were old. When sick they soiled their beds and clothes with urine and excreta. Gunatitanand Swami would collect their clothing, wash it and dry it and while he carried it back he perspired profusely. So deep was his identification with Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan that Shree Hari also felt the strain and perspired.
Though he was appointed as Mahant at Junagadh temple of Swaminarayan he kept on moving from one place to another to spread the religious teachings of Shree Hari for more than forty years over vast regions around Junagadh without any pomp or show.
Gunatitanand Swami didn’t get much time to spend with Shree Hari once he was appointed to be the religious manager (Mahant) of Swaminarayan temple at Junagadh. But by an arrangement, Gopalanand Swami a great scholarly saint of Shree Hari used to stay with him for one month every year to narrate to him whatever Shree Hari spoke and did during the year. This in turn he used in his sermons during his tours to towns, villages and cities. His sermons were heard by the royals, peasants, old men, children, women and everybody else from all castes and communities. He had compassion for all and could not bear the suffering of any being.
In the village of Thana-galol he met a poor priest, Jasa Rajgor. When asked by the Swami about his financial condition, he said: “I don’t feel sorry for my poverty but I do feel sorry as I am not able to feed saints.”Swami asked him to give him whatever food grains and cottonwear he had. The priest gave whatever he had. Impressed by this, Swami said: “Henceforth grow cotton instead of Bajra in your field.”
Obeying the words of the Swami he grew cotton in his field. The cotton-crop wiped out all his debts and he still had surplus money for comfortable domestic management and to feed the saints. From then he prospered and continued his charity.
Uga Khuman, the ruler of Savargam showed great aversion towards Swaminarayan way of life. He was lead into this by some evil-minded people around him. So when Swaminarayan saints visited his village they were attacked with brickbats by them. The saints had to leave the village and took rest outside under a tree. On learning that Uga Khuman was childless, all saints along with Swami prayed to Shree Hari so that Uga Khuman may beget a son. This news reached Uga Khuman and he had a change of heart. Later he became a father to a healthy child. It was under similar conditions that the ruler of Gondal, Bhagwatsinmhiji was blesses with a son.
While presenting a Champa flower to Swami Achintyananadji he gave him his blessings and being inspired by this Achintyanand Swami compiled the biography of Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan in 33000 Sanskrit verses. This immortal composition is known as Shree Hari-Lila Kalpataru (published also in Gujarati by the Swaminarayan Temple at Vadtal)
Swami ji had great sympathy for poor and the weak. He allowed a cobbler to open his shop at the gates of the Junagadh temple and a tailor to run his shop nearby.
On a cold winter morning when Gunatitanand Swami and other saints were shivering after bathing in a river near Junagadh, an old Muslim woman and her son lighted a fire of wood to warm them. The blessings of Swami made the woman’s daughter a queen of the Nawab of Junagadh and that boy rose to be the minister of the Nawab. He was the famous minister of Junagadh after whom the college Bahauddin College at Junagadh was named.
Swami Gunatitanand was born on the full-moon day of the month of Ashvin in Samvat 1841 in the poor Brahmin family of Bholanath and his wife Sakarba in the village of Bhadra. His education hardly went beyond reading and writing. He at first learnt the Shuddhadvaita philosophy from Narsimha Gosain and Pranami philosophy from some saint but followed the philosophy of Vishishtadvaita as spread by Shree Hari. He remained the most devoted saint of Shree Hari. As greatness was thrust upon him by his overzealous followers he became a sore among some saints. He was euphemistically called the Residence of God, Akshardham, by Shree Hari and this was taken literally by the followers. His sermons were taken down and published by some ignorant followers who exaggerated his work and wrote the first edition in such rude and crude language, defaming other gods that it had soon to be revised multiple times till it became acceptable to intelligent readers.
Thirty-seven years later Godhead was imposed upon him by a clever sadhu who created a new sub-sect claiming him to be a superior God. This was an unfortunate act.