Thanksgiving is a wonderful American tradition where we express gratitude for our blessings, usually by sharing a meal. It is a reminder for us to pause and thank the Divine Mother for her grace.

This Thanksgiving, let us expand our notion of gratitude, remembering how the great saints and seers guide us.

Swami Vivekananda advised us to be thankful not for what we are given, but for what we can give. He said, “Be grateful to the man you help, think of him as God. Is it not a great privilege to be allowed to worship God by helping our fellow men?” And Saint Francis reminds us, in his prayer, “It is in giving that we receive.”

When we suffer from life’s challenges, cultivating an attitude of gratitude will help us. Saint Paul, in his epistle to the Thessalonians, wrote “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God”. Being thankful can loosen the chains that bind us to misery and can lead us to freedom, the liberation of God realization, our only purpose in life.