Dear Brothers and Sisters
on the Path,
Namaste and Hearty pranams
to all of you. I feel very happy to share with
you my thoughts on “gratitude” on
the holy occasion of Pujya Babuji Maharaj’s
107th birthday celebrations.
His Love for humanity is not easily fathomed
by us. Not knowing its depths, we all feel with
certainty His love and affection towards us.
This is what has enabled us to meet in His thought.
Howsoever we love Him, we also feel with certainty
that His love for us is far far greater by any
magnitude we can imagine. Not only that, but
the Love of the Master is felt so intensely
pure, pristine and unconditional deep within,
that it is most impossible to describe. For
this precious Love which is now the heritage
of whole universe and we are the forerunners
imperiencing it, gratitude to Him is then perhaps
too small a word to reciprocate what we should
feel.
We all understand what gratitude is. Simply
put it is a feeling of being grateful or expressing
gratefulness for something that has happened
in our interest.
It should not remain merely a feeling at the
surface but a deep feeling in the core of the
heart that should make us act in the sense of
the gratitude. If we don’t act out of
the feeling of gratitude, the feeling alone
will be hollow and of no use. Thus if we are
to express true gratitude, the feeling should
be accompanied with appropriate actions that
express gratitude. In this sense gratitude is
a not merely a feeling but an attitude.
As practicants of Natural Path,
what is it that we should be grateful for?
There are few aspects as I understand
• The first thing that
has happened in our interest is that we have
been introduced in the Natural Path with the
right guidance. We continuously have support
of the Master and we are, no matter what our
deservancy, being showered by His Grace. This
is the first and foremost reason to have gratitude.
• Then gratitude is the attitude we are
asked develop as stated in commandment 5 and
commandment 7 given by the Master. This is not
very easy and depends on the spiritual transformation
one has undergone.
• In the wake of spiritual progress we
make, we start understanding the meaning of
life and also learn to act accordingly. We also
enjoy the calm state of minds. There is every
reason to keep the sense of gratitude towards
Master alive for whatever progress or transformation
that happens, lest we may attribute the progress
to our efforts than to His Grace. Not only would
this be wrong, it is simply disastrous to our
pursuit.
Let us first see the first
aspect of gratitude which is elementary to for
any practicant. Gratefulness can be felt and
reciprocated only when we understand the value
of what has been offered to us.
Now do we consider our getting introduced in
the Natural Path as the most fortunate things
to happen to us?
Many of us are attached to our own notions of
God, Divinity, and Ultimate etc. Not just that,
we are confused and disturbed and before coming
on the path we had no proper guidance of how
life should be lived. We harbor so many fears
and unknowingly succumb to those. The first
stroke of silence we get during sittings with
our trainer is a welcome contrast to the disturbed
state of mind we come from. If we are to have
gratitude for this offering of silence, we at
least will start to put some effort in our sadhana
as the practice of Natural Path requires. If
we don’t value this, chances are we will
continue to dwell in our disturbed state of
mind. Master out of His kindness will grant
us the state of silence several times, but it
is up to us to value it and put the earnest
efforts due on our side.
When this happens, one gets the imperience of
something profound happening within. The feelings
of happiness, joy, freedom are indescribable.
This propels one to move on the path with more
rigor and seriousness. As one puts serious efforts
the love for Master sprouts in the heart. This
love continues to grow and the imperience of
something profound becomes most profound. It
does not come as conscious knowledge per se
but we feel within that we are steered out of
darkness in which we were stumbling and falling
before. The grossened sense of individual independence
starts melting giving way to simple dependence
on Master. As we move on the path, we understand
that it is not just our happiness in individual
capacity but the happiness of all we strive
for. Our introduction on the path through the
process of Pranahuti in Dr KCV Order is surely
the most sacred thing that has happened to any
of us. We all ought to have gratitude for this
wondrous event that has opened the doorway to
real life.
We will be gratitudinal in this respect only
when we are sincere about the goal and value
the tremendous help and support provided to
us by our brothers and our Revered guide Sri
KC Narayana ji. We also don’t fully comprehend
the extent of help we receive.
All is of course Master’s support coming
to us, but by maintaining gratitude for brothers
who are helping us on the path, helps us not
to take their hard efforts for granted. Loss
of gratitude will lead to non-yielding and insincerity
of our efforts.
