Gratitude. It is a word we revere on the Siddha Yoga path, a virtue we extol, a quality we remind ourselves to cultivate. It is also an experience we know deep in our bones; we’d recognize gratitude in a heartbeat, no matter how ineffable its nature seems to be.

At this time of year especially, when people celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, gratitude occupies a prominent place in our collective awareness. Gurumayi Chidvilasananda and Baba Muktananda have held many Siddha Yoga Shaktipat Intensives in honor of Thanksgiving. More recently, we have celebrated Thanksgiving as a sangham on the Siddha Yoga path website—watching videos that evoke gratitude, reciting prayers in thanks, and participating in satsangs via live video stream.

For many years, one of my favorite ways of expressing gratitude to Gurumayi was writing letters to her. I wrote often to Gurumayi; I wished for her to know just how grateful I was for her love, her grace, her wisdom, her blessings, her being here on this earth. In fact, it was after reading my personal letters to her that Gurumayi asked me to write letters for the Siddha Yoga path website. In this way, I could share my experiences of Gurumayi’s teachings with all of you, my fellow Siddha Yogis and new seekers. So in 2018—and again this year, in 2025—I wrote a letter at the start of each month for this website. It’s been an honor to do this, an enormous privilege, and my gratitude to Gurumayi has just kept expanding in this time.

I want to stay here with you for a few moments—in this mystical, mysterious realm of gratitude. Envision what gratitude looks like for you, the color that it paints your inner world. Imagine, if gratitude were a fruit, what taste it would leave on your tongue. Feel the texture of gratitude’s embrace, the specific fabric in which it’s cloaked. Do you experience gratitude to be like liquid sunlight—filling, swirling, cascading through you until all other thoughts are obliterated and you are simply awash in warmth and light? Or do you experience something different? Is gratitude more of a glowing iridescence? A cushiony softness? A luxurious sweetness, or just simple, quiet energy?

However it is that you or I experience gratitude, we can rest assured that it is ours. It is as intrinsic to us as the blood in our veins and the oxygen in our lungs. Perhaps even more so.

In the Jnaneshvari, the great poet-saint Jnaneshvar Maharaj gives this analogy when describing the glimpses of the Self that a person experiences in the course of their sadhana: “Water is poured onto salt several times to make salt water,” the poet-saint says. “Similarly, even the smallest amount of such happiness which the soul experiences through training must wipe out sorrow.”¹

I first learned of this passage from Gurumayi, and I’m reminded of it now because it mirrors what Gurumayi teaches about gratitude. Each experience we have of gratitude—no matter how fleeting it seems—takes root within us. Its presence becomes immovable, its influence irrevocable; it proves to be as immortal as the soul from which it comes. “Once your heart has tasted the power of gratitude,” Gurumayi has said, “that gratitude is here to stay.”

Of course, our day-to-day experience might appear to contradict this truth. It can be quite easy to forget the presence of gratitude. We can go days, weeks, even months without any visceral feeling of thankfulness, opting instead for the strange comfort of anger and despondency, for the cozy web of our ever-growing complaints. But forgetfulness is not erasure, and the power of gratitude is such that it remains untouched by the fluctuations of the mind.

When we do choose to remember, to dip once more into that inner haven of sunlight and panoramic color, of silken thread and honeyed fruit, we find that—yes!—gratitude has been here all along. It’s been sustaining our being this whole time.

Incredible as this may seem, I’d argue there’s something most natural about it. Everything in this universe pulses with memory. Scientists are continuing to find ancient seeds and other plant tissue buried deep in the earth, some of it tens of thousands of years old. This plant matter was preserved across time in a thick layer of frozen soil. It might seem impossible that it could still generate life, yet that’s exactly what happened after the scientists recovered the seeds and plant tissue and cultivated them under the right conditions.

Humans, too, demonstrate a remarkable capacity for recollection—not just in a cognitive sense, but on the level of our cells, in our very muscles and sinews. I am sure that many of you have heard the term muscle memory. It refers to how our muscles become more adept at performing specific tasks as we do those tasks repeatedly. This is because the neural pathways between our central nervous system and our muscle cells become more established through regular practice. Eventually, our movements become automatic and the knowledge of how to do them simply resides within us. This is why we can go years without riding a bicycle and still remember how to do it—where to place our hands and feet, how to balance, how to brake.

On the Siddha Yoga path, Gurumayi teaches us to practice remembrance as part of our sadhana. Consider, for example, the photographs of hearts and AUMs on the Siddha Yoga path website. Over the years, and wherever she had traveled in the world, Gurumayi would see hearts and AUMs when she went on her walks. Therefore, in 2015, a few years after the Siddha Yoga path website had been relaunched, Gurumayi gave the guidance for photos to be taken of the hearts and AUMs in nature in Shree Muktananda Ashram—and for some of these photos to be featured on the website.

I understand that Gurumayi has given this guidance because she deeply believes that we have a connection with nature. It is because of this connection that Gurumayi draws upon examples from nature when elaborating on her teachings. In other words, we can emulate nature because we are a part of nature.

Gurumayi’s teachings bring our awareness to the fact that the Truth exists and that it can be perceived—within us, around us. To this end, I’ve heard Gurumayi say to so many people that whenever we see an AUM or a heart in our surroundings, we can take it as a sweet reminder, nature’s way of asking us, “Have you sung the primordial mantra AUM today? Have you visited your heart today?” And then that moment becomes a moment of remembrance, of gratitude. As I’ve also heard Gurumayi say: “The heart is the house of gratitude.”

