Words of The mother on Gratitude

There is nothing that gives you a joy equal to that of gratitude. You hear a bird sing, you see a lovely flower, you look at a little child, observe an act of generosity, read a beautiful sentence, look at the setting sun, anything whatever: suddenly this comes upon you, this kind of emotion, so deep, so intense, that the world manifests the Divine, that there is something behind the world which is the Divine.

And yet, of all movements, the one that perhaps gives the most joy, an unalloyed joy, untainted by egoism- is spontaneous gratitude.

It is something very special. It isn’t love, it isn’t self-giving. It is a very full joy. Very full.

It is a very special vibration unlike anything other than itself. It is something that widens you, that fills you, that is so fervent!

Of all the movements within the reach of human consciousness, it is certainly the one that draws you most out of your ego.

When you can enter this vibration in its purity, you realize immediately that it has the same quality as the vibration of Love: it is directionless.

Ultimately, gratitude is only a very slightly coloured shade of the essential vibration of Love.

- The Mother

(The Mother, ‘The Spiritual Significance of Flowers’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry)