->

Monday Morning Greeting 2025 #25 – If You are Not an Optimist, You’re an Atheist!

June 16th, 2025

If You are Not an Optimist, You’re an Atheist![1]

 

This post is about gratitude.

 

What is gratitude?

 

It’s a strong feeling of appreciation of someone or something for what they have done for you and the consequent feeling of receiving mercy or kindness that wells in the heart.

 

This post will discuss why developing this state of having gratitude is one of the keys to inner fulfillment.

 

Being in the state of gratitude and the consequent feeling of inner fulfillment is based on the premise that the universe is ultimately beneficial to us.

 

That premise is based on the principle found in all spiritual traditions that “what comes to us is for us.” It’s a conviction that every event, even those causing suffering, is designed to teach us something. And it is worth any of the pain we might endure to learn it. That is certainly the strong realization of spiritual practitioners. They can look back on their lives and undeniably see the connection between the experiences they had and the priceless gift of realization that those experiences gave them. I am confident that anyone who has become a grateful seeker will eventually come to that conclusion. There is ultimately a gift of realization contained in whatever they experience, good or bad, and those experiences have been personally designed for us.

 

It is not that one no longer feels the pain of the challenges one faces. But living in a state of mercy or kindness certainly tempers, and to an extent even allows one to transcend, the suffering and temporary nature of this world.

 

In my study of gratitude, I found a beautiful analogy that illustrates this principle—that the universe is rigged to give us some benefit. Just as pearls are the result of the reaction of a wounded oyster, our deepest realizations come from the lessons our suffering teaches us.

 

I never heard that fact about pearls before. I researched it:

 

Pearls are created by bivalve mollusks, like oysters and mussels, as a defensive response to an irritant. When something gets inside the shell, like a piece of sand or a parasite, the mollusk secretes nacre, a substance made of calcium carbonate and protein, around the irritant. This nacre gradually builds up in layers, forming a pearl.

 

Let me frame this analogy in another way to further explain this point. If pearls are precious, so are the wounds that create them. In other words, if deep realizations are precious so are the challenges that gave them to us.

 

Rumi the poet explains the same phenomenon in a charming way. It’s too good not to add to our discussion:

 

“When God is digging a ditch to throw you in, he is actually digging a ditch to quench your thirst.”

 

Of course, there are very horrible things that happen to people that must be reconciled with the concept of grateful seeing. I have dealt with that in separate posts,[2] but at least we should be able to realize this basic principle in most of our experiences. The universe serves as a teacher that enables us to be grateful and there is tremendous benefit in realizing that. We will end by listing some of those benefits:

 

Gratitude gives joy

 

There are two types of happiness—to enjoy and control the world or to appreciate and serve our destiny. We are not the enjoyer and controller, so to wire our brains, so to speak, to that high and unachievable threshold, means that we will rarely, if ever, feel fulfilled. In contrast, realizing that what comes to us is for us allows us to feel the joy or gift of mercy in any circumstance thus lowering our threshold for feeling contentment. Gratitude makes this joy achievable.

 

Gratitude creates the yogic mind

 

Yoga means controlling the mind. It begins by first developing the proper ethical restraints (yamas) and moral observances (niyamas).

 

The most important moral restraint is ahi(non-violence). To the extent you can remain in a state of gratitude, you spend less time comparing yourself to others, which is the basis of envy and hate. Gratitude develops ahi.

 

One of the most important moral observances is santoṣa (contentment). If one is not content, then material desires intensely cloud the mind. This is antithetical to yoga, which is defined as stopping the fluctuations of the mind. Gratitude turns what we have into enough which develops the important moral observance of santoṣa (contentment).

 

Gratitude develops good character

 

Voltaire said that which we appreciate belongs to us. Unfortunately, as described above, being envious and ungrateful are connected.  Therefore, one not in a state of gratitude out of envy will inevitably miss many opportunities to appreciate others and develop good character and wisdom.

 

Gratitude grounds you in the present

 

“Now” is rarely the problem. Our problem is hankering (what I want in the future) and lamenting (what I lost in the past), but never gratitude (what I have and appreciate now).

 

Gratitude awakens the bliss of service

 

Gratitude naturally awakens the service mind, for the more we can be grateful for the gifts of others the more we develop a desire to serve others. As service and devotion are the bases of happiness, in this way also gratitude leads to fulfillment.

 

Gratitude is the basis of feeling love

 

Spoiled or entitled children are never grateful for the love of their parents even if the parents give them the world, where in contrast a humble and grateful child can feel the parents’ love even in the slightest gesture of care. Similarly, only one in a state of gratitude can feel the love of others and God.

 

The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describes and strongly recommends gratitude as a state of being:

 

“My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reaction to his past misdeed and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.14.8

 

Knowing this, if you are not an optimist, you’re an atheist!

 

 


[1] I believe this was a statement by Śrīla Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Swami.

[2] https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/01/20/believers-and-the-elephant-in-the-room-tackling-the-challenge-of-evil-2/

 

Comments are closed.