What is so wonderful about remembrance, and remembering gratitude specifically, is that it is such a propulsive activity, one whose effects expand exponentially outward. I suggested earlier that gratitude could take the form of sunshine, streams of light humming all through your being. And when that light reaches the tips of your fingers and the crown of your head—when it’s gilded your perception and draped every inch of you in its glow—what happens? Don’t you find that it needs somewhere to go? Gratitude yearns for shape and form. It thrives on expression; it is meant to manifest.

Now, what this means—what it looks and feels like for gratitude to take shape in your life—is for you to discover. I’ve shared my initial contemplations of Gurumayi’s teachings here, but there’s undoubtedly more for us all to study and understand. I invite you to continue reflecting on these teachings, to come together in your Sadhana Circles and discuss how it is that you will put gratitude into action.

I do, however, have one request to make of you. We, as human beings, have an amazing capacity for self-analysis. Day in and day out, we scrutinize ourselves, asking questions like: “Am I beautiful? Am I beautiful enough? Am I strong? Am I strong enough? Am I smart? Am I smart enough?” We can go on like this forever. So I want to ask that when it comes to the experience of gratitude—especially the gratitude we have experienced upon receiving shaktipat from the Guru—we do not parse the width and depth and breadth of our experience. We do not need to question if we’re feeling enough gratitude.

I am, as ever, thankful to Gurumayi for this understanding I’ve gained—to be mindful, to refrain from judging, doubting, or second-guessing the merit of my experiences of gratitude. I am also thankful to Gurumayi for helping me become more conscious of how I can move through the world with an awareness of gratitude. In the process, I’ve discovered that to truly give of myself with a grateful heart requires strength. It is the difference between always hoping that someone else will fill my cup and recognizing the inherent completeness of my own Self—and then acting from that wisdom. This, I have come to understand, is the origin of dignity, of real elegance of manner.

As most of you know, I’ve been offering seva in Shree Muktananda Ashram for many years now, and I’ve had the privilege to be in Gurumayi’s company. And there’s something I’ve noticed when I’m around Gurumayi that I’d like to share with you—because you too may wish to know about it.

In every moment, Gurumayi is thinking of the global Siddha Yoga sangham and the new seekers who are yet to begin their journey on the Siddha Yoga path. Everything that Gurumayi says, everything that Gurumayi does, every teaching Gurumayi imparts—she does so with all the Siddha Yogis and new seekers in mind. Whenever anything happens in the world—whether it’s positive or negative—Gurumayi is thinking of you.

On that note, let me tell you a story.

Last month—Baba’s month, October—Gurumayi was taking one of her usual walks on the Ashram grounds. The fall season was turning a definitive corner; russet-red and gold leaves blanketed the grass. As Gurumayi looked upon this serene autumn scene, she envisioned sharing it with everyone on the Siddha Yoga path website.

Why do I say that Gurumayi “envisioned” this? How, you might wonder, do I know that? Well, I happened to hear about it from someone who was accompanying Gurumayi on her walk. This person was speaking about the seva that she offers in the Ashram when Gurumayi brought to her attention the leaves that were strewn all around.

Gurumayi said, “Look! Nature has offered thousands and thousands of leaves to the earth. We need to share this abundance with everyone. Isn’t there a holiday coming up called Happy Thanksgiving Day? Yes! We need to share how nature celebrates her gratitude to Mother Earth. So—do this and do that.” Gurumayi gave her specific guidance for what to create.

The Siddha Yogi was delighted to receive this seva assignment. She ran with it! And this video—titled “Gratitude, the Nature of Gratitude ♡ ⁠”— is the fruit of Gurumayi’s walk that day on the Ashram grounds.

Now, did I mention earlier that Gurumayi is thinking about you? I want you to know that through this video, you are celebrating a happy Thanksgiving with Gurumayi, and that Gurumayi is celebrating it with you.

And did I say that gratitude thrives on expression?

Many parents, when they visit Shree Muktananda Ashram, tell Gurumayi that their children love the photo collections on the Siddha Yoga path website—especially the AUMs and the hearts. This pleases Gurumayi very much. It was always Gurumayi’s intention that these AUMs and hearts would convey the teachings of the Siddha Yoga path to people of all ages.

On many occasions Gurumayi has noticed that bunches of leaves will form into AUM and heart shapes even after they have fallen to the ground. In this video, therefore, you will see some hearts that have been fashioned by nature herself. Others have been created by the Siddha Yogis in the Ashram—to highlight, as Gurumayi has said, “the vibrancy of Mother Earth’s own heart.”

When Gurumayi found out that I was writing this exposition about gratitude, and that I would be introducing the video as part of it, she asked if I had thought of what Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita about a leaf being offered to him.

I responded, “Yes! I am definitely going to use that verse in my exposition!”

So, here it is. Lord Krishna—the Guru, the supreme Master—says to his beloved disciple Arjuna, “If even a leaf—or a flower, some fruit, or a little water—is offered to me with devotion, I will accept it.”²

Through this touching video, I definitely feel that Gurumayi is expressing her thanks to all of us who are practicing Siddha Yoga. I know that our dedicated practice brings forth light in this world—and I also know that because of us, new seekers can become aware of their spiritual path.

During this happy time of Thanksgiving, I extend my sincere appreciation to you all for reading my exposition.