Many people recognize that gratitude is a quality worth cherishing, for it promotes emotional health and overall well-being. But not many people recognize that our capacity to be grateful is affected by our worldview. Let’s explore how.
Gratitude develops naturally when we focus on how our life is rich with good things. In principle, such a focus can be developed by anyone with any worldview; in practice, such focusing ability is affected by our worldview.
Suppose we have a materialistic worldview: we believe that material things are the sources of pleasure (Bhagavad-gita 16.11). Consequently, not having abundant material things can make us feel incomplete or inadequate on one side and worried and paranoid on the other side. Worse still, the world contains far more material things than we can ever possess. Worst of all, our contemporary world with its ad-driven media constantly dangles before us the things we don’t have. The more we become fixated on the things we don’t have, the tougher it becomes to feel grateful for the things we do have.
In contrast, suppose we have a spiritual worldview: we understand that our happiness depends not so much on the things around us as on the thoughts inside us. And spiritual practices empower us to improve the quality of our thoughts. How? By enabling us to connect with the indwelling Divine who is the inexhaustible source of positive thoughts. When we thus understand that we are already rich with so many sources of fulfillment, we naturally feel content without needing to increase our material possessions. Thus, we can more easily feel grateful.
If we wish to accelerate our endeavors to cultivate gratitude by spiritualizing our worldview, Gita wisdom stands ready to equip us with a coherent and cogent spiritual worldview.
One-sentence summary:
Materialism makes gratitude difficult because it fixates us on the material things we don’t have, whereas spirituality makes gratitude easier because it focuses us on the enriching thoughts that we can always have.
Think it over:
- Why does materialism make gratitude difficult?
- How does spirituality make gratitude easier?
- How can you change your worldview to cultivate gratitude?
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16.11: They believe that to gratify the senses is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus until the end of life their anxiety is immeasurable.
To know more about this verse, please click on the image
materialism always put a spanner on spirituality