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Gratitude*

<...> Gratitude is divine. In this century, if anything has been lost it is gratitude.

  

Do you know that when you are breathing in it is not you who is breathing in? – because the moment the breath does not come in you will not be able to take it in. Are you sure that it was you who was born? No, it was not you. You did not play any conscious role in your birth, it was not your decision. Are you aware how amazing the small body that you have received is? It is the greatest miracle on earth. You eat a little food and this small stomach of yours digests it – this is a great miracle.

Science has advanced so much, but if we were to open up large factories and engage thousands of specialists it would still be difficult to digest a single chappati and turn it into blood. It is so difficult to digest a chappati and transform it into blood, and this body of yours is performing miracles twenty-four hours a day – this small body, a few bones, a little flesh. Scientists say that the body is made up of materials that would cost four or at the most five rupees. It is not made of costly materials. Such a great miracle is with you for twenty-four hours a day and you are not grateful to it!

Have you ever loved your body? Have you ever kissed your hands? Have you ever loved your eyes? Have you ever realized what an amazing thing is taking place? It is very unusual to find someone among you who has loved his eyes and who has kissed his hands, who has experienced gratitude that this amazing thing is happening without his knowledge and even without his participation.

So first of all be grateful to your body. Only someone who is grateful to his body can be grateful to other people’s bodies. First of all become filled with love for your body, because only someone who is filled with love for his own body is capable of loving other people’s bodies. The people who are teaching you to be against your body are irreligious. The people who are telling you that the body is your enemy, that it is evil, that it is this and that, are irreligious. The body is a great miracle. The body is amazingly helpful – be grateful to it.

What is this body? This body is made up of five elements – be grateful to the body, be grateful to these five elements.

What will happen to you if one day the sun dies? Scientists say that in four million years the sun will die: it has given enough light, it is becoming empty, and a day will come when it will die. Right now we are under the impression that the sun will rise every day. But a day will come when people will go to bed thinking that the sun will rise tomorrow and it will not rise. And then what will happen? Not only will the sun die, life itself will die because life is sustained by it, because all heat and energy are sustained by it.

You sit by the side of the ocean: have you ever thought that seventy percent of your body consists of ocean water? Man was born on land, but micro-organisms first came into existence in the ocean. And you will be surprised to know that even now the proportion of salt to water in your body is the same as in the ocean. And when this proportion in the body is slightly disturbed you get sick.

Sitting by the side of the ocean, do you ever remember that you also have something of the ocean inside you? You should be grateful to the ocean for the ocean which is inside you, and you should be grateful to the sunlight for the sun which is inside you, and you should be grateful to the wind which is moving your breath. You should be grateful to the sky and the earth that made you. This I call gratitude, divine gratitude.

©Photo from Ojas archive 
©Photo from Ojas archive 

You cannot become religious without this gratitude. How can an ungrateful man become religious? Once you begin to experience this gratitude constantly, you will be surprised – this gratitude will fill you with so much peace, with so much mystery. And then you will understand one thing: that you are not worthy of being given all these things, but because you have all these things you will be filled with thankfulness. You will be filled with gratitude because what you have received will give you a sense of fulfillment.

Express your gratitude. Find ways to develop gratefulness and your meditation will deepen through it. And not only your meditation, but your whole life will change tremendously. Your life will become very different, it will become something completely new.

Jesus was crucified and when he was dying he said, “Father, forgive them. Please forgive them because one, they don’t know what they are doing” – that was his compassion – “and two, there was a distance between you and me, and now that gap has closed. They have helped me to drop the distance that was there between us. For that I am grateful to them.”

So when you relate with anyone in your life, constantly remember your gratitude. You will find your life becoming full of wonder. <...>

 

* - excerpt from OSHO. The Path of Meditation.

Updated on 14-09-2015







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