Gratitude

The best and quickest way to lift your spirits is to count your blessings.

There are days when I am hard on myself, when I feel down and like I have drawn the short straw. I let myself grieve. I let myself mourn. And then when I have unloaded the burden just enough, I ask myself:

"What about this situation can I be grateful for?"

I try to list 3-5 things that I am grateful for. It turns my whole perspective around. Gratitude doesn't mean becoming complacent. It is a way to make peace with your current situation, and it puts you in a better mindset to achieve more. Every cloud has a silver lining. Make an active effort to look for the good in things.

A few months ago, I read the book The Magic - Rhonda Byrne. It is a 30-day workbook, where each day, you list 10 things you are grateful for in your life. I experienced so many wonderful things happening over the course of 30 days. I felt happier with my life, I reached a level of peace and zen, to the point where I almost felt like I was too happy. Lots of good news came in, lots of wonderful happy things happened.

The book's principles work in accordance with the law of attraction - like attracts like. The more good feelings you put out, the more good things come to you.

Kind of like karma on a microscopic scale.

Gratitude is a widely acknowledged concept in religion. It's a very huge aspect in spirituality. It keeps us humble. Krishna shows us by example:

"If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit a water, I will accept it." (BG 9.26)

Interesting, isn't it? Krishna, god of the universe, does not need very big offerings. He is grateful for the littlest of things. We should do the same.

I am grateful for the air that I breathe, for the food that I eat, for the world that I see. I am grateful for ability to speak, to read, to write. I am grateful for this mind.

Express your gratitude some more, count your blessings. And be like a sunflower, that turns to face the sunlight. Try it out yourself. Make a list of 5 things you are grateful for, and try to really feel gratitude for it. Only good things will come out of it :)

God's Gratitude

God's love for us, His children, is unconditional. He never forgets anything we have ever done. Even if we fall down to our lowest nature, God gives us whatever reactions He sees fit to rectify us, but He never forgets what good we have done. He is always waiting for us to turn to Him to uplift us again to our original position. This principle of how we are never lost to God, no matter how little we have served Him, is a manifestation of His opulence of gratitude.

Fallen living entities like us can easily forget anything good that someone may have done for us, and take it for granted, but God never forgets. He's always making some arrangement to bring those who sincerely seek Him back to His abode. God does not simply see what we offer. He sees the sincerity and purpose of the offering. Yes, God sees our faults, and He corrects them in one way or another, but He also sees the service that we have rendered. And if that service is sincere in purpose, He is eternally grateful.

- H. H. Radhanath Swami