Expression of gratitude is the ultimate balancing act in everyone’s life. We know whom we receive the good from and offer our gratitude. The absence of a simple thank-you creates an imbalance in the relationship and spiritual energy, while a simple thank you restores it.

I am pleased to share my personal story and few small things you can do to regain your sense of composure and balance.

Firstly, we need to be considerate to those who did not have a good childhood, youth, adulthood or retirement. Let’s be kind to those who are struggling to take care of themselves, and fighting for a square meal for their families. The least we can do for them is to let them know that we care.

Secondly, we need to awaken our mentor, be it Zarathustra, Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira, Jesus, Muhammad, Tao, Confucius, Nanak, Bahaullah, Gandhi, MLK or whomever we hold dearly. We need to emulate them for at least for the day as an experiment, ready to embrace every one with a caring attitude.

Finally, let’s make a list of people who have helped us shape our lives. We should not lose enthusiasm due to a large number of people we have to thank, we can do it by carrying a piece of paper, and writing down the names as they pop in the mind, even if we don’t call everyone on the list, we have already said our thanks by thinking about the individual and writing his or her name down. When we express our gratitude to the person who has made a difference in our life, it brings a ton of relief. It’s ours to keep.

The Unforgettable Story of Appaiah

It was a Sunday ritual for me to sit and take care of the poor. A line of the needy people would pass in front of my house, and being the oldest in the family, my father had assigned me the task of doling out the alms to the individuals when they pass by our door. I have seen lepers, people who cannot see, hear or talk, and people with missing body parts.

I was fascinated by one such person, he did not have arms and limbs from the base of the body, and he was just a torso with a head. He wrapped his body with a tube (those days car tires were inlaid with rubber tubes to hold the air) of a car tire, and would slide inch by inch on his back from door to door… his shoulder and rear part would move in tandem similar to a snake.

It was beyond me to understand Appaiah, I often wondered, what is there for him in life?The 14-year-old in me was full of ambition, and was looking forward to getting my education, finding the work, getting married, having a house and kids. I was a typical teenager loaded with testosterones and could not imagine life beyond that.

Why does he not commit suicide? What is there for him to look forward to? One day, I asked him. “Appaiah, you don’t have relatives, can’t do thing, don’t have a place to live, and can’t wear clothes … why do you want to live?”

He turned around and took a deep breath and looked at me, he made an effort to move, but could not, and said, son, I look forward to every morning to see the blue sky or see the rain and smell the earth, I taste the good food people give me, I am thankful to God for giving me these eyes to see the beauty of his creation. I was watching him, he did not have the arms to point to his eyes, he then asked me, isn’t there so much to be thankful for? Live for?

He was poetic, philosophical and pragmatic. He shattered my bias to smithereens, here I was thinking, what does this guy know?

I was rendered speechless. Here is a man with nothing to hope for, yet he is not complaining, instead, he is appreciating what he has got, which is nothing. That was quite an influencing experience in my life to treat others as I would want to be treated (Bible).

Just that morning, I heard my Dad’s favorite verse from Quran: “Then which of the favors of your Lord will ye deny?” (55:16). Now, when hopelessness hits me, I go to the Scriptures. I have found solace in opening Bhagvad Gita, Bible, Guru Granth Saheb, Dale Carnegie’s book, Kitáb-i-Aqdas or simply read Sura Rahman, chapter 55 in Quran, to uplift my spirits. We have to be grateful for whatever we have and express it to the unknown giver, a true thanksgiving.

You can only feel the joy when you say a big or a small thank you to the ones who have helped you along the way, whether it is materially, spiritually or professionally.

A simple thank you will do a lot of good to us, and our relationships. Most people say thanks without fail, those who miss out on a few things; we have an opportunity to reflect on this Thanksgiving Day.

If you don’t believe in God, that is fine, it is still a release when you say thanks to the invisible good that came to you un-asked.

Life Is a Self-Balancing Act

Life is self-balancing act; everything we do and say is spiritual as well as a real life transaction that moves the needle from balance to imbalance, and back to balance.

The mechanism is built around forgiveness, repentance, service and gratitude. These values are a product of co-existence and inculcated through religious teachings; however, the atheists would also achieve the same without invoking God.

The accountant chants, for every debit there is a credit; the physicist has proved that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and the doctor declares, that blood lost from the body of an individual must be replenished with an equal amount of blood to sustain life.

As a spiritualist I say, for every wrong we do, an equal amount of energy is drained from us, and for every good we do, energy is recouped. We are constantly receiving and giving energy, intake and output must be equal to have a healthy living, or else we are thrown off balance.

For every hurt we hurl on others, an equal amount of burden gets dumped on us, and until we say sorry and repent genuinely, the energy balance within us deteriorates. The transaction remains incomplete.

Where Is Happiness?

If you are single or empty nesters and nowhere to go, call up Salvation Army, a hospital or a homeless shelter and volunteer your services. There is a joy in serving others.

As the Jewish Scriptures say, Ve’ahavta la’ger — you must love the stranger for that guaranteed happiness. Jesus reached out to the ones who were abandoned by the society. Prophet Muhammad said the least you can give to others is hope and a smile. The Hindu Scriptures guides you to treat the whole world as one family. Buddha, the learned one, taught the joys of living for others.

