A spiritual person’s conduct becomes a model for everybody to emulate (Bhagavad Gita, 3.21). A spiritual person, therefore, ought to be a person of unimpeachable righteous conduct for he becomes a role model for society. Sri Ramakrishna used to say that a spiritual person is a jagadguru (teacher of humankind) and therefore ought to conduct himself with utmost care, lest he should set a wrong example.
But then, a spiritually illumined person does not do any act with self-consciousness, for his self has been annihilated and in its stead the Divine Will has taken possession of him, as it were. Impelled and propelled by the Divine Will of the Supreme, such a person always acts rightly in a spontaneous manner.
Sri Ramakrishna used to say: ‘An expert dancer never takes a false step’. The application of this clause for a spiritual aspirant who is on the path to realization is to evoke in him a mood of ceaseless prayer that all his actions and thoughts may be guided and propelled by the Supreme (hamsa), rather than by the instincts as in the case of the animal man. This is the significance of the famous dictum – Tanno hamsa prachodayat; May that hamsa (paramatman, or the Supreme Self) impel or guide us [in our thoughts, actions, speech and conduct].