Knowing the miraculous power of gratitude in our life, we must search within while holding this question in our hearts, “How can I be more thankful to God?”
Here is Sri Chinmoy’s answer:
“Just by thinking of gratitude, we cannot become grateful. Our gratitude is like a magnet that pulls God’s Compassion down to us. But before our gratitude begins to operate, first God has to pull us toward Him. Once God has started to pull us up, then our gratitude begins to grow and we can pull Him down into us.
“There is a special way for a seeker to offer thanks or gratitude to God. It is through cheerfulness, constant cheerfulness. A seeker cannot allow depression to enter into his life of aspiration at any time. He always has to be happy in order to be truly grateful. But if his happiness comes from wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance, that is not the right kind of happiness. Real happiness is something within us which constantly makes us feel that we are expanding our consciousness and wholeheartedly embracing the entire world.
“For the seeker, happiness is a feeling of new hope, new life, new dawn, new promise, new achievement. These feelings the seeker has to nourish and treasure within himself. If the seeker in us cherishes these divine qualities, automatically our thankfulness to God will grow; our gratitude-flower will blossom and we will be able to offer it at the Feet of the Lord Supreme.
“In spiritual happiness, in the happiness that comes from self-giving and aspiration, gratitude looms large. When we have inner happiness, we don’t have to search for gratitude here and there. In our devoted cheerfulness, in our soulful cheerfulness, we are bound to discover constantly-increasing gratitude to the Supreme.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Aspiration is the engine of our spiritual life, the indispensable inner cry that compels us to run ever forward seeking new horizons, to dive within seeking ever deeper depths, and to fly to ever higher heights. Aspiration is the wind in the sails of our meditation, our protection against inertia, safeguard of our previous success, and guarantor of our continuing progress.
So it is imperative that we do all we can to nurture and nourish our aspiration-flame within us, our greatest spiritual treasure.
Sri Chinmoy was asked the question: which is more important in our life of aspiration: cheerfulness or gratitude? He replied:
“If you have cheerfulness, you will make progress. And when you make progress, then your gratitude-heart expands. This is absolutely true. But when you want to see the capacity of gratitude and the capacity of cheerfulness, it is gratitude that is all-powerful. Gratitude has the power of all the oceans put together, whereas cheerfulness has the power of ten or twelve drops. Gratitude is unparalleled in God’s creation, both in Heaven and on earth.
“Again, there are many ways to develop gratitude-power, and cheerfulness is one of the ways. It is one of the strong ways to conquer frustration, depression, anxiety, worries and other negative qualities. It is a great help, and from this help we can develop gratitude-power.
“Aspiration and gratitude are inseparable. They are like the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Aspiration takes us high, higher than the highest; and gratitude takes us to the vast, to the vaster than the vastest. The aspiration-bird and the gratitude-bird are the same. When it spreads its wings, it is gratitude, and when it flies up it is aspiration. But it is the same bird, the same inseparable reality.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy offered these words of advice, for when we encounter barriers in our spiritual life:
“If we find ourselves in a barren desert, we can do one thing. We can offer our gratitude to the Supreme, our Inner Pilot, for giving us the divine aspiration to be of service to Him in mankind. There is no power either in the outer world or in the inner world that can ever be as strong as our soulful gratitude. If even for a fleeting minute we can offer God our soulful gratitude, then immediately the barrier that exists between our mind and our heart will dissolve. For the power of our gratitude immediately makes us one with God’s Reality.
“When we look for gratitude in the mind, it seems like something dry, silly and unnecessary. When we look for gratitude in the vital, we see that it does not even exist. And in the physical, gratitude is all the time dormant. But if we live in the aspiring heart, we not only discover gratitude but see it as the most powerful reality. If we can become one with the Supreme on the strength of our gratitude, there can be no dry periods; there can be no wall, no barrier, no undivine forces that delay our progress.
“When we have gratitude, we are like a flower that is blossoming petal by petal in the Heart of the Supreme. This flower is full of fragrance, which constantly illumines, energises and fulfils the human in us, the Divine in us and the Supreme in us.
“When you and the rest of humanity have become one, and when you enjoy this oneness divinely, there can be no partition, no barrier, no desert, but only ever-increasing bliss and ever-transcending freedom.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“The seeker’s offering
Of an iota of gratitude to God
Is as beautiful as a rose
Held by God in His own Hand.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Constantly recurring in Sri Chinmoy’s talks and writings on gratitude, are the qualities of beauty, fragrance and sweetness.
