In the English language, there is a phrase that elderly people use all the time, “we must count our blessings, and not go on moaning about things.” Americans have even ritualized this practice by even celebrating Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of every November. On this day they celebrate the harvest and other blessings of the past year.

This practice was modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English pilgrims in the US regions of Plymouth and Wampanoag. People gather around the table and give thanks for their family, friends, and the decent food they’re about to eat.

The idea of thanksgiving got extended to military victories or the end of a drought. Some talk about feeling gratitude every day and not just once in a year. It once again got ritualized in the form of saying grace before our meals – thanking God for the food they were about to eat. A Vietnamese proverb says, “when eating fruit, remember the one who had planted it.”

The idea is that we must reflect upon our present blessings and not on our past misfortunes. Epictetus famously said, “he is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not but rejoices for those which he has.”

Now let us understand gratitude from a scientific point of view.

Some authors have talked about the role of gratitude in dealing with our sadness, anxiety, and fear.

The feeling of gratitude can be seen as a positive emotion and when you try to create it by way of having certain thoughts in your mind, these thoughts need a space in your mind, and your negative thoughts are automatically pushed aside, and in due course, they perish if they don’t get your attention on a continual basis. People who find it difficult to pull themselves out of sadness can use gratitude as a tool to get out of their stuckness in the sadness.

There is another logic behind creating feelings of gratitude or any other positive feeling. We’re already overdoing the negative by blaming others and our destiny and dwelling on our misfortunes and all the bad things that are happening in our life.  We don’t create negative emotions by choice, they happen to us despite our desire not to have them.  Whereas positive thoughts and emotions must be invited. However, the positives can also happen to spiritually advanced people without making any effort, the fruition of their past karmas. But for a common person, some effort is needed to bring in positive emotions and stop the negative emotions in their track. Practicing gratitude is a tool to achieve that.

However, from a scientific point of view, it doesn’t make sense that we should be thankful for nature or the existence of God for all the good in our life but should take full personal responsibility for all the bad things in our life. If I should thank God or mother nature for all the good in my life, mother nature should also take the blame for the bad happening in my life. It doesn’t seem logical that I take full blame for the bad, and God takes all the credit for the good.

I remember a very good-hearted porter who worked in a hospital in India where I used to work. He was a wonderful person; always calm and composed, very honest and diligent, never complaining, never talking back, full of energy, etc. I would put him ahead of many senior consultants in decency and mental stability. I once asked him, “have you thought of doing something different, working somewhere else and improving your lot, you seem to have so much potential.” The idea at the back of my thought was that he would be highly successful in whatever new venture he started. His answer surprised me. He said I’m so thankful to God that he has brought me to this office and given me this job, when I compare myself with all my folks back home in the remote tribal village, I am the one who has been most successful of all the people in the village, and they all look up to me.”

His gratitude had sealed his fate in that office, until his karmas or grace of God pushed him out of that place without his will, as he will not move on voluntarily. It may be that one’s gratitude can limit one’s growth in the external world although it can promote one’s growth in the inner world. However, one can argue against this assertion by saying that having gratitude shouldn’t stop one from working harder and achieving more, but in my opinion, it does impact one motivation to achieve more.

The idea of gratitude is slightly different in the Eastern world. I haven’t come across anybody, apart from very few those who have learned it from their western colleagues, who will say grace before eating.  It’s like a child saying thank you to his mother every time she serves him food.

In the Eastern world, gratitude extends much beyond the good that is in your life, it is about your existence. You should remember and love God, not just for all the good things in your life, but because you exist, you are alive, you breathe and you are able to enjoy things in life.

Conclusion

A Sikh sermon in Guru Nanak’s sayings, in Salok Mahalaa 9, goes like this: –

“He has given you your body, wealth, property, peace, and beautiful mansions. Says Nanak, listen, why don’t you remember the Lord in meditation? The Lord is the Giver of all peace and comfort. There is no other at all. Says Nanak, listen, mind: meditating in remembrance on Him, salvation is reached. Remembering Him in meditation, salvation is reached; vibrate and meditate on Him, O my friend.”

Guru Nanak is not asking us to thank God, but to remember him, vibrate and meditate on him. Nanak says to immerse your mind in Him like fish in the water. The fish doesn’t say thank you to water every day.

If God was separate from us, thanking him makes sense, but the Eastern thinking is that God is the ground of our Being. God is everywhere and you are part of God, so thanking God will be like thanking yourself.

But remembering and vibrating upon God is like remembering our true self and vibrating upon ourselves will be no different from vibrating upon God.

Read Less