To feel this way is itself such a rare and beautiful movement. Most human beings simply keep a transactional relation with the Divine. They ask for things with a short or long wish list, give a token amount as advance and the balance after the work is over as if they were paying off for the favour done. That of course is business, not gratitude.
The Mother says that Compassion and Gratitude are essentially psychic qualities. Gentle and modest, rare even among the gods, gratitude is just a little modified expression of love.
To recognize all that the Divine has done and is doing for all of us, not just outwardly, that is the least important aspect of our life to respond to the Grace, but inwardly, holding us through everything, encouraging us to progress despite the difficulties, even turning them into opportunities, saving us from unseen dangers, protecting us even from ourselves, igniting aspiration, endowing us with faith and strength to face the struggles and challenges of life, giving us all that is needed to progress, to bring us to the Path and giving us an aim, our very breath and existence are a Grace. Can one ever be grateful enough?
Yet there is a way to try and express our gratitude towards the Divine, however imperfectly. It is to try to do and be what the Divine wants us to do and be, through acts of service and love towards Him and His creatures, to become one with Him through the Yoga. This is the best way to express our gratitude towards the Divine, to be a living example of His teachings.
One can also give oneself to the Divine, at least something of oneself, in an uncalculating manner, – money, work, life, time, energy, soul, all for Him and His Work upon earth. Even being simply happy is to lessen the Divine burden and can become an expression of gratitude.
Here are some words of the Mother on this rarest of rare quality or virtue.
‘
Gratitude
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Gratitude: it is you who open all the closed doors and let the Grace which saves penetrate deeply.
Gratitude
A loving recognition of the Grace received from the Divine.
A humble recognition of all that the Divine has done and is doing for you.
The spontaneous feeling of obligation to the Divine, which makes you do your best to become less unworthy of what the Divine is doing for you.
Detailed gratitude: the gratitude that awakens in us all the details of the Divine Grace.
Integral gratitude: the whole being offers itself to the Lord in absolute trust.
Mental gratitude: the gratefulness of the mind for what makes it progress.
23 April 1954
The best way to express one’s gratitude to the Divine is to feel simply happy.
23 April 1954
There is no better way to show one’s gratefulness to the Divine than to be quietly happy.
To accept gladly what I give is never selfish.
There is no better cure for egoism than a happy gratefulness.
Always joyfully accept what is given you by the Divine.
A self-willed man cannot be grateful―because when he gets what he wants he gives all the credit for it to his own will, and when he gets what he does not want he resents it badly and throws all the blame on whomever he considers responsible, God, man or Nature.
It is very difficult to keep up your gratitude; for a time it comes very strongly and again it goes back. The Divine can go on tolerating everything in spite of your ingratitude because He knows fully the how and why and wherefore of everything. He knows why you are doing a certain thing. He knows the full working and that is why He can tolerate it.
The nobility of a being is measured by its capacity of gratitude.’
Affectionately,
Alok Da
