Gratitude🔗

His Holiness Nithyananda Paramashivam

Contents

Gratitude is our real nature… Gratitude is the energy that makes your life intense and exciting every moment. When you carry causeless gratitude in you, life will be sweet all the time irrespective of external circumstance. ~ THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

Introduction

What comes to your mind when you think about what is gratitude. What is the first thing that comes to your mind? Words such as thank you, expressions of love in words and actions, sense of surrender, being grateful, etc. will start to come to your mind.

The dictionary definition of gratitude is the quality of being thankful or the readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

In this book we will explore gratitude from the spiritual aspect. What is gratitude, what are the types of gratitude, the reason why we express gratitude, the effect of gratitude, and where does gratitude ultimately leads us to.

Throughout the book there are many activities and mediation techniques for you to try for the practical experience of the knowledge that is presented in this book.

At the end of this book you should have a better understanding of 'What is Gratitude' and its many facets

What is Gratitude?

When we recognize that we are part of the total scheme of Existence, and that we are lovingly taken care of by Existence every minute, we are overcome with gratitude. We become thankful for what we receive every moment, even if it as basis as the use of our limbs and senses.

Gratitude is your response to recognizing the abundance of existence. If there is an energy that takes care of everything in your life, it is the energy of gratitude! If you feel that there is something missing in your life, it is because you feel less gratitude. Gratitude connects you directly to the Divine energy.

Gratitude should become the very breath of a person. It transforms the happenings in you and around you. It is an energy that harmonizes you with the energy of the universe and brings tremendous prosperity to you. With gratitude you will see that Existence simply responds to you. It is the channel to commune with Existence.

Understand this: when you feel gratitude towards everything, it means you feel fulfilled, you feel blissful. So when you radiate gratitude, your energy of fulfillment attracts fulfillment back to you in the form of material gains, good relationships, good health and so on. The main thing is that gratitude makes you resonate with Existence and transforms you into a beautiful human being.

Society has taught us that gratitude is a social etiquette that we must all practice - to be thankful for what is received. When we want something, we pray and ask God or existence for what we want and when we receive it we express our gratitude.

What would happen if we shifted ourselves from the attitude of always asking for what we want next, to the attitude of feeling and expressing or gratitude to Existence itself?

"Gratitude is our real nature…Gratitude is the energy that makes your life intense and exciting every moment. When you carry causeless gratitude in you, life will be sweet all the time irrespective of external circumstance." ~ THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says, "You always think that whatever was given to you was either because you deserved it or because it was an accident.

When you start seeing and feeling that invisible hand of Existence taking care of you, you will understand that you are wanted here by Existence. Only then you will understand that you are being showered upon continuously by Existence."

Get ready to receive the gifts from Existence and experience the bliss!

Gratitude - the key to Happiness

The key to true happiness in today's world, any action needs a reason. When there is utility there is action, or else justifying the action becomes difficult. Real gratitude can never have a reason. It happens as a causeless flowering within you.

Does the flower bloom for a reason?

No! It blooms because it is its very nature.

Gratitude is our real nature. Layers of conditioning from society have covered it. Society doesn't know the language of gratitude. It knows only the language of utility. It straightaway instills greed and fear in us, so that we will give it the needed results.

Society doesn't know there is a path of gratitude that will give much better results than the paths of fear and greed. That is the problem. There are endless reasons to feel gratitude. This life itself is a gift that we have received. To be born with human consciousness is the first blessing we have received. Our gratitude should start right from there. Just for being we should feel grateful.

Understand, if ever you feel life is dull, that it is not as juicy as it should be, it is because gratitude has not happened in you. Gratitude is the energy that makes your life intense and exciting every moment. When you carry causeless gratitude in you, life will be sweet all the time irrespective of external circumstances.

When you miss gratitude, very often you will be gripped with the feeling that life is sour, but you won't know the real reason for that feeling.

To be born with human consciousness is the first blessing we have received.

Receive every small thing in life as a gift. When you take your plate to eat, see the plate as a gift. When you serve food on the plate, see the food as a gift. When you sit down on the chair to eat, see the chair as a gift. When you wash your hands after eating, see your fingers as a gift.

There are people who don't have a plate on which to eat. There are people who don't have fingers with which to eat! We only look at those who have a diamond ring on their fingers. We never look at those who don't have fingers. That is why we don't feel anything in our life is a gift. Every morning as soon as you wake up, before getting out of bed, just try to feel deep gratitude for just being, for just living as a human being in this wonderful Existence. Similarly, every night before you go to sleep, bring in deep gratitude for just being. Feel it in your whole body and mind.

