Gratitude is the next in the spectrum of qualities or virtues on The Mother’s symbol and this shall be the theme of exploration in this October issue of our Newsletter. According to records, the word “gratitude” originated around the 15th century from the medieval Latin word. “gratitudinem” or thankfulness or Latin “gratus”, thankful. The earlier Latin word of the 12th century, “gratia” appears to be a predecessor of “gratus”, meaning (1) a pleasing quality, (2) favour or goodwill and (3) gratitude or thankfulness. In the Sanskrit form, gratitude is referred to as kritagyata.
The Mother refers to this quality as a psychic virtue, a vibration, in its purity, quite akin to the quality of the vibration of Love (note the capital letter that dots the beginning of this word), only slightly varied in its shade of colour. It is a quality that widens one, according to The Mother, and one that is, “within the reach of human consciousness, the one that draws you the most out of your ego.”
So what is this Gratitude, in actual terms, in one’s ordinary life? How is it known, recognised and reciprocated? Perhaps it is a vibration that does not arise when one lives one’s life ordinarily, left to the slow process of evolution and the whims and fancies of one’s nature? One needs to find out, it appears. The Mother says that, “of all movements, [this is] the one that gives perhaps the most joy – an unalloyed joy, untainted by that egoism…”The realization that one can do nothing in one’s small person, that it is only the Divine who moves every atom… in such a state, there is hope of gratitude, as the response to this realization, this feeling of gratitude that wells from within that Grace had taken care of one, whatever the situation. We must have all felt gratitude at one point or other in life, some of us more often than the other. Whatever the case may, how does “gratitude” feel like? What is the vibration of gratitude like? This has to be contemplated upon, lived in order to know for sure the vibration. The Mother’s aid is here too:
“One hears a bird sing, sees a lovely flower, looks at a little child, observes an act of generosity, reads a beautiful sentence, looks at the setting sun, no matter what, suddenly this comes upon you, this kind of emotion – indeed, so deep, so intense – that the world manifests the Divine, that there is something behind the world which is the Divine. “
“It is a very special vibration unlike anything other than itself. It is something that widens you, that fills you, that is so fervent.”
Feelings of wideness, awe, and a kind of thankfulness that one is associated with whatever that gave rise to that feeling – that must be gratitude. We may take a minute to re-live this vibration, instantly feeling grateful for the life we have been given and all the opportunities to excel one’s small self, perhaps. Or else, one does not know this vibration, this quality. But it seems that whatever has been written about it, discussed about makes it a quality worth knowing, worth aspiring to know and live. For who would want to live within the narrow confines of a complaining nature? We do know how limiting one feels within whenever we get into a complaining mode, which is probably diametrically opposite to the movement of gratitude. For gratitude then we aspire, more and more, pure and unalloyed.
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