“A few words about Thanksgiving before entering into the sutras.”

A few words about Thanksgiving before entering into the sutras. Thanksgiving is one of the wonderful things I learned from the West. Understand, I’m very open and honest. Whatever is said and done, somehow the Thanksgiving idea was not there, the very idea did not get engraved so much in Bharat. Only in the West, especially this function, this Thanksgiving function, I saw so much of importance and respect is given to it. There are some wonderful things we need to learn. In Bharat maybe there during Divali, but not keeping this as a main base or backbone structure. This was one of the great things at least I learned from this country, from this tradition. And not only that, even verbally thanking is given so much of importance in this culture, which is needed. In the Vedic tradition, the thanking or the gratitude - it has become more a spiritual quality. It was never a social quality. It was there, but more or less a spiritual quality. But here I saw it’s vibrant, alive, in every day to day life. It is a social quality which we need to really learn and imbibe. Maybe I can say, this is a kind of a constant meditation, every day meditation. Whenever you say the word “Thank You” that’s like an everyday meditation – reminding yourself. OK Happy Thanksgiving! How the gratitude becomes a spiritual practice. Today, very funny, but a very mystical incident. Today the pradosha puja was there. Means before the discourse, around 5.30 the puja for Nandi. Today is the day Mahadeva gave Shiva sutras to Devi. Pradosha means the day Mahadeva spoke these teachings, these sutras to Devi. Today we have one of the wonderful, very powerful techniques, sutras. So we had the puja, the pradosha puja during that time when Shiva gave the sutras to Devi, we usually do puja to Nandi. The story is that Shiva told Nandi to be in the entrance and take care of all the devotees and visitors who were coming, because he was giving the sutras to Devi. So that one and half hours Nandi was in charge. Usually, it is very easy to get things done by secretary, than going to the top. So all boons and whatever people ask, Nandi just disperses it, no problem at all. Because one and half hours, he is the authority! Its just like for a few hours you are given power, what will you do? You will just disperse everything to whoever wants. So anything you want which can’t be done according to the dharma, some extra favors, that is the right time to approach. Nandi is in charge. We always do the puja to Nandi.

Today I went and sat there and after the puja the archana started. I was in such a deep silence and Samadhi. The archana was going on. Slowly, I saw behind me the group which was sitting, one or two people were little uncomfortable, not settling down. Of course, I did not see physically, but because I was in Samadhi I can see very clearly what is going on in the minds – like bombs moving. I saw a few minds - little unsettled, little irritated. I was thinking, this presence, anybody will fall in tune so beautifully, so wonderfully, what is the problem? I saw a few guys are not able to, were a little agitated because that brahmachari was chanting the mantra. He chanted the name Nithyananda also, along with the mantra. These few one or two brains doesn’t understand the rudra, in the traditional rudram itself there is the word Nithyananda, it’s name of Shiva, the name of MahaDeva. And I was just seeing … And another funny thing is, I did not even remember or listen it is my name, because I was in such a deep Samadhi. Never feel - that’s my name. And there were a few intelligent guys, maybe who had the click or initiation, who had the gratitude or the love. I saw the more they heard that word they were able to feel more and more connected because, understand, the experience with the master will intensify your true devotion. Usually master is used like an object to create devotion in you. Many of our disciples come and tell me “Swamiji only after I felt connected to you, only now I feel connected to all the puja, rituals, traditions and everything. Till then, I never had connection with all those things. All those things people used to do, I go there like a ritual. Only now it makes sense so much. It makes meaning.” Master is like a window or a door - feeling connected to him, or grateful to him, will open a new door of being grateful to everything. Feeling connected to everything. Few people who had the click, I saw, very beautifully they were able to settle. And the few people, and even those few – it is not that they never know, or never had any blessing, or never had any benefit from the master. They had, but that gratitude, the thanking, the attitude has not started. If that starts, you will stop judging. Thanking is one of the very powerful qualities. In our first meditation technique, the first meditation program, the seventh technique, the quality to open the sahasrara chakra, the ultimate chakra is gratitude. In gratitude, you will stop judging and fall in tune more and more and more. I saw today beautifully, the power of Thanksgiving, consciously! The power of Thanksgiving! Those few guys, they also do not know traditionally that Nithyananda is one more name of Shiva. If you chant the rudram, the original rudram from the Varanasi edition, there will be a name Nithyananda. And I saw the person – both of them do not know - person who got agitated and person who felt connected. Both of them do not know traditionally it is the name of Shiva. So it is getting chanted. The person who did not get agitated, he had some gratitude - and because of that, that name only connected him more and more. The person who did not have, because of that one word, one agitation, he was not able to connect to the whole ritual, the whole ritual. I just smiled, and I understood the whole thing. I smiled, and I turned to the priest and said “stop chanting”. He stopped, he just chanted only few times and then he stopped. If you attended the puja you would have seen. Why suddenly Swamiji stopped? The recital of his name, that was the reason. Understand whenever the one simple quality of gratitude – if it starts - gratitude is like a small fire which can burn all your karmas, all the karmas. Anything which you carry on, which you brought, which you are accumulating, anything can be burned. A simple remembrance of gratitude not only to the master - to every being – to everything - it brings so much of sensitivity, it brings so much of love and so much of settled feeling, so much of connected feeling, it can just move! I saw the person who was agitated a little bit, his mind was complicated, his mental thought - the structure was – “Why should his name be chanted?” He doesn’t understand the person whose name is chanted, he doesn’t even remember it is his name. Somebody asked in the discourse “Why should you be there and we should be here? I told him very beautifully - actually understanding these few ideas will really give you the deep insights about Thanksgiving. Where we miss and what we miss. I told him “Because I am nobody I am here, because you are somebody you are there!”. Understand, that if you are somebody, even if you are meant to sit here, you will think, “I think for my qualifications it should be a little better”. Wherever you go, whatever way you are respected, you will feel that something more has to be done, should have been done. If you are nobody, whether you are respected or not, you will never bother, you will be in such easiness, comfort. There will never be disturbance. Person who has become nobody, wherever his is, he will be comfortable. Person who has become somebody, wherever he is, he will have some complications, some misunderstanding. The gratitude will make you as nobody; just you will be a flowing energy. You will be just flowing energy! I have seen that flowing energy in the poems of Sufi mystics. Sufism is completely the tradition based on the gratitude. And the way in which they flow, they have such wonderful flow, there is such a gratitude based tradition. It does not take any training at all to have the divine experience through Sufism. In all other traditions to have divine the experience, the mindless, the experience beyond mind, it takes quite a lot of time. First understanding, then sadhana, austerity and all those things. With Sufism it doesn’t take time. Straight away it happens because every step, every teaching is directed towards thanking, gratitude. So understand this one great quality, it can really transport you to a different plane.

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