Reinvent The Self!

Once, my revered friend Joachim, in the School of Awakening, who I get to learn so many spiritual insights from, shared his question about the word gratitude. He said, “Why should we be grateful? It seems that gratitude can only result from a certain kind of thoughts about the past – friendly ones, nevertheless thoughts”.

I was reading chapter 11 of Gita, called Vishwa Roopa Darshan. There, Krishna shows His real Infinite Cosmic Body. Arjuna was seeing Him, gratefully! At the same time as the moment was unfolding before him. However, this is just one instance of being grateful to the Present Moment. There could be many instances for which I could be grateful for the Present Moment. For all other purposes, I generally remain grateful to past. If we look at the Dictionary meaning, it also says, showing appreciation for something received! So Gratitude is about past too!

The beauty of gratitude is it comes naturally. We have to do absolutely nothing. And when we practice Presence, I start realising so many things. It starts with all Good things, for which I feel grateful to the God or to the parents, wife, daughter, friends, etc. But does gratitude arise only if we receive good things that we want, or that we liked? For that there’s already a special degenerate word “Thank you”! Gratitude is entirely different in quality when compared against a simple thank you. Therefore, I can teach my daughter to say thanks, or when to be thankful. It is full of IFs and WHENs. It is easy. And mainly it is soul promoting as Anthony de Mello says. Because people will say good things about my daughter after she says thanks. So I teach her to be thankful! Soul promotion.
Can I teach her to be grateful? No. It’s genuine, very special. It comes from within. In Anthony de Mello’s language, it is soul fulfilling.

I just wonder, whatever great qualities that are essential to be Present, come naturally. Whatever I can teach my daughter, therefore, is compliance, mannerisms, etiquette which have a code that runs behind. These mannerisms act as bindings. Can I ever teach (allow) my daughter Freedom, which is in fact her birth right given by the God? The thing I can best do as a responsible and loving (lol) parent is to spoil my daughter by snatching her natural freedom. Anyway. That’s not what this blog would like to discuss.

What is gratitude then? I can understand that only if I understand Grace. Grace is also felt naturally. If Grace and Gratitude both are natural then what do I need to do? Nothing. Just Be! Be aware of my immanent biases, false notions, predispositions. They automatically get dropped once I start noticing them. Till that time, I am bound to feel that it’s because of me, that everything is working so beautifully. Ego! Ravana! Like Gopis feel, when they put their sticks beneath the mountain Govardhana, that it is due to their sticks that the mountain is supported. They remain in this belief, wilfully ignoring that the mountain is actually supported by a little finger of the Lord Krishna! The best lesson I never learn!

My another beautiful brother Tom so eloquently expresses what gratitude is as, “True gratitude is a state of being, a state of feeling the love of creation despite what is manifesting in our lives. When grateful for a particular event past or future that is a more rational, theoretical gratitude, still a worthy ‘thank you’ to the universe but true gratitude is not dependent on an outcome or desire, good or bad. It is more a feeling of joy from being in alignment with the love that binds all of creation emanating from the creative source of all things”. I feel that Gratitude itself is giving its introduction through Tom’s words!

Grace, to me, is His Love, and Gratitude is my Love towards Him. He loves me through Grace. I love Him back through Gratitude. Both Grace and Gratitude are unconditional. Pure. In Sanskrit, there are 2 words. Saad and Pratisaad. Saad is how Destiny calls me. And Pratisaad is how I respond to it. They commingle so well yet remaining completely unconditional and pure. To me, they both are eternal expressions of Love.

Also I feel gratitude is not just limited to a feeling of love. The true Gratitude is never complete unless it strongly inspires me to act in the service of His Grace! My every action elicited by gratitude brings about Peace and Joy in the Universe! The true gratitude doesn’t know good and bad, present and past. It just stays there within me. And He continues to shower His Grace upon me. Always. Unconditionally! May we all realise His omnipresent and everlasting Grace and be grateful to Him. Forever!