We may have heard that gratitude arises when we appreciate the good things in our life. But what if such appreciation doesn’t foster gratitude? We need to consider how we appreciate those things: do we see them as rights that we have earned or as gifts that we have been given?
When we contemplate the good things in our life, if we look at the things that we did right to get those things, we will feel proud and entitled. Consequently, we won’t feel grateful but will feel resentful about losing those things.
Instead, while contemplating our life’s good things, we can look at the things that happened right without our having done much to make them happen right. When we thus dwell on the undeniable role of providence in every one of the good things in our life, we will feel humble and grateful.
Suppose we are in a financially strong position. We could see that wealth as our right, as something we have earned by our hard work and intelligent planning. Even if that is true, is it the full truth? Could we have earned that wealth if we hadn’t had basic good health? Even if we feel that we have earned our good health by our healthy habits, did we create the functional robustness of our body? No, an intricate arrangement sustains everything about the working of our body, including even its fundamental capacity to digest the food we eat. And all this arrangement is a divine gift (Bhagavad-gita 15.14).
By such analysis, we can see that all the good things in our life are either gifts or have arisen from gifts. And that vision will foster gratitude.
One-sentence summary:
Gratitude doesn’t come just by appreciating the good things in our life; it comes by appreciating those things primarily as gifts given to us, not as rights earned by us.
Think it over:
- What happens when we see a good thing in our life as a right?
- What happens when we see a good thing in our life as a gift?
- To cultivate gratitude, do you need to change your vision of the good things in your life?
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15.14: I am the fire of digestion in the bodies of all living entities, and I join with the air of life, outgoing and incoming, to digest the four kinds of foodstuff.
To know more about this verse, please click on the image
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