Burlingame, Ca
My wife, Nirakula Dasi, told me about a conversation she had overheard between two people in which one person was complaining to the other about how miserable his life was, and how other people were responsible for all his setbacks. After hearing this diatribe, the complainer’s counterpart answered, “I’m just trying to be grateful.”
Somehow this answer – “I’m just trying to be grateful,” stuck in my mind and this morning I decided to see what would happen if I deliberately tried to grateful.
I began by looking at ordinary items in my room: the window shades, the bookcase, and my desk, considering how lucky I am to have them. They really are luxuries, but I rarely stop to appreciate them. Somebody sacrificed to design and make each one; and what to speak of the trees that gave their lives for them. Next, I regarded my collection of transcendental books. Glancing over the beautiful covers on my Srimad-bhagavatam set, I considered how much work Srila Prabhupada had put into producing them and how his many followers had dropped everything to help him. What a fortune I have just in these books alone! Next I appreciated my ability to breathe, my digestion, and my power to think. And in preparing for my japa, I considered how blessed I am to sit each morning to chant Krishna’s names, a practice that instantly connects me to the unlimited spiritual world.
Just with a tiny bit of consideration, I sensed how in every direction there is something to be grateful for.
Krishna is the reservoir of pleasure and everything we see emanates from Him. Boredom, addiction, faultfinding and victimhood all arise in one’s mind and heart when one forgets Krishna and the miracle of everything that is within Krishna’s creation.
I strongly recommend this deliberate practice of gratitude. Also, the next time you’re trapped in a conversation with someone who is singing a song of weal and woe, you might reply, “I’m just trying to be grateful.”
With gratitude and affection,
Vaisesika Dasa
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