The Secret to Making Life a Beautiful Journey The Law of Gratitude

This post is also available in: Hindi Marathi

Nature functions based on certain unseen laws. Aligning our thinking, our actions, and our faith with these laws makes the journey of life effortless and joyful. The visible laws of nature are quite evident. For example, if one were to thrust their hand into a fire, it would be burnt. We know this; it is evident. This will happen to anyone, irrespective of how old they are, how good a person they are; the law never fails. Just as evident is the law of gravity. These are examples of the visible and physical laws of nature.

But there are certain invisible or unseen laws; their functioning is not as evident as that of physical laws, but their effect or result is quite evident. We cannot see them in action, but we feel their presence through their effects. One such wonderful unseen law is the Law of Gratitude.

Imagine you were to do something for a friend or a relative–perhaps cook a particular dish they like or give them a gift of their liking for their birthday. Now upon receiving the gift, let’s say the friend or relative responds disappointedly. Would that make you feel eager to give them more in the future? Of course not, right? Now imagine the opposite. They are so happy to receive your gift and are full or gratitude and praises about what you have given them. Needless to say, they’ll be receiving many more gifts from you in the future!

Likewise, when we express heartfelt gratitude for all the things that we have in our life, when we count our blessings and express thankfulness for them, Nature reciprocates by giving us even more blessings to be thankful for. Nature always responds in abundance because abundance is its inherent quality. This is in accordance with yet another unseen law—the Law of Reciprocation—which states that Nature always reciprocates likewise and in multiples.

The heartfelt feeling of gratitude is the seed that we sow. Nature works on it, just as it works on any other seed, and gives us back in multiples. When we sow a single seed in the soil, Nature works on it and gives us back several in return; this is physically evident. The same thing happens with the seed of gratitude too, the only difference being that in this case Nature works in the invisible realm. The physical evidence of Nature’s work becomes visible only in the form of the result, not before. Anything that happens in the unseen—whether positive or negative—is driven by faith. The seed we sow could be that of gratitude or it could be a negative seed of anger or hatred. In both the cases, we will receive an abundance of what we sow. Hence, we need to be conscious of what we are thinking because that decides what seeds we are sowing. These natural laws never fail.

Express gratitude for every little thing

To see the positive effect of this law in your life and to derive its complete benefit, cultivate the habit of expressing gratitude for everything you have, however significant or little it may be. Be thankful for everything around you. You could look around right now and find at least ten things you are thankful for! The phone or the computer you are reading this on, your table, your home, your friends, your relatives, your job, your hobbies, your skills, the trip you just took, the party you had last night, the guidance you keep getting in the form of such content. There are several material and abstract things that you will find in your life that you can be thankful for.

When you get up in the morning, express gratitude for the sun, express gratitude to God for giving you yet another day to live and experience this beautiful world, express your gratitude towards the earth on which you walk. At lunch or dinner, express gratitude to the farmer and Nature for the food that nourishes you and to those who cooked and served you. There are several more such things that we will find to be thankful for every day. It is surprising to know that the more things we are thankful for, the more we will keep finding every day!

Albert Einstein, the genius and creative scientist, when asked about the secret of his success said, “I express gratitude from my heart for everything.” When someone helped him, he would repeatedly express his gratitude for that person and when someone didn’t, he would express his gratitude for that too, as the refusal made him do the task himself and get better at it!

Gratitude has been given a special place in every religion. If we were to carefully study the various religious faiths in the world, we will observe that nearly all of them have some ritual associated with expressing gratitude. However, with the passage of time, people have forgotten the importance of expressing gratitude. When our perspective towards life is that of a sense of lack or not-having, we get disappointed and start complaining. Slowly our actions express this disappointment. These actions that stem from disappointment act as seeds and naturally we receive what we express from Nature—even more disappointment—and in multitudes! On the other hand, if we shift our perspective from the sense of lack to the feeling of abundance; from not-having to having, expressing gratitude becomes easy and as a result, we receive even more.

The Law of Abundance states that Nature has an abundance of everything for everyone—career, friends, companionship, joy, love, hpeace, prosperity, time, health, enthusiasm, success, spiritual wisdom, and a lot more. Anyone who feels gratitude for these things receives them in abundance.

Realizing the power of gratitude today, will help you achieve everything that you have always wanted from life. If it is prosperity that you want, you will not only receive money but also the spiritual understanding which will help you sustain your prosperity. Just becoming rich is not the answer, for there are plenty of examples of people who have come into sudden riches and squandered away their fortunes to find themselves back to the feeling of lack.

Your success will be sustained by your awareness and humility.

All it takes is a simple shift of focus from lack to the feeling of abundance, of havingness. Shift from being a have-not to being a have. Count your blessings, for when you show gratitude towards the most trivial things, Nature starts sending the best things towards you. Things, situations, people, the whole universe will start working in your favour; to get you want you’ve always wanted.

By being sad about things that they do not have, people are blocking their own path to prosperity. Man’s limited intellect and fixated logic makes him believe that if he was to give something away, he will be left with less of that thing in his life. This does not apply only to money. With this illusion, people shy away from sharing other resources like time, love, knowledge, and much more.

If a farmer were to be miserly in sowing seeds, if he were to think, “Let me keep these seeds for myself and not sow them,” would he receive the abundant harvest? Whatever we give away, returns in multiples. So, open up to giving away as much as you can and express as much gratitude as you can for everything you have and also for the ability to be able to give away! The more you give, the more you shall have! Nature’s ways may sound illogical but is paradoxically true nonetheless.

Do this as an experiment: Count your blessings and express gratitude for them from your heart. It could be for anything—your health, your relations, the money you have, your friends, well-wishers, trees, animals, oxygen, the sun, the moon, rivers, streams, waterfalls, oceans, birds, mountains, your home, the things in your home, your vehicles, the books you read, the knowledge you’ve received. What matters is expressing gratitude and witnessing how Nature functions in your life. Never be a miser in expressing gratitude. Give Nature plenty so that it can respond likewise!

Tell all the people, things and situations in your life from the bottom of your heart: “Thank you for being in my life!”

This is the secret to making life a beautiful and joyful journey!