The Power Of Gratitude

The Power of Gratitude---

Sri Sri Ravishankar

The Deccan Herald, Jan.11 - 2010

Beauty has many aspects. Gratefulness is one such aspect of beauty. When you don’t feel a sense of lack, then you feel grateful. You cannot be grateful and feel lack. The two cannot co-exist.When you feel lack, grumbling begins from some corner. If you are grumbling, the negativity will increase. For those who do not have this knowledge, there is no way out of their grumblings, because once they start grumbling, they keep grumbling throughout their life. They feel some lack today and tomorrow they feel something else is lacking. There is no end to it. It is then that demand arises and when demand arises, your mind doesn’t think clearly, doesn’t focus clearly, doesn’t function properly; and naturally you tend to lose everything.That is why Jesus said, "Those who have will be given more; as for those who do not have; even what they have will be taken from them."

If you are grateful, more things will flow to you. And when you complain and grumble, even what little joy, peace or love you have come into this world with, will be lost. This is the law of nature.This explains why grandmothers in India have a habit of saying, "Everything is full." If something is less than full, or empty, they never say, "This is empty, we don’t have this." They will say, "We have a lot of this."Not having is just an attitude in you; it’s the direction you are moving in. You sow the seeds and they grow; they become plenty. If the seed itself is a seed of lack, only lack will grow. Open your eyes and see what you have been given! When you recognise through this knowledge what you have been given, then you become grateful. In that gratefulness, everything grows, life grows.Similarly if you just concentrate on lack, lack will grow because you feel lack.Love is at its peak when there is no demand, no craving for it. Whomsoever you love, first of all know that they love you very much. If you doubt in somebody’s love, then no matter however or whatever, you receive from him or her, your doubt grows. If you want to be close to someone, first begin to feel that they are already close to you. Whenever you ask people whether they trust you, you already doubt their trust. You grow in doubt. There is no limit to it - there is no end to being convinced of someone’s love for you, someone’s trust in you.Gratefulness comes with knowledge. Knowledge that the divine loves and cares for you, that is why he created this beautiful universe. Feel grateful about whatever nature has bestowed upon you. Have faith that this entire creation loves you. When you have faith, life becomes full. And in that faith, there is knowledge, there is opening, there is joy, there is beauty.

Why did Communism flop? It was a great policy which said -‘those who do not have, give to them’. So, it gave them. But then what happened? Yet, the nation a whole became poorer and poorer, even on the material plane. Because the whole consciousness was flooded with a sense of lack.

Without knowledge, without the wisdom, there is no progress; and even the most beautiful gifts in life, turn ugly.

Be grateful and see how everything flows to you.

Jai Gurudev.