Put all judgements aside and feel gratitude. When we start feeling grateful for small things, our whole sensitivity will increase. When sensitivity happens, every moment will pass in deep awe of the happenings in Existence.

Be Blissful!

Gratitude is the greatest attitude

Again and again people ask me, Swamiji, when I have so many problems, how can I be grateful?' See, we continuously pray, 'Oh God, please give me a diamond ring.' Do we feel grateful that He gave us this finger to wear the ring? No! The finger is not our birthright. There are thousands of people who don't have hands or fingers. It's not our birthright.

We continuously pray intensely, in all possible ways, 'Oh God, give me this. Oh God, give me that.' But we never feel grateful for the things that are showered on us. This very life is a blessing!

Can we say that our life has been given to us as payments for some job that we did in Vaikunta (abode of Lord Vishnu) or Kailash (abode of Lord Shiva)? No! It's not as if we worked for one hundred years in Kailash, and earned a check that says, 'Alright, have seventy years of life.' If we work in that army, they give us money to study. It's not like that; we did not get life as a salary. It's a pure blessing showered on us.

Every breath is a blessing! This very life is a blessing. Continuously we miss things that are not part of our possession. But we never experience the things that are showered on us by the Divine.

Each of us has a big list of things that God has not given us and we also have a big list of things that God has given us. If you take a paper and pen and start writing these lists, both lists will be endless. Every moment of our life is a gift from the Divine.

If we honestly list the things that are not given to us, it will be an endless, infinite list. If we earnestly make a list of the things given to us, that will

When we feel life is a blessing and we approach the Divine with deep love and gratitude, not only do we experience the divine consciousness, we achieve the Divine itself. also be an endless, infinite list. Now it's up to us to whether to look at the list of things not given to us and constantly feel miserable and live in hell, or look at the list of things showered on us and be in heaven. The second way makes us feel deeply grateful. We feel grateful and create our heaven. It is purely our choice.

Gratitude is the way to approach the Divine

Approach the Divine with the attitude of gratitude. We feel so grateful, so deeply connected to the Divine that our whole life changes. People approach the Masters from different levels.

I have seven kinds of people who approach me:

• 1) people who approach me out of greed;
• 2) people who approach me out of fear;
• 3) people who approach me out of worry;
• 4) people who approach me for name and fame;
• 5) people who approach me out of jealously and comparison;
• 6) people who approach me out of ego, to strengthen their ego;

1. there are a few, very few who approach me out of gratitude.

There's one problem with people who approach me out of greed. Not only do they have greed, they also have their own ideas and fantasies about a Master. When we have a strong fantasy about things we will not be able to relate with reality. People who come with fear will never be able to get rid of that fear. They will be stuck with that because fear itself is a fantasy.

At different levels people approach the Master of God. The more mature we are, the more we will feel connected to that person who will give us fulfillment. When we become mature, when we are above fear and greed, we will approach the same Master, the same God, with more maturity.

According to our maturity our attitude differs. The more mature we are, the more the gratitude happens. The less the maturity, the more we fill our life with prayers. Prayer is greed; confession is fear! That is why I say, 'Gratitude is the greatest prayer, and 'Thank you', the greatest mantra.' Based on how we approach the Divine, the community system is created. How much we share with society depends on how mature we are. With the same maturity, we approach God also. If we miss money, we go to the God who gives money. If we miss knowledge, we go to the God who gives knowledge. If we feel insecure, we go to the God who protects us. If we miss spiritual experience, the ultimate experience, then we go to the Divine incarnations, the ultimate expressions of the Divine.

You will experience the Divine according to your level of maturity. As long as you are caught in fear or greed, you go only to those types of Gods. Starting at different levels is okay, but we should not stop and stay there. It is like failing to proceed to the second grade from the first.

Krishna (incarnation of Lord Vishnu) says in the sacred text the Bhagavad Gita 'The person who approaches Me out of love and gratitude, is the best person, for I am dear to him and he is dear to me'

Gratitude is

an expression of Fullfillment

What is fulfillment?

Fulfillment is completely different from contentment. If you start with the idea of not having: 'I don't have, I don't have' you will only grab. If you start with the reality, 'I am showered.

Arey, still I am alive, my kidney is working, my liver is working, and my brain is working at least once in awhile! My heart is working and my lungs are working. So many things in my system are working. I am still feeling I am alive'.

Millions of possibilities open the moment you feel that you are alive. The moment you step out of this door, millions of stars are seen, millions of possibilities are opening up. Same way the moment you feel you are alive the millions of possibilities are opening. The door for the millions of possibility is the first experience 'I am alive'. Why don't you recognize that and celebrate.

