Gratitude

A drop of water on a hot plate takes little time to disappear. It makes some noise and it evaporates.Gratitude in our life seems to disappear even faster. We seem to forget how much we have grown, how much we have received. The mind seeks more and more. And in every wanting of more and more, it forgets the past very easily.So gratitude rises in everybody, but disappears very soon. Today we cannot say that no one is grateful. Everyone is grateful, but for the moment and then it is finished.

Grace is that gratitude which can remain all the time. If gratitude remains around the year like the evergreen, you call it grace.It is grace. It is like the snow in the Himalayas that stays throughout the year. It doesn’t just fall and disappear. Whatever falls on the highest peak stays. When there is gratitude, complaints disappear. When complaints arise, gratitude disappears, gratefulness disappears. When there is a complaint in the mind, there is discontent, frustration, dejections, depression. All that follows.

If you are not grateful, if there is no gratefulness, no gratitude, then you will start complaining. You will find fault. Even if there is none, you will try to see it. You will find it. Your mind will do it for you. You won’t even need to try hard. Your mind can easily pick it up. So and so did not smile at me. Or he smiled but did not show all his teeth. It was less than a full smile.This is the lower journey.

Gratitude is the plateau, the middle. And as you rise above that, there is grace. When gratitude in you stays, that very gratitude flows out from you as grace. Wherever you see divine grace flowing, there you will find gratitude.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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