Part 2: University Of New Brunswick Fredericton

Question: How can I be more thankful to God?

Sri Chinmoy: Just by thinking of gratitude, we cannot become grateful. Our gratitude is like a magnet that pulls God’s Compassion down to us. But before our gratitude begins to operate, first God has to pull us toward Him. Once God has started to pull us up, then our gratitude begins to grow and we can pull Him down into us.

There is a special way for a seeker to offer thanks or gratitude to God. It is through cheerfulness, constant cheerfulness. A seeker cannot allow depression to enter into his life of aspiration at any time. He always has to be happy in order to be truly grateful. But if his happiness comes from wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance, that is not the right kind of happiness. Real happiness is something within us which constantly makes us feel that we are expanding our consciousness and wholeheartedly embracing the entire world.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day. In Ireland people commemorate this saint with sports, dancing, singing, drinking and being as happy as they can. Ordinary human happiness is found in this kind of fun and enjoyment. But the seeker within us will have a different type of happiness. On St. Patrick’s Day green is worn. Spiritually, green signifies new hope and new satisfaction. For the seeker, happiness is a feeling of new hope, new life, new dawn, new promise, new achievement. These feelings the seeker has to nourish and treasure within himself. If the seeker in us cherishes these divine qualities, automatically our thankfulness to God will grow; our gratitude-flower will blossom and we will be able to offer it at the Feet of the Lord Supreme.

In spiritual happiness, in the happiness that comes from self-giving and aspiration, gratitude looms large. When we have inner happiness, we don’t have to search for gratitude here and there. In our devoted cheerfulness, in our soulful cheerfulness, we are bound to discover constantly-increasing gratitude to the Supreme.