The life that is happening in your body is a gift. You are constantly showered. If you stand on this base, you can create wealth ten times more. You can create infrastructure. See, if you start your life from the mood of not having, you will not create wealth. You will grab wealth. If you start your life feeling blessed, you will create wealth. You will not grab wealth. There is a big difference. Understand.

If you start your life with the feeling 'I don't have', you will grab; you will never create. You will be waiting for the opportunities to grab. Sometimes people tell me 'Swamiji I am completely content'. I tell them 'Oh that's great! If you get a lottery, billion dollars, will you say you don't want?' No, no, no! Then what do you mean by you are completely content. No. Move from contentment to fulfillment.

Gratitude for just being

In today's world, any action needs a reason. If I tell a small child to come near me, the child will look for some reason. If I hold up a chocolate, he/ she will come near! Utility has taken root very deeply within us. When there is utility there is action, or else justifying the action becomes difficult.

When I tell people to live with a sense of gratitude, they immediately start looking for reasons. Real gratitude can never have a reason. It happens as a causeless flowering within you. Does the flower bloom for a reason? No! It blooms because it is its very nature. Gratitude is our real nature. Layers of conditioning from society have covered it.

Society doesn't know the language of gratitude. It only knows the language of utility. It knows only the language of utility. It straightaway instills greed and fear in you, so that you will give it the needed results. Society doesn't know there is a path of gratitude that will give much better results than the path of fear and greed.

By its very nature our being is gratitude. If we relax into it, we can connect to it. There are endless reasons to feel gratitude. This life itself is a gift that we have received. Did any of us work for it and receive it? No! To be born with human consciousness is the first blessing we have received. Our gratitude should start right from there.

Understand, if ever you feel life is dull, that it is not as juicy as it should be, it is because gratitude has not happened in you. Gratitude is the energy that makes your life intense and exciting every moment. When you carry causeless gratitude in you, life will be sweet all the time irrespective of external circumstances.

When you miss gratitude, very often you will be gripped with the feeling that life is sour, but you won't know the real reason for that feeling. That is the problem. These are the basic secrets of life.

Activity

Below is a powerful meditation to nurture causeless gratitude in you:

Every morning as soon as you wake up, before getting out of bed, just try to feel deep gratitude for just being, for just living as a human being in this wonderful Existence. Bring up the understanding that you are able to enjoy all that you enjoy only because you are a human being. Try to feel grateful for it. Melt for a few minutes with that gratitude.

Throughout the day have gratitude for all the things that you have, whether small or big.

When you take your plate to eat, see the plate as a gift. When you serve food on the plate, see the food as a gift. When you sit down on the chair to eat, see the chair as a gift. When you wash your hands after eating, see your fingers as a gift.

Every night before you go to sleep, sit on your bed and honestly bring in deep gratitude for just being. Feel it in your whole body and mind. Even if you have had a bad day, it is okay. Put everything aside and feel grateful for just being. All days are not bad days. There are people who have days that are worse than the worst of your bad days. So put all the judgments aside and feel gratitude. Go to sleep with this feeling.

To be born with human consciousness is the first blessing we have received. Our gratitude should start right from there.

Gratitude is realizing that everything is a gift

The main reason why you miss experiencing gratitude is that you take everything for granted. You feel anything that people do for you is your birthright. Understand, people could be doing something else instead of doing things for you. You have to thank them for it.

Receive every small thing in life as a gift. When you take your plate to eat, see the plate as a gift. When you serve food on the plate, see the food as a gift. When you sit down on the chair to eat, see the chair as a gift. When you wash your hands after eating, see your fingers as a gift. We never see

There are people who don't have a plate on which to eat. There are people who don't have fingers with which to eat! Have we ever thought about that? We only look at those who have a diamond ring on their finger. We never look at those who don't have fingers. That is the problem. That is why we don't feel anything in our life is a gift.

When we start feeling grateful for small things, our whole sensitivity will increase. We will become more refined. Our whole attitude towards life will move to a different plane. Remember, a person who isn't thankful for small things will never be thankful for big things either.

Even big things will be taken for granted. Currently, we feel we have a right to everything that we receive. Because of this attitude, we miss seeing the benevolence of Existence or God. We remain insensitive to the gifts showered upon us by Existence.

This is how insensitive we are in life! We keep taking everything for granted. If we sensitized ourselves with gratitude, we would never take anything for granted, whether it is our fingers, or our wealth, or the timely benevolence of Existence. When sensitivity happens, every moment passes in deep awe of the happenings of Existence.

