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Gratitude is experiencing oneness

The third level of prayer is mental prayer - when prayer reaches the third dimension it becomes mental. First it is physical, second it is verbal and third it is mental. In the mental level it is called meditation. In the physical level it is called worship or puja. In the verbal level it is called japa. In the mental level it is called meditation – dhyaana. When you reach this level neither your body needs to be involved nor your inner chattering needs to be involved; just your being will start relating. In japa it's a communication, in dhyaana it's a communion. In prayer it is communication between you and God, in meditation it is the communion with you and God. You start experiencing the taste of the Divine, you start experiencing the glimpse of the Divine, you start experiencing the glimpse of bliss. The Important thing – as long as you do puja or japa, you and God are different. The moment you enter into dhyaana, you start realizing godliness in you, you will start experiencing the Divine in you, you start getting the glimpse of what you worshipped all these years. A unique communion starts between you and you; it is not even between you and God, because God becomes part of your being, you become part of him. The drop merges into the ocean, the ocean merges into the drop. You start experiencing the glimpse, you start feeling you are the part of the whole, the advaithic experience; advaithic means non dualistic - a feeling of oneness starts happening inside your being, a different kind of experience. As long as you do japa, you are worshipping. The moment you enter into dhyaana you merge with the object which you worshipping, with that you become one, you start experiencing the consciousness. The final step comes the fourth thing, where neither you nor God exists. Both disappear into one experience; that is what I call gratitude. In the fourth level - the spiritual level, you experience not only the oneness, even the idea of oneness disappears. There is only one thing remaining, gratitude; towards whom? Towards nobody! Just gratitude! Not even addressed to somebody. As long as the gratitude is addressed to somebody there is two person; person who gives, person who receives. But at the ultimate level it is not even addressed to somebody, it just overflows. Energy expresses itself in the form of gratitude; energy expresses itself in the form of bliss, deep feeling of fulfillment. That is what we call Samadhi. Samadhi means, the Being after getting totally fulfilled, expresses itself in the form of energy. There is nobody who expresses and there is nobody who receives; just experience. In this level, the experiencer and the experienced merges into experience. In that moment only one thing exists, that is simply the experience; neither the experiencer nor the experienced. Both merges into one Being. That is what we call experience. You feel so much life is showering on you, you feel 'it is too much, I can't tolerate any more', it is so much of joy, so much of ecstasy, you start losing your identity. You start losing your boundary. You can have identity as long as you have a trace of suffering. The moment suffering disappears you lose your boundary.

An important thing you need to understand, you can have ego only if you have suffering. Your ego cannot exist without suffering. Suffering is the root for your ego. It's an important thing you need to understand. We always think the other way - Ego is disturbed by suffering. No! Ego is enriched by suffering. One important thing – if your suffering is less your ego is less.

You feel you are too small, so you increase your suffering. You increase your suffering so that you can feel you are somebody. When the ego disappears you will merge inside the bliss. When you merge inside the bliss, ego disappears. When you go really deep into your being, when you become one with the existence, when you experience, only gratitude flows, only grateful feeling overflows. It is just gratitude.

There is a beautiful meditation in Sufism. They say - the only way to relate with God is gratitude; because with gratitude you start experiencing Him. With prayer you only start relating with Him. With gratitude you start experiencing Him; the deeper level of your Being, you spiritual layer starts experiencing with gratitude.

Understand a few things. How many things you are showered with in your life. How much God has showered? But we never look into the things that are showered on us. We will always look 'what next?' When you really live with a deep sensitivity, with understanding, without taking things for granted, you will experience a new space in your Being. You will experience deep joy in your being, you will experience different gratitude towards life, towards people, towards situations; ultimately towards the whole existence.