Universal Thanksgiving

You may have often heard people say, “I am thankful to God that I have my own house in the city and I am thankful to God that He has given me children. I am thankful to God that I have my own business. I am thankful to God that I have two cars, and so on.” This kind of thanksgiving is minimal. This kind of gratitude cannot become like a river which flows on and on, whereas that gratitude which God wants should continue flowing in your hearts like rivers and oceans.

When such great thanksgiving is done, it is produced when you have that feeling of extended gratitude, indicating that you are not just focusing on your own self but are rather able to associate yourself with other human beings. When you think in this way, only then is that high quality of gratitude engendered which may be called universal thanksgiving.

When a son makes very good progress, his father is very happy to see this, because in his son’s progress he sees his own progress. If the son is in America and making great progress and the father is in India, even despite such a great distance between them he is still happy to hear the news of his son’s progress.

Moreover, if you want great gratitude to well up in your heart you shall have to associate with all of humanity. In such a situation, the progress of other human beings will start appearing as if it is your own progress. When regarding personal blessings, you feel a minor degree of gratitude, if you associate yourself with the whole of humanity then a billion, trillion degrees of thankfulness will arise within you. If formerly, there was just a drop of thanksgiving in your heart, you will now start feeling that a whole sea of gratitude is flowing within your heart.