We all have certain impurities within us that sabotage our attempts to live more holistically and wholesomely. One such inner impurity is greed, which fixates our consciousness on all the things that we don’t have. It induces within us a strong, seemingly irresistible craving to possess those things, no matter what the cost may be, even if that cost involves crossing serious ethical or legal boundaries. That’s why thoughtful people try to stay away from greed. And the Bhagavad-gita cautions that greed is one of the gates to hell. The more we give in to greed, the more we make our life hellish.

While generally greed is considered to be unhealthy and sometimes even toxic, the underlying longing for more is itself not a bad thing. Every day when we wake up in the morning, if we look for something fresh to appreciate in our life, if we look for some fresh insight into the things that we already have, if we look for a fresh perspective by which to enhance our appreciation for the things that we have, then that very longing for more which is typified as greed can become not just our friend but also specifically our friend in our search for cultivating gratitude.

When we look for ways in which we try to be grateful, as the Bhagavad-gita recommends (17.16), then we will find that the universe is filled with so many things of beauty and mystery. When we are feeling discontent or worried about something while walking back home at night after a long day’s work, we could look at the beauty of the night sky. By raising our eyes beyond our immediate preoccupations, we can find something of beauty to be grateful for even amid the turbulence going on in our life. And as our appreciation for that beautiful sky increases, we will find that the greed for gratitude will both open the doors externally for us to take our consciousness on pathways to see many many things that we can be grateful for. And it will open the door of our hearts internally to a treasury where gratitude can become not just an occasional emotion but a regular disposition, thereby steadily and strongly enriching our life.

Summary:

Greed is the enemy of gratitude, except when we are greedy to be grateful.

Think it over:

  • Why is greed unhealthy?
  • How can greed become the friend of gratitude?
  • How can you use greed constructively in your cultivation of gratitude?

Audio explanation of the article is here: https://gitadaily.substack.com/p/greedy-to-be-grateful

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17.16: And satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purification of one’s existence are the austerities of the mind.