In the spiritual life, we know gratitude is of utmost importance in developing our receptivity and quickening our progress. And yet, it is a quality sorely lacking in our world and our own consciousness. How then, can we feel the necessity of gratitude?
Sri Chinmoy answered this question:
“You can feel the necessity for gratitude if you feel that gratitude is your living breath. Feel that if your gratitude-breath is extinguished, then you are dead. Each time you offer gratitude for a fleeting second, feel it is a living breath.
“On earth there is nothing so important or significant as gratitude. In God’s case, the most significant thing He has is Compassion. God is Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent, but His Compassion-Power makes us close to Him. If He did not have Compassion-Power, we would not care for Him. If we can show God an iota of gratitude, God feels that within us He can exist. Our gratitude is God’s Existence, God’s House, God’s Abode. God has to live in the street unless He can live inside our gratitude-heart.”
– Sri Chinmoy
How can we show gratitude for all the Compassion we receive?
Sri Chinmoy again:
“We do not actually show gratitude; we become gratitude. Gratitude is not a matter of showing. Here I have a finger and I can show it. No, it is not like that. The moment we want to show gratitude, we take away the sweetness, the real wealth, the real secret or real power, the very raison d’être of gratitude. So gratitude we don’t show; we don’t even express it. Gratitude is something that we grow into, we become. It is not a matter of offering gratitude when God shows us infinite Compassion. We have to just become gratitude itself.”
– Sri Chinmoy