Gunatitanand Swami

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Gunatitanand Swami (28 September 1784 – 11 October 1867), born Mulji Jani, was a paramhansa of the Hindu Swaminarayan Sampradaya who was ordained by Swaminarayan and is accepted as the first spiritual successor of Swaminarayan by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS). Born into a religious family in the small farming community of Bhadra in Gujarat, India, he first received religious education under his father's guru, Ramanand Swami, before encountering Swaminarayan and becoming a swami under him at the age of 25. For the BAPS, he embodies an essential element of the doctrine of Akshar and Purushottam. They believe, based on interpretation, from the Vachanamrut that "Akshar is an eternally-existing spiritual reality having two forms, the impersonal and the personal". Furthermore, BAPS claims that Gunatitanand Swami was believed to be the first personal manifestation of Akshar in the Guru Parampara: an unbroken line of "perfect devotees" who provide "authentication...

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