The Sikh faith is indeed founded on the principle of caring for the humanity. The Jains and Baha’i believe our joy comes from taking care of others. The Native Americans and Wicca believe we have to take care of what we see around us and preserve it for the next seven generations, life and the matter. With malice toward none is a good advice from Mahatma Lincoln to follow.

Happy Thanksgiving

When you express your gratitude to the persons who have made a difference in your life, it brings a ton of relief to you. Make an effort and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with it. May you be blessed to be a blessing to others. Amen!

The author is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place

“There is but One God. His name is Truth. He is the Creator. He fears none. He is without hate. He never dies. He is beyond the cycle of births and death. He is self illumined; He is realized by the kindness of the True Guru. He was True in the beginning. He was True when the ages commenced and has ever been True. He is True now. He will ever be True. “— Guru Nanak

“Guru Nanak’s vision of life embraced all nations, all races and all times”, commented eminent Dr. K.T. Lalwani, author of Nanak, the Mystic. Another religious luminary, His Holiness Dalai Lama said of Guru Nanak, “Guru Nanak, due to his unique life style, is the brightest star among most brilliant ones in the sky.”

Guru Nanak was an early democrat. He preached and practiced the values of freedom and democracy long before any of the countries became a democratic nation. He always stood for equality of humans. He always championed the cause of the common people. A social reformer, par excellence, his was the voice of protest against injustice, inequality, oppression and tyranny. He gave to humanity the greatest gift-a way of living in this world so that life here in this world is a happy one and, on a spiritual level, bliss in the realms hereafter-“Lok sukhiye, parlok suhele”.

He recommended a life that was a balance between the physical and the spiritual, between the mundane and the heavenly. Guru Nanak preached against discrimination and prejudices due to race, caste, status, etc. He said: “See the brotherhood of all mankind as the highest order of Yogis; conquer your own mind, and conquer the world.” (SGGS page 6). Also, “There is one awareness among all created beings.”And finally, “One who recognizes the One Lord among all beings does not talk of ego”. He urges all the peoples of the world to “conquer” their minds to these evil practices. All human beings had the light of the Lord and were the same — only by subduing one’s pride and ego could one see this light in all.

Equality of women

In about 1499 when the world offered low to no status or respect to women, Guru Nanak sought to improve the respect of women by spreading this message: “From woman, man is born; within woman, man is conceived; to woman he is engaged and married. Woman becomes his friend; through woman, the future generations come. When his woman dies, he seeks another woman; to woman he is bound. So why call her bad? From her, kings are born. From woman, woman is born; without woman, there would be no one at all. 0 Nanak, only the True Lord is without a woman.” In so doing, he promoted women’s rights and equality – a first for the 15th century!

Universal message for all people

It had been a custom at the time for religious leaders to address only their own congregation and for segregation of the different religions –but Guru Nanak broke with tradition and spoke to all humanity. To the Muslim he said: “And when, O Nanak, he is merciful to all beings, only then shall he be called a Muslim; to the Hindus he said, “O Nanak, without the True Name, of what use is the frontal mark of the Hindus, or their sacred thread?; and to all he preached: “To take what rightfully belongs to another is like a Muslim eating pork, or a Hindu eating beef.”

Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith, lived at a momentous time in the history of India. His life spanned a period mid-way in ten centuries of foreign rule in India. The Hindu-Muslim conflict in the society and the tyranny of rulers of his time underpins much of Guru Nanak’s thought. He learned Persian and Arabic, the languages of the elite but he gave them up in favor of the language of the masses to whom he spoke directly, as did the Sufi mystics-Kabir and Farid- before him. His inspired utterances are known as the ‘baani’ from the Sanskrit word ‘vani’ meaning both sound and speech. So divine were they, far beyond the confines of orthodox thought and the temper of the times, that they became the basis of a fervent spirituality rather than a religion, spirituality with a universalistic outlook.

The son of a Kshatriya (warrior) family, Guru Nanak studied Hinduism and Islam. He got married but then he abandoned his family and became an ascetic. Wandering for many years he came under the influence of both Hindus and Muslims (especially Sufi). The Muslim teacher Kabir who died in 1398 made a deep impression on Guru Nanak. He said, “There is no Hindu, there is no Muscleman”.

Born in the month of ‘Kartik’ (October/November), his birthday is known as Guru Nanak Jayanti. He was born in 1469 A.D. at Talwandi some 30 miles from Lahore. He was a great seer, saint and mystic. He was a prolific poet and a unique singer of God’s laudation. A prophet of peace, love, truth and renaissance, he was centuries ahead of his times. His universal message is as fresh and true even today as it was in the past and Sikhs all over the world practice what Guru Nanak preached, to reaffirm their beliefs in the teachings of their founder.

It was during his stay in Sultanpur that Nanak attained Enlightenment, at the age of thirty-six. According to popular accounts, when he and Mardana (the Muslim rabab player, his friend from his birthplace, Talwandi, who became his constant companion) went for the customary dip in the river nearby, absorbed in thoughts of God, Nanak mysteriously disappeared. Mardana raised an alarm and searched for him everywhere. His biographers state that on the third day he reappeared changed in appearance, glowing with an unusual radiance. Nanak said that he had been ushered into Divine Presence, blessed by the Almighty and told to go forth and preach the holy name of God. It was to be the mission of his life thenceforth.