“When you feel deep inside you
Something very beautiful
Which you have never felt before,
You will know that God has received
The sweet and charming fragrance
Of your heart’s blossoming
Gratitude-flower.”
– Sri Chinmoy
When Sri Chinmoy was asked, “How can one adequately express gratitude?” he answered:
“You do not actually have to try to express gratitude. If you have true gratitude, it will express itself automatically. It will be visible in your eyes, around your being, in your aura. It is like the fragrance of a flower. True, there are some flowers that do not have any fragrance. But in most cases, if there is a beautiful flower, the fragrance will be there naturally. The flower and its fragrance cannot be separated.
“Gratitude is the sweetest thing in a seeker’s life — in all human life. If there is gratitude in your heart, then there will be tremendous sweetness in your eyes. The beauty of the eyes is determined not by their shape or their colour. No, the beauty of the eyes depends on the heart’s beauty.
“If there is gratitude inside your heart, then it will be expressed through your eyes in the form of sweetness.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Feeling gratitude in our heart, enhances not only our own happiness and wellbeing, it also radiates to the world around us. Sri Chinmoy expresses this truth completely and perfectly in this beautiful jewel of a poem:
“Just one smile
From my gratitude-heart
Immensely increases
The beauty of the universe.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“In one of your poems you say that God will do everything for us if our every breath embodies soulful gratitude. This kind of gratitude seems far beyond our reach. How can we have it?”
He replied:
“Gratitude is not found in dryness or in strictness; it is not found in a morbid life. Gratitude comes from sweetness — sweetness in life, sweetness in breath. The sweetness of our own nature, our own character, our own movements will create everlasting gratitude. Gratitude is nothing but a spontaneous feeling of sweetness, which does not even have to be expressed in words. A child may not say ‘Thank you’ to his mother, but the sweetness of his entire being is expressed through his eyes in the form of a smile. He does not know the word ‘gratitude’, but when the mother sees his sweet smile, she knows that the child is full of gratitude. So the more we can create sweetness in our hearts and in our being, the easier it becomes to offer gratitude to God.
“One way to get sweetness is to look at a most beautiful, fragrant flower. When we look at the flower and smell its fragrance, consciously or unconsciously we become one with its beauty and fragrance. At that time, its sweetness enters into us or our own sweetness comes forward; sometimes both happen simultaneously. Then our whole being becomes sweet and it is easier to have good thoughts. If we are really focusing all our attention on the innocent beauty and fragrance of God the creation through this flower, then impure thoughts disappear, and only sweet thoughts remain. And when sweetness comes to the fore in our nature, it becomes very easy to offer gratitude.”
– Sri Chinmoy
When Sri Chinmoy was asked, “What is the best aspect of the Supreme to concentrate on for transformation?” He replied:
“It is always advisable to concentrate on the Compassion aspect of the Supreme for our personal transformation or world transformation because it is the Compassion aspect of the Supreme that expedites our progress. If we concentrate on His Heart aspect or Delight aspect or Peace aspect or any other aspect, we may have in our mind the idea of give and take. We have given the Supreme a drop and now He may give us the ocean. Always there is a feeling of an exchange. He is infinitely richer and more powerful than we are. So if we give Him what we have, then He will give us what He has, which will be infinitely more. If we have that kind of feeling, then transformation will occur very slowly.
“But if we approach the Supreme through His Compassion aspect, we feel that we are in no way adding to what He has or offering Him anything that He needs. Instead, we feel that we need our own transformation and world transformation and, out of His infinite Bounty, unconditionally He is giving this to us. If we have that kind of feeling, then our heart’s gratitude will overflow and it will accelerate our progress. Gratitude is the fastest way to make individual and collective progress, and gratitude comes when we approach the Compassion aspect of the Supreme.”
Question: “Can we increase our aspiration the fastest by expanding our gratitude?”
Sri Chinmoy: “Yes. We can increase our aspiration by expanding our gratitude. What is gratitude? Gratitude is not only an outer acknowledgement of God’s Compassion-Light but also a discovery of man’s oneness and God’s infinite Bliss.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy spoke some of the most beautiful, profound words about gratitude in response to questions concerning the relationship of gratitude with two of the most essential divine qualities – love, and oneness.
