Is there any person in the world who is dependent on nobody? Let us ask ourselves this question. When we claim to be 'self made', we are in fact quite unconscious. We are not conscious of the Truth.

The natural response of one who realises the Truth is gratitude. Gratitude is the second side of the coin of life - the first being Truth.

What is the connotation of 'self made'? Were we made in a factory? Are we products of some Cosmic machine? No. Somebody put their heart and soul into nurturing us, caring for us and making us what we are today. If we have a morsel to eat, we have to be grateful to the farmer for harvesting his fields, we have to be grateful to those who procured that food for us, and we have to be grateful to the one who cooked it for us with such great love.

Just consider the ludicrousness of our thought processes. If we are invited out to a cup of tea, we thank our host several times - we praise the generosity and kindness of our hosts for many months to come and relate every detail of our outing to many people and so we remember the occasion with gratitude for a long period of time. On the other hand, we take for granted those many people so essential to our very existence and who have done so much to make our life more meaningful and pleasant - our parents, our teachers, those who serve us and love us.

Gratitude is in fact the base of truthful living. He who is grateful sees only beauty around him. He lives in constant awareness of how much everyone has contributed to his wellbeing and happiness. He can see no ugliness or negativity. Therefore he never slights another nor criticizes anyone. Another reason for this lack of criticism is his awareness of his personal lacunae and negativity. How then can he 'throw a stone at another' since he too has sinned!

Anything which takes the shape of emotional reactions towards others, shows our own weaknesses. The Lord says about this entire creation, "I am all this - and all this is Me." The Lord's devotee can therefore see no ugliness in the world since all beings are the Lord Himself! He is ever grateful to the Master for the lovely world - its beautiful people.

However, the devotee is not blind to the mistakes made by another. He just does not blame the other for those mistakes, because he knows that the Lord has Himself stated in the Gita, "I am the Doer of all deeds." He recognises the veracity of this statement insofar as the Lord is the Creator of the three attributes of satva, rajas and tamas which comprise this entirety. He knows also that it is the interaction of these attributes which are the true cause of action and that the individual has no real control over his actions.

Thus to blame anyone is futile. So he obeys the commmand of Jesus who stipulated, "Ye shall not judge."

To sieve ugliness from the beauty of the world and let it rule our thoughts, our speech and our life will liken us to the pig who invariably seeks out the filth of the neighbourhood in order to feed on it, leaving behind the beauty and fragrance of the world. So next time we speak against anyone or let critical thoughts rule us, we must think about our neighourhood grunting friend!

Feating on ugliness makes us impure, just as reflecting on beauty makes us pure within. Gratitude yields joy to the one who is grateful, for he adheres to the Truth and Truth yields happiness.