Nishkulanand Swami says that “We should have an intense desire to absorb the saintly qualities of Shukji, Naradji, Jada Bharat, Sanakadika rushis, Kadraj, etc.,”
Such an intense desire to imbibe saintly qualities of other great saints is the quality of a true saint.
If we absorb the virtues of everyone around us, then how virtuous would we be? The virtues in us would in fact overflow.
In Vachanamrut-27 of Gadhada Madhya chapter, Shreeji Maharaj asked Muktanand Swami, “Swami, what makes you angry? And how does your anger subside?”
Muktanand Swami replied, “I become angry when someone behaves very inappropriately. However, my anger always subsides immediately. By observing the path of Shukdevji, Jad Bharat, and such saints, I learned that a true saint should never have a bad quality like anger.”
Shreeji Maharaj replied, “Your thought-process of absorbing saintliness from other great saints is beyond three attributes of nature. It is beyond destiny, beyond your good nature obtained from previous births. With the power of such a thought-process, a person can protect his saintliness even in adverse time, place and can hold it up high.”
Time and place are so powerful that they could change one’s destiny. However, such a thought-process of absorbing qualities from other great souls can even suppress time, place, destiny, and everything.
What is the meaning of gunatit? Becoming beyond three attributes of our nature is gunatit. Becoming beyond the trash that we have in us is gunatit.
Shukji, Naradji, Jad Bharat were gunatit. By aligning his thought-process with their thought-process, Muktanand Swami became gunatit.
Maharaj has said that “The thought that you want to become like them proves that you are gunatit.”
Anyone can become gunatit
How far can the qualities present in us take us? They are not capable of making us into saintly souls like Shukji or Jada Bharat. Yet, when we get thought that, “I should become like them,” then we became gunatit.
Our thoughts, actions, and words sprout from three attributes (satvagun, rajogun, tamogun) present within us: If tamogun is dominant, we become ignorant; If rajogun is dominant, we become passionate; If satvagun is dominant, we become good-natured. There is this fourth quality that is beyond those three: “I want to be like them.” That quality is beyond the three attributes of nature.
If we take inspiration from Bhagwan or gunatit souls, then we become gunatit.
If we are limited by our own qualities and attributes, then we will not become gunatit. If we learn from someone else, if we take the benefit of absorbing good qualities present in gunatit souls, then we become gunatit.
A person’s only obstacle to becoming gunatit is himself
Who is stopping us from absorbing the good virtues of others?
Our own self-admiration is stopping us from learning from others. We are so truthful to ourselves that we don’t even want to take the good virtues of others into us; we feel it is a sin to steal others’ virtues into us.
We must reduce our self-admiration to learn from someone else. We will become gunatit to the extent we reduce our self-admiration.
Shreeji Maharaj had said, “My thinking and lifestyle is like that of Rushabdev, Jad Bharat, and Shukdevji.”
The lifestyle of Shreeji Maharaj is beyond Jad Bharat, Shukdevji, and is unparalleled to anyone else, yet He compared Himself with them.
Thinking “we are the best” is the highest self-pride.
We are not the best; we are what we are. Observing the good virtues of others and digesting them into us is gunatit.
References:
- Chosathpadi Katha Part 17 (Pad 17, 18).