Gratitude comes from the soul Gurudeva explains, as he talks to us today about gratitude and appreciation. Gurudeva then gives us a sadhana for the holiday season. Gurudeva also tells how the Mathavasi of Kauai Aadheenam celebrated this day 3 of Pancha Ganapati.

Unedited Transcript:

Today at Kauai Aadheenam. The Third Day of the Hindu festival Pancha Ganapati. At this Holiday Season of the year, we visit business associates, creating love and harmony, paying all bills and associating with merchants and the public at large, presenting gifts to our merchants who served us well and their employees. We give them gifts of appreciation.

Appreciation is a wonderful thing and this is the day of appreciation. And what did we do today? Today, two mathavasis got into the car and drove all over the island visiting all of our suppliers, our merchants and our friends and gave them little jars of honey. We call them 'honey bears' because the little jar looks like a little bear! We have 500 of them and we are distributing them here, there and every where. We are showing appreciation and thankfulness. And, all of our bills are paid, right up to this very moment. That is the third day of Pancha Ganapati. Tell you more about it tomorrow, but you will find it all in 'Loving Ganesha' on page 312.

Acharya Kumarswami gave a wonderful talk at Kadavul Temple to members of Saiva Siddhanta Church after the morning Puja. Everyone was elated. It was very, very nice.

Our work on the new book, 'Weaver's Wisdom' , the Tirukural, is going along very, very nicely. We read about five or ten chapters a day. Very little editing takes place because the translations are beautiful and readable and of course, the writer wrote it 2200 years ago! We can't talk to him about it!

Well, I will be seeing you again tomorrow. But, before that, let us just talk about gratitude. It is that time of year to be grateful. Unless you are grateful, you are just nobody. Gratitude comes from the soul. It is the quality of the soul. It is definitely not a quality of the intellect because many people attract attention to themselves by intellectually, subtlely criticizing other people and never showing any gratitude and appreciation. Only if they have money, they are accepted by those who want their money. That is a way to live on this planet Earth. That is the New Age. That is as low as you can get.There is a still more lowly thing that you could do. We could talk about that some other time.

Gratitude and appreciation is a higher soul quality. Today, tomorrow and the next day, tell everybody how grateful you are, even for their presence on Earth. If they have been unkind to you, give gifts, show gratitude. Don't hold anything in your heart, hatred or resentment, because then that makes it an empty gift and it makes words, empty words. How is that for a sadhana today?

So, today at Kauai Aadheenam, December 23. See you again. I will be seeing you again tomorrow at Kauai Aadheenam, December 24. Enjoy this Holiday Season. Give of yourself. That is the greatest gift.