What Is Gratitude, and How Do You Practice It?

Gratitude is waking up to how much you have already received. The SPH puts it simply: life gives so much to us. Existence gives so much to us. Gratitude is when you understand this, appreciate it, and feel it.

The opposite of gratitude is taking life for granted. We act as if everything we have is our birthright. So we never really look at what has been showered on us.

The SPH gives a plain example. Imagine you lost your eyes for just twenty four hours. How much would you suffer? You may not even believe in God. But some energy has given you eyes. It has given you all these things. Do you ever feel grateful for that?

This satsang is about the Sahasrara, the crown chakra. The SPH teaches that taking things for granted locks this chakra, and that feeling grateful to existence opens it.

So gratitude is not a polite habit or a nice word. It is a way of seeing your own life clearly, with everything that is already in it.

Gratitude matters because it changes you. Many people ask: if I feel grateful to someone, what will happen to them? The SPH answers this directly.

Something may or may not happen to them. But something will happen to you. The feeling of gratitude will transform your life. It may not change the quality of their life. You are not doing them a favor by feeling grateful. You are helping yourself.

The SPH calls this a very beautiful way to transform your life. Not to transform their life, but yours.

There is a second reason too. Without gratitude, we live in what The SPH calls continuous discontentment. We are disturbed all the time by what we do not have. Gratitude turns your attention to what is already here.

Most prayer is asking. Gratitude is acknowledging. The SPH says gratitude is the only way to relate with God.

He uses a funny image. Gratitude is the best cell phone number to God. Prayer only reaches his secretary. If you want to reach God, it is only through gratitude.

He also shows how our prayers often turn into business. Someone prays for one crore in a lottery and promises lakhs to the temple in return. That is a deal, not a relationship.

He tells a story of three friends who started a business. They felt insecure, so they promised one share of the profit to God. When the profit became huge, they did not want to give it. Each of the three friends came up with a clever plan to keep the money. Each plan meant turning the profit into gold and throwing it up. In the lawyer's plan, God sits above, so whatever falls back to the ground is theirs. The SPH laughs: this is how our mind works.

The deeper point is about trust. We believe God has shakti, the power to give what we want. That is where religion starts. When we also believe God has buddhi, the intelligence to know what is right for us, surrender starts. That is the next dimension of spirituality.

The SPH shares what he calls a small secret for relating with the divine. Even if you want something, do not start with the request. First go with the things you have already been given. First give your gratitude.

He says a live connection then happens between you and the divine. He speaks of this from his own experience. People who come with a grateful heart are the ones he says the divine responds to immediately.

He even gives the words. You could say something like this:

• You have given me ten things.
• You have given me this. You have given me that.
• I feel all my love and gratitude for it.
• If you can add this also, I will be very happy.

Notice the order. Thanks come first. The request comes last, lightly.

The SPH gives one more image. We pray to God for a diamond ring. But we never thank him for the finger. Think how many people are without fingers. We ask for the ring and forget the hand it would go on.

Feel grateful to the people in your life. The SPH says God does not only mean a figure with four hands sitting somewhere far away. The people who help you and care for you are forms of God.

He gives examples from the Indian tradition. A man who helps you in an emergency is God. The teacher who taught you your ABCs is Saraswati. The person who helps you with money when you are in trouble is Lakshmi. A man who gives you a job is Indra.

Yet we rarely feel grateful to the people who make our life rich, comfortable and wealthy.

Some people argue: why should I feel grateful? I paid them. The SPH asks you to be very clear here. You may have paid a teacher some 500 rupees for your education. But is your education worth only 500 rupees? No. Money is only a substitute. No money can equal the service people give you.

Only the grateful feeling you keep toward them can truly match what they gave.

The SPH gives a simple practice. He describes a meditation where people get up early in the morning, sit, remember everybody, and give their gratitude to them.

He also asks you, once in a while every day, to remember how much you have been given. We always hand God a big list of what he has not given us. But we never make the other list, of what he has given. Start making that one.

Remember each person who has helped you live and study, one by one. Give them your heartfelt feeling and thanks.

Include everyone. Your friends helped shape your life directly. Your enemies helped shape it indirectly. Both have molded you, so feel grateful to both.

You may think there are too many people to remember. The SPH says not to worry about that. Remember as many as you can, one by one, and give them your thanks.