Giving is Gratitude - Living is Love

Messages from a Himalayan Mystic Series

These messages are meant to be contemplated upon. A casual reading may impart some benefit or some inspiration. However, each message is meant to shed light on the deepest aspects of our inner selves - on life. Hence, contemplation, sometimes, word to word, line to line, can transform our understanding on the subtlest levels and awaken an entirely new perspective on life. Through this new awareness, we can re-orient ourselves, our thoughts and emotions, and our actions towards a more purposeful and fulfilling life.

This message on Gratitude builds on the premise of ‘love is life’ (to read that article, clear here) which was shared earlier. It comes at an extraordinary time for humanity. As foretold by the sages and conveyed by Sri Maharshi a few years ago, we have now entered a tumultuous phase wherein long-ignored corrections that humanity could have undertaken will be leveled on us instead by the forces of nature. The world is currently overwhelmed by fear as we grapple in the dark against this latest communicable threat in the form of the Coronavirus. Our instinct is naturally driving us towards protection, but our over-comforted mind is pulling us into paranoia and panic.

The unlikely act of balance is actually being able to step back and observe our own predicament from the vantage point of Grace in the form of Gratitude. Now, more then ever, is the time to practice Gratitude so that we can utilize the impetus of fear and transform it into a catalyst for inner transformation. After all, Gratitude distances us from the sense of ‘I’, and along with it all the fears and anxiety that our current environment is throwing at us. Fear is about the individual, Gratitude is about everyone.

Giving is Gratitude

Our modern day culture encourages us to strive for unachievable markers of success which are generally related to either money, fame, or power. When our capacity to achieve is dwarfed by unrealistic expectations of success, we are bound to fail, and we are bound to be stressed all along the way to failure. That is the unfortunate condition of most people on the planet today.

Yet even for the lucky, success doesn’t necessarily bring happiness, joy, or love into their lives. The fleeting satisfaction that it may bring momentarily, is quickly set aside as we strive for the next goal. This unrelenting effort also takes a drastic physical and emotional toll on us. At the root of this maddening ambition for success at all costs is our identification with our individuality - which is reinforced by modern society.

Industrial civilizations are founded on the principle that ‘success is life’. Success, as it is understood commonly, requires that we ‘take’ as much as we can from the life around us. We take from the earth, we take from other life on this planet, and we take from our fellow humans. Our success in how well we can take from life translates to economic success and social value in a predominantly material culture. However, this life orientation often corrupts basic human values - compromising on principles of fairness and integrity. Yet, the blind endorsement of society allows us to continue blurring the line of justice. Our proclivity towards ‘taking’ becomes even more insatiable.

Yet, to take is only one aspect of a human being. We are also just as strongly wired to ‘give’. Yet, somehow, this is never emphasized in any of our education or by society. Else, society only considers it meritorious after we have taken enough, or far more than we require, to ‘give back’. Ironically, without the necessary inner purification, even that giving carries the intention of taking. In reality, giving is a quality complete by itself. It is not necessarily an act of material expenditure. And nurturing this quality of giving within us is the single most powerful aspiration that we can form for ourselves - if we are truly concerned with life around us - including our own.

Giving allows us to move the focus away from us to the other. But, as life works, this aspect of gratitude has the benefit of gracing us with lasting happiness, joy, and love. Juxtaposed with the ephemeral sense of happiness or love that we may feel by taking, it is perhaps the most urgent quality that a sensible and caring human being should prioritize in their lives. Life is anyway beckoning for us to heed this call to give as it is desperately trying to balance nature today.

Practice Gratitude - in Action, in Emotion, and in Expression

Gratitude in Action

In today’s world, action is encouraged as a means to empower our individuality. We are willing to go to any length to achieve what we want. But this achievement, as it is all about satisfying ourselves, has little or nothing to do with benefiting others. This obsession with self-gratification, sometimes, at the cost of the other’s well-being, is a very cynical way to live. And in reality, it doesn’t serve us well either in bringing any meaningful life experience such as joy or love.

On the contrary, action which is enshrined in gratitude becomes a way to connect purposefully to others and to all life. Actions based in gratitude become bridges to connect and relate to life. As life is the progenitor of love and joy, connecting to it, helps to establish those qualities in ourselves.

So how does one inculcate gratitude in action? The first step is to fill ourselves with a ‘sense of gratitude’ and initiate a sincere prayer - “may my action benefit others, may it benefit life”. With this feeling, blessed by gratitude, one should then perform any action. Such action becomes a powerful means of bringing grace to other people’s lives and showering life’s blessings. Those showers also fall on us and enable us to practice even more gratitude. And the ways of life are mysterious - we never know when our actions may bring about benefit to countless others, even if that was not the intention - if we are in constant awareness of gratitude in action.

Practicing gratitude in action gradually empowers and strengthens our will. As our will becomes stronger, our ability to impact life within and without gets greatly enhanced. As life is abundant, there are no limits to our empowered will. In fact, eventually the quality of willingness descends upon us which also makes us a receiver of the bounties of life. Once we are willing, and absolutely receptive, we are also wholly fulfilled. This is a kind of fulfillment that no material gain can ever bring to us. This is a kind of fulfillment which comes from emptiness, because only that which is completely empty can receive totally, and be fulfilled. Emptiness is willingness. So empower your will until there is only willingness - the fruit of gratitude in action.