Activity

Below is a powerful meditation to express gratitude for everything in and around you:

• ® Sit straight and close your eyes. Concentrate only on your crown chakra and relax there.
• ® With your whole being, offer gratitude to you mother for giving you this body. Remember and give your gratitude to her with all your being.
• ® Offer your gratitude to your father for giving you this life and providing for all your needs.
• ® Offer you gratitude to all the doctors and nurses who received you when you can to planet earth.
• ® Offer your gratitude to all the people who built the hospital or home where you were born.
• ® Offer your gratitude to all the people who took care of you when you were an infant.
• ® Offer your gratitude to all those who worked for your food, clothes and living when you were young.
• ® Offer your gratitude to your friends who made your life happy and blissful.
• ® Offer your gratitude to your brothers and sister and other relatives for nurturing you and caring for you. Seek their forgiveness for any hurt that you may caused then intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously.
• ® Offer your gratitude to all the people who gave you education, who helped you stand on your own feet.
• ® Offer your gratitude to all the people who helped you financially, whenever you needed it.
• ® Offer your gratitude to your wife or husband for giving you love and security in your life. Forgive them for anything that they might have done to you that hurt you. Seek their forgiveness for anything that you might have done that hurt then with or without your knowledge.

® Offer gratitude to all the people who encouraged you and gave you inspiration in your spiritual life.

• ® Offer your gratitude to all those who served you in one way or another all through your life: the grocer, the garbage collector, etc. All those people who you take for granted, Seek each one's forgiveness for any hurt that you nay have caused intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously.
• ® Offer your gratitude to your enemies and those who have hurt you, for making you strong and forgiving. Seek their forgiveness for any hurt that you may have caused them.
• ® Offer your gratitude to your body and all its parts one by one.
• ® Offer your gratitude to your mind for its miraculous functioning.
• ® Offer your gratitude to the Divine, to the whole, to God, for making all these things possible in your life.

Just sit in this space of gratitude for a few minutes. Offer your gratitude with your whole being.

A ll your life, you use the words Thank You. Right from childhood, you are taught to say Thank You. By the time we grow into adults, it has become a part of us. We use the words mechanically, in a businesslike way. The words Thank You rarely carry the emotion that they are supposed to: gratitude. In fact, we base our whole life on the opposite emotion: expectation. In our relationships, we demand love. In society, we demand attention. From ourselves, we demand better and better performance. And from God, we demand everything that no one else can give us! We keep on asking, demanding – without giving thanks for what we already have.

Gratitude is not some kind of morality that is imposed upon you. It is a basic principle for your own happiness! As long as you keep wanting, you are under the control of external events. When you live in gratitude, no one or nothing else can touch your happiness.

When you live with expectations, there is bound to be a gap between your expectations and their fulfillment. The moment one desire is satisfied, ten more will spring up. Of course, in everyone's life, there will be some ups and downs. There will always be some unfulfilled desires. It is natural. As they say, it's simply a questions of whether you choose to see the glass as half full or half empty!

As long as you focus on what you don't have, you will sense a vacuum in your life. The words, "I want…" is like a black hole. It is sure to swallow up whatever you already have in your life, and leave you feeling empty.

Don't pay gratitude, become gratitude! Gratitude is the most effortless path to lifelong happiness.

In your own life, just think of the things you are wishing for right now. Make a list. Now make a list of the things that you already have. Which list makes you happy, and which list makes you uneasy? The answer is obvious. So which list should you be focusing on? Every living thing has the sense to focus on preserving its own happiness! Why don't we? In Bharat, we have a beautiful concept: it is the giver who says Thank You! This is because, the other has given him a chance to give, has accepted his offering. In Bharat it is considered a sin to take, and a privilege to give. So the giver thanks the taker for doing him a favor, for accepting his offering. But I say, when you give and accept without expectations, both become sacred acts.

As Shakespeare says so beautifully about compassion: both he who gives and he who receives are blessed, The only way to have to live connection with reality, with existence, is through gratitude. Whether you want to base your life on asking or on gratitude is entirely up to you. When you are loving, flowing, filled with gratitude, you will always feel the tremendous energy of Existence flow through you.

Don't say thank you, be a thank you!

Don't pay gratitude, become gratitude!

This is Truth – accepting whatever life gives you with reverence and gratitude.

Gratitude is the most effortless path to lifelong happiness.