Love is such a powerful force, we might imagine that love is the nest from which gratitude arises. Yet as Sri Chinmoy reveals, the inverse is true. When asked: “What is the relationship between love and gratitude?” Sri Chinmoy replied:
“If it is true love, the love that expands, then its source is gratitude. Gratitude is the creative force, the mother and father of love. It is in gratitude that real love exists. This love is not the human love, it is divine love. Love expands only when gratitude is there. Limited love does not offer gratitude. Limited love is immediately bound by something — by constant desires or constant demands. But when it is unlimited love, constant love, then gratitude comes to the fore. This love becomes all gratitude.”
– Sri Chinmoy
There is but one quality which stands on equal terms with gratitude. Asked: “What is the relationship between gratitude and oneness?” Sri Chinmoy answered:
“Between gratitude and oneness we see the relationship of the outer reality and the inner reality. With gratitude, we go inside and discover our oneness. And when we come out from inside, where we have established our oneness, at that time we see that gratitude is there. Inside, we go to see what we are; outside, we come to see what we have. Gratitude is to have; oneness is to be. This is the relationship.
“Gratitude means that we have something and oneness means that we are something. One eternally is; the other eternally has. Gratitude has God as its very own and oneness is God Himself.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy was once asked, if there is one divine quality which encompasses all the rest, or if we should meditate on each one to acquire them one at a time. He answered:
“For a seeker, one quality is enough in his own life and that is gratitude. And in God’s Life one quality is also enough, and that is God’s Compassion. God’s Compassion encompasses all His divine qualities, and the seeker’s gratitude encompasses all his divine qualities. So if one wants to feel the presence of all his divine qualities, then he has to look in his gratitude. And if he wants to feel all the divine qualities of God, then he can easily find them in God’s Compassion. If one wants to see all God’s good qualities or all one’s own good qualities individually, one can easily do that too. But if one wants to see one good quality which embodies all the good qualities, then in God’s case it is His Compassion and in man’s case it is his gratitude.”
– Sri Chinmoy
When asked, if gratitude also helps to increase our receptivity during meditation, Sri Chinmoy answered:
“Yes, a gratitude-heart is of paramount importance. You can be most receptive on the strength of your own simplicity, sincerity, purity and humility. When you bring to the fore these divine qualities, which you have inside you, then you can receive the utmost. And inside simplicity, inside sincerity, inside purity, inside humility, you should try to feel a sense of gratitude to your own Inner Pilot. If you have a gratitude-heart, you will be able to receive the utmost. It is a gratitude-heart that can receive from Above peace, light and bliss in boundless measure and also manifest them here on earth.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“Each time I offer my gratitude-heart
To my Lord Supreme,
I am blessed with a deeper and richer
State of existence.”
– Sri Chinmoy
For our happiness and continual progress, we need many divine qualities: purity, cheerfulness, sincerity, eagerness, determination, patience. Sri Chinmoy was once asked, if there is one quality which a seeker needs the most?
“The quality that you need most and that everybody needs most is gratitude. Every seeker, without exception, needs one particular thing, and that is gratitude. Now, how do you develop this quality? Not by looking into the far past and seeing your stone life, plant life and animal life. Even in the human life, which is reasonably good, what were you in the past? A bundle of desire, a bundle of jealousy, a bundle of insecurity and a bundle of falsehood. But now, what have you become? Are you the same Himalayan falsehood? No, far from it. Now you are in the truth, of the truth and for the truth. What has made you feel that you are in the truth, of the truth and for the truth, or for the highest life? The answer is your inner cry. And who has given you this inner cry? God.
“What will you give God, since He has given you so much inner cry? You can give the thing that you feel is best. What God feels best to give you is His Compassion. Because of His Compassion, you have accepted the spiritual life. What you should feel best to give Him in return is your gratitude. Your gratitude is by far your best quality, so give Him your gratitude. The more you give gratitude to Him, the more you will be able to receive from Him.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“My God-gratitude-heart
Is the most precious treasure
I have.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Question: How can we be most receptive?
Sri Chinmoy: “You can be most receptive on the strength of your own simplicity, sincerity, purity and humility. When you bring to the fore your own divine qualities — simplicity, sincerity, purity and humility — then you can receive the utmost. And inside simplicity, inside sincerity, inside purity, inside humility, please try to feel a sense of gratitude to the Inner Pilot, to your own Inner Pilot. Your gratitude-heart will be able to receive the utmost; it will bring down from Above Peace, Light and Bliss in boundless measure. It is a gratitude-heart that receives these divine qualities and also manifests them here on earth.”
Question: What is the easiest way to evoke our divine qualities?
Sri Chinmoy: “Through constant soulful gratitude you can easily invoke your divine qualities.”
Question: Does a seeker’s gratitude-heart truly carry more significance than his own personal transformation?
