Abstract
Gratitude, a significant Christian value, is regarded as a duty among Indians. The present study examines the role played by spiritual development in gratitude among the Indian population. The participants were emerging Indian male adults, aged between 18 and 30 years. The first sample is from 495 Catholic Indian seminarians with intensive spiritual training, and the second is from 504 Catholic Indian nonseminarians. We use the Gratitude Questionnaire-6 and the Spiritual Assessment Inventory in the study. The results show that the factors of SAI, Awareness and Realistic Experience, had medium-size correlations with gratitude in both samples. Awareness predicted gratitude in both samples and Realistic Acceptance predicted gratitude only in seminarians. The study shows that individuals with an awareness of God's presence tend to be highly grateful. Spiritually mature individuals who undergo spiritual training were also more grateful.