Since my childhood,
I've heard a lot of people talk about gratitude.
My father used to remind me every time to thank God for everything we have.
The food,
The house,
The clothing,
Our vehicle,
Good health,
Etc.
My religious teacher went a step further.
He asked me to thank God for life itself.
For existence and this planet earth.
For humanity and the flora and fauna.
My girlfriend thanked God for something entirely different.
She was thankful for the relationship we had and all the love that was there between us.
But I never really got it.
Why gratitude?
Why should we be thankful for something that is our right?
Would somebody please clarify this to me?
Why does God really want us to thank Him?
First of all,
He created us by His own will.
And then He threw us in the world of pain and misery,
Where we don't even feel comfortable in our own skin.
We suffer from so many diseases in our lifetime.
Most of us constantly suffer from headaches,
Backaches,
Fever,
Cough,
Etc.
Not to mention the deadly and fatal diseases which make us suffer terribly.
There is poverty,
Famine,
And human beings who are angry,
Proud and selfish.
There are wars that kill millions.
There is stress,
Anxiety,
Depression,
And the list goes on and on.
Hundreds of people die from hunger every hour.
We are forced to follow insane rules in the name of law and order while we still call ourselves free and independent.
The society and the community itself is a pain in the neck.
It enforces its expectations on us.
As if we are indebted to fulfill its wishes.
Many of us can't even move freely from one country to another due to political and financial restrictions.
And yes,
This reminds me of us being forced to work in the jobs we hate just because governments and big businesses took control of all our resources including land and food,
And we have to buy it back from them for our own survival.
There's heartbreak,
There's betrayal,
There's misuse of power,
There are expectations,
There is responsibility,
There is hatred,
There is anger,
And I can talk about this the whole day.
Then why for God's sake we have to be grateful for a few things and events in our life which bring us happiness?
Isn't it our right to be happy?
Then if we should thank God for these few things that make us joyful,
Should we also blame Him for all our misery?
Why isn't He ready to take the blame then?
Even after all these questions in my mind,
I did used to thank God in front of my parents and my religious teacher,
But I never felt it from my heart.
I never really understood this concept of gratitude.
And then,
Something happened in my life which changed my perception about all of this,
And finally I understood what gratitude really is and why it is highly underrated.
No,
It wasn't some single event in my life that made me value the power of gratitude.
It was a long journey of spiritual transformation,
Deep understanding of life and our existence over many years,
And yes of course,
Teachings of some great spiritual masters that made me understand what gratitude really is.
In fact,
To understand the real purpose and value of gratitude,
One has to first understand the meaning and purpose of our existence.
We can definitely practice gratitude without understanding the meaning,
Purpose and value of it,
And it will definitely be effective,
But once we understand the concept fully,
Gratitude becomes so much more beautiful.
My practice of gratitude is far more meaningful and effective today than it was when I did it just for the sake of it.
A lot depends on how we perceive our lives to be.
What is the meaning and purpose of our lives to us?
Where do we come from?
Where do we go?
What is our true nature?
Are we just physical flesh which will die off and cease to exist?
Or are we more than that?
Although there are many of us who believe that this is all that there is and that we are just our body and we cease to exist when we die,
And they can still practice gratitude.
However,
Gratitude goes deeper if we perceive ourselves to be a part of a larger whole,
A larger existence,
A larger purpose which is beyond this realm of physicality and earthly existence.
Many of the great spiritual masters throughout the ages have talked about this larger existence which is beyond the physical world.
However,
I find one of the descriptions of our existence very clear and easy to understand.
Neil Donald Walsh,
The author of Conversations with God,
Has explained this beautifully and I would like to explain what I have come to understand.
We existed as one unified soul,
A divine being,
And yet we could not experience our divinity.
We just knew that we are divine.
To experience ourselves as that we are,
We decided to create ourselves as that we are not.
