Alhamdulillah is a spirit within, a storm that wells up within you, and is expressed in the form of words. When you express it in words, it is a different matter. People these days repeatedly say Alhamdulillah at everything. Even while eating biryani, they say, Alhamdulillah what a tasty biryani! All this is lip service. Shukr is when you truly realize that God's blessings are indeed great. The latest scientific discovery is of a gigantic galaxy. The universe is already so vast that we haven't quite measured it. Now a new galaxy has been discovered. A galaxy is a vast world. Our earth in comparison is insignificant. Billions of earth are also trivial in comparison to a galaxy. God is so great indeed! All this has been made for human beings.

I was seeing on TV that people who go to space have unique experiences. They realize that the universe is full of galaxies, stars and solar systems. But all these worlds are lifeless. There is either fire or rock on these celestial objects. Planets are made of rocks and stars are composed of fire. Only the planet earth has life. A scientist had said, Right materials at right place. Oxygen, water, sunlight and other billions of things make life possible on earth.

All this is for human beings. Where there are humans, there are these life-sustaining things. Where there are no humans, there is nothing. It is indeed unique that God has blessed us so much. He has provided us all that which He has not kept anywhere else in the universe. I am speaking and you are listening. This is possible only on earth and not anywhere else. You cannot do this on the moon because there is no atmosphere there. In the entire universe the phenomena of speaking and listening are absent. This gives great thrill. You will be speechless. You will be filled with immense shukr and become totally speechless. That I speak and you listen is a rare phenomenon in the entire universe. It is nowhere to be seen. It is not seen on any galaxy, solar system or planet. Because there is no atmosphere anywhere else. It is indeed a unique blessing of God for me to speak and you to listen. Apart from this, there are billions of other things: the anatomy of the tongue, thinking in the mind and so on. Shukr wells up like an ocean from within. It is a storm in your being. You can express the storm of the ocean in words. But the storm of shukr wells up in your mind, in your heart and in your personality. When it overwhelms you, you are at a loss of words to express it. Real shukr or gratitude is a storm that wells up within you. That is real shukr, otherwise it isn't shukr.