Sri Chinmoy: “Definitely. A seeker’s gratitude is infinitely more important than his longing for transformation. His gratitude will automatically give him the easiest, safest and quickest way to transform his personal life. Gratitude has more to offer us than our personal transformation.”
Question: Is there any short cut in the spiritual life? “If there is any short cut in the spiritual life to arrive at the Golden Shore, then gratitude is the short cut. If there is a secret and sacred way to love, please and fulfil God, then it is the way of gratitude. Gratitude embodies and reveals all our divine virtues. It is by virtue of gratitude that we can bring down God’s infinite Power, infinite Light, infinite Love. Gratitude is the master key to open up all the doors of Divinity’s Palace.”
– Sri Chinmoy
This passage is a continuation of Sri Chinmoy’s remarks on the importance of offering gratitude to the Source:
“We know that if we can offer gratitude to anything good that comes to us early in the morning, then many good things will happen in our life. We will do good things for others and they will do good things for us. Everything that comes to us in the form of goodness comes from God.
“So at every moment we have to offer our sincere gratitude to the Source, because we will not be able to offer gratitude to each individual, each thought, each action.
“Of course, if we do have the opportunity to offer gratitude to a particular individual, wonderful! But even then what we are really doing is offering gratitude to the Source. Let us say that you do me a favour and I offer you my gratitude. At that time I am actually offering my gratitude to the Inner Pilot, the Source, in you – who is in you, in me, in the entire creation. The One who deserves my gratitude is not you, but God. He is the very Person who came to you in the form of a good action, and He is the One who is inspiring me to offer you my gratitude. In everything He is the Doer; we are only His instruments.
“If we cannot offer gratitude to someone individually, no harm. But we have to offer gratitude to the One who has inspired the creation in the form of this human being. To Him we have to offer gratitude. We may not have time to offer our gratitude to the entire creation, but we do have time to offer gratitude to God inside us.”
– Sri Chinmoy
In this passage, Sri Chinmoy speaks of the importance of offering gratitude to the Source:
“In addition to our bad qualities, each human being has many, many good qualities. The most important and most significant good quality in our human life is gratitude. Unfortunately, that good quality we somehow manage not to express either in our thoughts or in our actions. Right from the beginning of our life we have somehow learned not to express it. So we have the least amount of the very thing that we need most in order to become a better person.
“The things that most deserve our gratitude we just take for granted. Without air we cannot live for more than a minute or two. Every day we are breathing in and breathing out, but do we ever feel grateful to the air? If we do not drink water, we cannot survive. Even our body is composed to a large extent of water. But do we give any value to water? Every morning we see the sun blessingfully offering us light and life-energy. But are we grateful to the sun? On the contrary, when the sun is too bright we complain that it is bothering us.
“A tree has many branches and countless leaves, flowers and fruits. If we try to offer our gratitude to the millions of leaves, people will say, ‘You are a fool!’ We will get tired just counting the branches, not to speak of the leaves, flowers and fruits. But the tree came from a tiny seed, and the Source of that seed is God. He is the Source of everything in the creation. So if we offer our gratitude to the Source, we are doing the right thing.”
– Sri Chinmoy
God’s Compassion fulfils all our wants and needs. How then, can we attain oneness with God’s Compassion? Sri Chinmoy explains:
“In oneness you get everything. A child has established oneness with his parents, so he knows he will get everything. If the parents have material power or any power, any capacity, then it is all his: the parents are going to give it to him. If you are one with someone, that means all his qualities are your very own, and vice versa. Your eyes are one with your legs and arms. Your arms want to perform something at a particular place. Your eyes show you how to get there and your legs take you. Just because oneness has been established in all your limbs, one complements and fulfils the other. So if you establish your oneness with God’s Compassion on the strength of your gratitude for God’s Compassion, then inside God’s Compassion you will get everything.
“But again, if you find it extremely difficult to think of God’s Compassion all the time or your own gratitude, then try to bring to the fore individual aspects of God’s Capacity. If God’s Power is what you want, then concentrate on God’s Power. If you want inner cry, which you need, then try to bring this to the fore. Or if you need sincerity, try to get this. Anything you need, you bring forward individually.
“But if gratitude is there, then inside gratitude you will find power, sincerity, simplicity and all divine qualities, because gratitude means oneness. God has played His role by giving; you have played your role by expressing your gratitude. By giving, God has shown his oneness with you; and by offering your gratitude, you have become one with Him.”
– Sri Chinmoy