That is,
To experience our own divinity,
We decided to create ourselves in the form that is not divine,
And that is the physical body.
To explain this better,
I would like to give an example here.
A person who is born in a rich family,
And by rich I mean rich in monetary terms,
And who is supplied with all the luxuries throughout his early life,
Would not realize the value of those luxuries,
As being in luxury is his natural state and he has always known only luxury and nothing else.
To realize the value of that luxury,
He will have to come to a state of being which is non-luxurious.
Similarly,
To realize that value of our divinity,
We created ourselves in a form that is opposite to it,
That is,
This physical world of ours.
The purpose of our soul therefore is to fully realize its divinity in this physical manifestation,
And we do that by expressing our divinity here in the physical life in the form of love,
Compassion,
Creativity,
Etc.
Till the time we fully realize and express our divinity in this physical form,
We go through various experiences in the form of physical beings belonging to different species and multiple lives through birth and rebirth.
Every experience in this physical form brings us closer to our full realization and expression of our divinity.
Therefore no experience is bad for us.
I would like to repeat that.
Every experience in this physical form brings us closer to fulfill our realization and expression of our divinity,
Therefore no experience is bad for us.
This is the understanding which forms the basis of true gratitude.
Having this understanding,
We then come to realize that every experience in our lives,
No matter how painful or how devastating,
Is only for us to grow as spiritual beings and is only for our good.
I am now grateful for every experience in my life.
Even if it is painful,
I know that it is a part of the journey of my soul.
I would like to tell you about an incident that happened with Buddha.
My narration might not be exact as it would have happened,
But I would try to be as precise as I can.
Buddha was sitting with his disciples when an angry man came and spit on his face.
After spitting on Buddha's face,
The angry man said furiously to him that he is spreading the message of falsehood.
One of Buddha's disciples whose name was Ananda suddenly got up in anger to stop this mad man who spit on Buddha's face.
Buddha gestured Ananda to stop in his tracks and sit down.
He then wiped his face and turned to the angry man.
The angry man was expecting a retaliation from Buddha.
However,
Buddha said to him,
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this experience.
It was a test for me.
You spit on my face and there was no change in my state.
In fact,
I am still in a state of bliss.
And we also learned that Ananda yet has to work on his temper.
It is a great learning for us.
Thank you so much.
The man was shocked by Buddha's reaction and went back to his home.
As this man reported later,
He could not sleep the whole night as Buddha's reaction kept disturbing him.
And it was not fake gratitude that Buddha showed in that moment.
It was utterly genuine.
The next day the man went back to Buddha and dropped to his feet.
If we reach this Buddha level understanding of existence,
We will spend our entire lives in gratitude and bliss.
We will be grateful for the smallest opportunities and even for the biggest disasters.
As we move towards the end of this talk,
I would like to share a few practices of gratitude that really helped me transform my state of being.
First,
Every morning as you wake up,
Thank your soul or God or universe or collective consciousness,
Whatever you believe in,
For giving you another great opportunity to express your divinity in the highest manner possible and to become the greatest version of yourself.
Second,
Before forming a perception,
Judging or coming to a conclusion about any situation,
Stop yourself for a while and think how this situation will contribute to the growth of your soul.
Third,
Thank every person you meet for being a part of your life and contributing to your growth,
Especially if that person caused you pain and suffering.
Any person who encountered you presented you with opportunities for the growth of your soul.
Fourth,
Take out some time at least once in your day to look around yourself,
Your surroundings,
Your body and every little thing that you can see and thank each of that thing for providing you the experience which has led to the growth of your soul.
And finally,
Before going to sleep,
Thank God for the day that passed which took you closer to expressing your divinity fully and for the opportunity to rest your mind and body in a calm and deep sleep.
I hope you found value in this talk.
I would love to know your ideas on gratitude and about this talk through your reviews.
Thank you so very much for presenting me with this opportunity to share my ideas.
My soul loves yours.
Take care and have an amazing day.
