Gratitude

From the time we are children, we are taught that it is polite to say “Thank you” to someone who has offered us a gift. This simple phrase perhaps has become overused and almost automatic. However, when we express this phrase of gratitude in regards to our Master, it becomes unfathomably deep.

Gratitude is born of awareness of our many blessings, seeing what treasures we have been given. Baba Ji suggests that it is a result of a shift in our perspective. Along with grace, gratitude is the result of awareness of our connection with the Master. In Living Meditation it says we can have:

Gratitude to the Master for giving us initiation, for teaching us to meditate, for teaching us what to do with our mind and how to live our life; gratitude for putting us on the right path, for giving purpose and direction to our life, for teaching us, by his example, to love beyond our self without thought of reward. As we look back on the time before he called us to him, we will remember with gratitude the many things done for us even then to transform, and spiritualize, our life.

Understanding our good fortune in having met a Master who bestows these gifts upon us is a pathway to experiencing gratitude. In Buddhism: Path to Nirvana it says:

The work of the enlightened teacher inspires inexpressible gratitude in his disciples. From his blissful abode the teacher comes down in a human form and lives on earth amidst all kinds of difficulties for his disciples’ benefit. He has no selfish purpose of his own. He leaves no stone unturned to awaken, teach, guide, and accompany his disciples, constantly protecting and showering his grace upon all through the inner regions up to his ultimate blissful abode. This is out of sheer love and compassion. Can anyone be a greater benefactor than the Master?

Essentially, the Master comes into this world, becomes like us in appearance and calls to our souls to return with him on the final journey to liberation. He is persistent in this task. If we go astray, he pulls us back; if we turn from him, he turns our face back toward him. Even in adversity Hazur says in Treasure Beyond Measure that, “Whether the turn of events appears to us to be good or bad should be no concern of ours. We do not know the spiritual good which may be hidden behind the apparently bad.” If we can accept this all in gratitude and live in his will, he releases us from the dominance of the five passions. But regardless of our attitude, he remains our true friend for life.

So how can we express our gratitude and thanks to the Master for this great boon? Meditation. Maharaj Charan Singh in Light on Sant Mat says, meditation is “the only way in which we can properly express our gratitude to our Master.” Meditation dissolves all the barriers between the Master and us. Then there is nothing but gratitude because we know our insignificance and his greatness first hand. The words “Thank you” take on their true, deep and abiding meaning for the great gift we have been given.