Gratitude in Emotion

One might have noticed that despite our speech or actions, sometimes there is an unintended effect on others that is not consistent with the desired intent. This is because our emotions have not been purified enough and others can sense that inconsistency between what we are feeling and what we are doing. This is especially significant in relationships with loved ones, whether family or friends, but also critical in work relationships or any other meaningful relationship.

The method of purifying our emotions is to refine our inner sentiment by being grateful. We need to integrate gratitude in emotion in the very way we relate to others. To apply this, every relationship should begin with an approach that needs to be purified by inviting gratitude. As we become internally assured of this purity of our approach in relation to the other, we can then initiate a connection with the other. Such a relationship will have a very pure bond as it is born of the seeds of gratitude. Emotions too will flow unconditionally - without a sense of expectation. Such a relationship will thrive because it is rooted in the purity of gratitude.

So as we invite gratitude into our fundamental approach to others, it cleans our own mirror and allows our emotions to reflect that purity. But first, inculcating gratitude in emotion has the effect of removing the haze of disorientation in our lives. It helps us to heal on an emotional and physical level, putting us back together step by step. As we are healed and integrated through gratitude in emotion, a new sense of harmony arises from within - creating not only a balance in living but bestowing an overwhelming feeling of bliss.

When our emotions and actions are aligned, they have a much more powerful impact on the situation. Our presence itself can become a means of influence - in turn helping to purify other’s emotions and uplifting life. Gratitude is like a river. An open heart allows this river of gratitude to receive its waters in the form of purified emotions and flood the life around us with actions rooted in love and grace. This is the way to bring beauty to our lives. This is the highest purpose that we can live out, and the one that will bring us true fulfillment.

Gratitude in Expression

Finally, once we have purified our emotions and integrated our actions with gratitude, we have covered two major realms of life - our relationships and our activity, respectively. However, life is not limited to relationships or activities. Expressing the life within totally is our most fundamental purpose. This expression need not be conditioned to anyone or anything. It can be an end unto itself. And hence, if we don’t invite gratitude into that dimension of our lives, the immutable reality, we will not realize the immensity of what it can offer us. This can only happen by becoming mindful and aware of gratitude in the very core of our being.

The process of becoming mindful of gratitude in our innermost being is facilitated by gratitude in emotion and action. The more we practice the above two methods, the more our awareness of gratitude expands within. However, the expansion of that awareness of gratitude is a process unto itself and we must constantly be mindful of that.

Life is essentially about wholeheartedly expressing ourselves - our knowledge or wisdom, our ideas, our intentions, our purpose, and our very beings. Hence, gratitude in expression becomes vitally important to our practice. Because such expression, in the absence of gratitude, could be perceived by others as reactionary or self-serving. Such a limited expression can be regarded as manipulative, possessive, or aggressive - thereby causing distrust or disturbance in family, community, or society. It may ingratiate us with sections of society but it alienates and divides us from life.

Inviting gratitude every day into ourselves through awareness and prayer allows us to purify our being so that our expression is reflective of love and grace. Any emotion, or word or action or other expression that flows from such a place of sanctity is bound to nurture life.

Moreover, as we express our gratitude, we realize that this itself is the journey of life. There is no other destination to be reached, there is no success that has to be earned, there is no validation that is to be gained - life is complete because our life is an expression of our gratitude. It is an expression of a vessel that is fulfilled and overflowing with ecstasy. The process itself becomes the journey and the destination. When there is no place to be reached, there is no end - there is only the eternal and that is the nature of life - gratitude in expression.

Practicing Gratitude every day induces a field of Grace that eventually turns into Love.

Living is Love

The above three methods are a means of allowing gratitude to permeate all aspects of our life - both within and without. This is the very basis of life. However, it works most effectively only if we engage with the process as sincerely as our breath engages our body to keep it alive and vibrant. If our practice of gratitude is so extensive that there is no difference between the process and the practitioner, only then will we realize the expansive results promised here. We have to breath in gratitude and breathe out gratitude. With each breath, we must emanate its fragrance.

As gratitude grows within us every day, it has an effervescent effect, in turn creating a web of grace that builds and accumulates over time. As this grace reaches out and touches others, through our actions, emotions, and expression, it turns into love and is received as love. This love bridges all life and has a tremendous uplifting potential on not only humanity but the existence itself.

So love is not practiced directly. By moving away from an obsessive attention on ourselves to the other, we learn to give. From takers, we become givers. We become balanced within. Giving, that comes from deep gratitude in action, emotion, and expression, becomes transformational for ourselves and others. It gives way for Grace to enter our lives and be received as Love. As the many embrace this way of life, it has a cascading effect of receiving and spreading love - elevating humanity to the highest purpose of our existence.

Oh Gratitude - Perceive it, Allow it, Reflect it

- Sri Maharshi

July 5, 2020