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Sri Chinmoy spoke some of the most beautiful, profound words about gratitude in response to questions concerning the relationship of gratitude with two of the most essential divine qualities – love, and oneness.
Love is such a powerful force, we might imagine that love is the nest from which gratitude arises. Yet as Sri Chinmoy reveals, the inverse is true. When asked: “What is the relationship between love and gratitude?” Sri Chinmoy replied:
“If it is true love, the love that expands, then its source is gratitude. Gratitude is the creative force, the mother and father of love. It is in gratitude that real love exists. This love is not the human love, it is divine love. Love expands only when gratitude is there. Limited love does not offer gratitude. Limited love is immediately bound by something — by constant desires or constant demands. But when it is unlimited love, constant love, then gratitude comes to the fore. This love becomes all gratitude.”
– Sri Chinmoy
There is but one quality which stands on equal terms with gratitude. Asked: “What is the relationship between gratitude and oneness?” Sri Chinmoy answered:
“Between gratitude and oneness we see the relationship of the outer reality and the inner reality. With gratitude, we go inside and discover our oneness. And when we come out from inside, where we have established our oneness, at that time we see that gratitude is there. Inside, we go to see what we are; outside, we come to see what we have. Gratitude is to have; oneness is to be. This is the relationship.
“Gratitude means that we have something and oneness means that we are something. One eternally is; the other eternally has. Gratitude has God as its very own and oneness is God Himself.”
– Sri Chinmoy