Gratitude is the space of Choicelessness

I am cracking an important knot which keeps ignorance alive in you. I am cracking the head of the ignorance. If you are aware that trillions of possibilities are in front of you, you will not have any desire. You will experience anasayam; means where not only there is desirelessness, the possibilities of desires gets burnt. You may think how can it be.

If there are billions of possibilities in front of me, naturally I will be having so many desires to have this choice, that choice, that choice, that choice. No.! When there are billions of possibilities in front of you, billions of choices in front of you, suddenly you will feel like resting in choicelessness.

The decision to rest in choicelessness happens when you see trillions of choices in front of you. When trillions of possibilities are in front of you, you just decide relaxing into choicelessness is the best. You feel the ability to choose is more powerful, important, energetic, fulfilling, than any choice you make.

Understand, the moment you start making choices your freedom of being in choicelessness is getting restricted. The moment you choose you will be choosing one language. Now you are in bondage of acting only in that language realm. Till you choose, you have a freedom of all languages. The moment you choose you will take birth in Bharat, now you are bound by the entire plus and minuses of this Hindu society.

Till you choose you are beyond the plus and minuses of Hindu society. Every choice you make takes away some part of being choiceless from

you. So when there are trillions of choices in front of you, you suddenly decide 'Wow being choiceless is the best thing. Being choiceless is the ultimate experience.' The person who is being choiceless will be the infinite creator.

Understand, try resting in choicelessness. You will see the amount of wealth you will create and attract around you without grabbing. Relax into the space of gratitude: 'you are showered with so much; trillions of choices are there in front of you.' When you realize trillions of choices are there in front of you, you will just relax in choiceless awareness.

Gratitude is the opening of many possibilities

Understand just a few days before we celebrated my enlightenment day. I am telling you very directly. All that happened on that day, I wanted to put it in very plain words to you. I just recognized I am alive and I realized that 'I am Alive'.

This opens thousands of possibilities in the realms of mysticism, in the realms of life; in the realms of physical health, mental health, wealth, knowledge, enlightenment, and relationships. In every realm that you feel is the essence of life or necessary for a happy life, and finally being happy without anything in all realms.

I suddenly felt in each realm thousands of possibilities are opening for me, because I am alive. All I did is, I recognized that I am alive and I realized that thousands of possibilities are opening in front of me, billions of possibilities are opening up in front of me, and I started celebrating.

Recognizing that I am alive is sat – truth. Recognizing that billions of possibilities are there in front of me is chit - consciousness. Celebrating 'Wow' is ananda; that's all. Just I experienced satchitananda, the glimpse of satchidananda, on that day. That's what I call enlightened, enlightenment. And just decide today you will recognize you are alive.

You are alive means what? Now millions of possibilities are opening in front of you. What millions, billions! What billions, trillions of possibilities are opening in front of you! You can be a good father or you can be a bad father. You can be a good brother or you can be a bad brother. You can be a good friend or you can be a bad friend. You can be healthy or you can be sick. But all are possibilities.

Thousands of possibilities are opening up in front of you. That is enough reason to celebrate. Understand, when you realize trillions of possibilities are open in front of you, you will become desire-less.

Your Emotions can reprogram your DNA

Your thoughts and emotions can alter your DNA. Scientist Daniel Winter and his heart coherence team found proof that human emotions can reprogram your DNA and shape your immune system.

Scientist and researcher Gregg Braden also gives evidence on how emotions can change your DNA. In case of gratitude, love and appreciation, DNA responds by relaxing and lengthening, becoming longer; just by simply feeling love.

Scientists have experimented that the change in emotions can change the shape of our DNA. They infer that emotions can change our physical DNA and when we change, the world around us changes.

Understand, emotions can change our physical DNA and when we change, the world around us changes. Again I always tell people, be blissful, wealth will be attracted towards you. You will attract all the right things, right situations and right happenings. The world around you will change. The scientists are saying the same thing in different, different, different words.

Understand, even diseases are linked to your emotions. If you are suffering with diabetes it is related to the suffering that your desires and thoughts are not going to bring fulfillment to you. Fear is responsible for blood pressure. Constant fear raises the blood pressure. If your survival instinct is constantly challenged, your blood pressure will go up.

If you are constantly suffering with the shrinking idea of guilt then this is responsible for arthritis. If you are suffering with the memories of physical, mental, and emotional pain, that is directly responsible for your relationships; you will be unable to expand in your life and the identity you feel. Understand, some emotional pain if it is carried strongly in your system you will stop expanding.

Therefore, every emotion can be connected, everything, can be connected to the major diseases people suffer. So altering your emotions can alter you DNA and even cure you of your diseases.