Isn't it better to stop thanking people and thank God alone for every help we receive in life?

[Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya asked: Swāmi, You have said that thanking God everyday helps to reduce aspiration from God and improves devotion. Applying similar logic to the world, thanking ordinary people around us develops a bond with them. Isn't it better to stop thanking people and thank God alone for every help we receive in life? I feel that we have limited emotion of gratitude and scattering them to people is diluting the emotion towards God. Kindly correct me.]

Swāmi Replied:- God helps you through people and hence, you must be grateful to such people also. While expressing gratefulness to people, you think that you are expressing your gratefulness to God through them since God also helped you through them. Just like the people acted as media for God to help you, the same people can be your media to convey gratefulness to God. Are you not giving Dasarā gift to the postman, who carries the letters to you as per his duty paid by government? The people, who helped you by the will of God will also be paid by God. Even then, as you give gift to the postman, express gratitude to your helper. But, while expressing it, you must think in your mind that you are expressing your gratefulness to God through the helper. The helper is pleased thinking that you have expressed gratefulness to him personally. If your helper is also a devotee like you, he will say that the gratefulness expressed by you is passed on to God. Our ancient people used to say “Rāmārpaṇam” or “Kṛṣṇārpaṇam” (let it be passed on to God Rāma or Kṛṣṇa) even somebody salute them. This means that the helper also knows that he is only a medium and the real helper is God.

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