Gratitude-II

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Vedanta Kesary (1992, January p.2-5)

Not saying thank-you is not the same thing as not being grateful. If our parents did their duty by looking after and caring for us, we must do our duty by being grateful for all that they have done. A million thank-yous cannot compensate for even a tiny fraction of their sacrifice and love. Our gratitude to them, therefore, must showforth through our lives in the form of love and respect, obedience and service. When the Vedic rishi asked his students to look upon their parents as gods, he certainly had this idea of gratitude in mind. The guru is our spiritual parent; so gratitude to him too takes the form of love and respect, obedience and service. A faithful, vigorous and enthusiastic practice of the disciplines taught by the guru is one sure indication that the disciple is everlastingly grateful to him.

What about our secular teachers, our friends, our workmates, and just everyone from whom we have received something or other? We must be grateful to all of them by utilizing in the best possible way whatever we have received. We must be also ready to give them or share with them whatever they are in need of. But it is best not to link up what we have received with what we give. If such connection somehow takes place, gratitude becomes just another name for sanctified shopkeeping a very subtle form of give-and-take: 'I do this for you because you did something for me some time ago.' Though it may not be expressed in such a blunt manner, the idea of selfless service is completely absent in this transaction. True gratitude and 'shopkeeping' cannot go together.

We must be grateful to Nature for the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the land we live on. The mountains, the sun, the rain, the rivers... Nature's treasures are infinite and she shares them with all, freely and ungrudging. Our gratitude to Nature should be expressed through the responsible and positive use we make of natural resources. Nature has sufficient to meet all our needs, but not enough to quench our greed. Those who are engaged in a greedy, selfish exploitation of Nature's treasures are nothing less than ungrateful brutes

They are the cause of the environmental pollution on this fragile planet on which we live.