Without the fundamental attitude of gratitude
for the help we are getting on the path, I feel
it will be difficult to reduce the attitude
of ‘I’ ness.
One more point I wish to share.
We all need to have tremendous gratitude for
Masters of the Order not just for expounding
the Master or Special Personality but also the
way Dr. KCV Order is structured. We are saved
from the traps of gurudom by following the Order
as it stands.
Now coming to the second aspect
of gratitude relating to Commandment 5 and Commandment
7. Commandment 5 talks about being thankful
for the miseries taking them as Divine blessings.
To express gratitude for miseries does not appear
easy. When all our efforts in life have been
to dodge miseries, how do we suddenly be thankful
for miseries? There is an inversion needed in
our thinking and this inversion is 180 degree
with respect to our perspective in life. If
we remember the Love we feel for our Master,
there is something within our heart that tells
us to follow His command no matter what the
intellect or our mind tells us. It is this instinct
that needs to be trusted for mind or intellect
is a useless tool to analyze the need to be
grateful here. Because we have had the imperience
of Nothingness by His Grace, we have an acceptance
of this commandment and following the commandment
is possible. I don’t think we would be
in any position to follow this commandment had
we not had His Grace. The same goes with commandment
7. To not be revengeful for wrongs of others
is not common thinking. Again here we have to
train ourselves to invert our thinking and follow
His command. It is surely possible because we
are all very fortunate to have His Grace.
As we follow the system sincerely
and see the changes in our attitudes, we gain
meaning in life. We are on the path and also
feeling our transformation. Whom do we attribute
our transformation to?
Our system is called Path of
Grace. Every iota of our progress we owe it
to the Master. It is His Grace alone that moves
us on the path and our continuous prayer is
for His Grace alone. So when we get it, how
can we not be grateful? Master does not ask
for this but it is our duty. If we recall our
state before we started sadhana, it would be
easy to know why we should be grateful.
I am reminded of a small story
about a poor but happy man who used to be in
ragged clothes all the time. He was poor but
was very hard working, humble and had faith
in God. At the end of the day’s hard work,
he used to lock himself in a room for sometime
and then come out. No one knew what he did in
the room but this was his daily practice. Slowly
he worked his way up by sheer hard work. He
now had some wealth. No more he had to wear
ragged clothes. He continued his daily practice
of locking in his room every night. As time
passed, by this man assumed a regal status,
got married, had a palatial house with servants
and all possible luxuries. Yet, this practice
of locking in the room every night continued.
Despite his richness, he remained humble, hard
working and unassuming of his richness. Since
he had many servants around him now, they became
curious as to what this man does every night
in a locked room. Curious to know whether the
man counts his wealth secretly in the locked
room, the servants once decided to spy on him.
They got secretly inside the room in the evening.
To their surprise, they only found a mirror
and a bag of ragged clothes in the room. They
decided to wait till the rich man comes, hoping
that there might be some hidden treasure somewhere.
Later in the night the rich man walked in the
secret room. He removed his regal clothes and
put on the ragged clothes he used to wear in
his old days of poverty. He stood in front of
the mirror for sometime silently. Then he put
back his regal clothes and walked out of the
room. The servants got baffled by this peculiar
behavior and could not hold their curiosity
anymore. They came out of their hiding and asked
their master on what he achieves with this regular
practice. The rich man replied, “When
I put back my old ragged clothes and reflect
on myself, it reminds me of the days of poverty
when I remembered God. If I worked hard, it
was He who rewarded it. I do this practice so
that I may never forget Him in any circumstances
and the sense of gratitude remains alive towards
Him who is the giver of all.”
For the practicants of Natural
path, the analogy is the spiritual richness
we are having in bountiful by the Grace of the
Master. We don’t have to resort to remembering
our old self everyday, we can simply maintain
a subtle thought that all progress is granted
by Him only. That is the best way to have gratitude
for the tremendous richness that is continuously
being showered on us. If we observe our prayer,
the last line says, “Thou art the only
God and power to bring us up to that stage”.
Gratitude then is implicit.
I close with a prayer that
out of the deepest gratitude we have, we not
squander the Grace that has fallen in our lot
and put the earnest effort to become befitting
disciples of the Great Master.
Thank you
Sincerely
Vidyadhar Joshi |
