Jealousy is a negative feeling that most humans experience naturally. What is the root cause of this emotional state? What are its effects on human behaviour and conduct? How are human beings to rid themselves of this damaging and deleterious feeling? Let us try to answer these questions.
Jealousy stems from self-glorifying thoughts, from a puffed-up state of the ego self—a basic natural element that provides humans with a sense of identity and perceived individualism. In other words, through the material ego self, the human soul perceives its existence as an animate entity. But when this ego self is vitiated by rajas, the primordial attribute of matter, it becomes blown up. It then gives to the human being an exaggerated image and opinion of the self, removed from reality. It makes him proud and haughty.
When a person is gripped by vanity and pride, he detests anyone overtaking, outshining, outsmarting or outperforming him. He is unable to reconcile with the reality that someone is superior to him in any way. Then arrives the feeling of jealousy, which makes him unhappy, uneasy and irritated. Overwhelmed by the feeling, many people start thinking ill of others and some even begin scheming against others. In the process, though, they only invite further troubles and miseries for their own selves. They indulge in slander to show themselves in a better light in comparison with those who are better placed, endowed or better achievers.
In this indulgence of falsehood, they attempt to appease their own oversized ego. Their behaviour sets up a chain of negativity, which inflicts maximum damage to themselves. Jealousy has been said to be the offspring of anger—a cardinal evil of human behaviour. Abjuring anger is one of the 10 prime tenets of the universal code of righteousness expounded in the prime scriptures. Anger originates from dislike or disagreement. Jealousy is the next lower state of the mind after it is overtaken by anger. One feels jealous when one does not like his peer getting a better raise at the workplace, his class fellow obtaining superior academic grades, his neighbour purchasing a bigger car, his relative growing richer than him, etc. All these are dislikable situations that engender anger and jealousy in the mind of a person with a high degree of vanity. It is a vicious fire that begins to burn out the peace and happiness of the person who harbours it.
Jealousy can be overcome by controlling anger and gaining true knowledge, which enables a person to make a fair and objective judgment of his own self in a composed state of mind. Anger disrupts this very composure and blurs reasoning. Once a person tries to apply the strands of true knowledge in a peaceful state, he realises that differentials of wealth, status or performance do not make persons relatively superior or inferior. Everyone gets what they deserve in a fair system of divine retribution. With true understanding dawning on a person, he feels happy at others’ progress or achievement vis-à-vis his own.
Freed of the baneful shackle of jealousy, he paves the way for his own material and spiritual progress. His mind becomes more peaceful and his behaviour also enhances the peace around him. But anger is such a powerful emotion that it can grip the mind of even a knowledgeable person. When it is based on vanity, anger can be controlled by minimising the content of rajas in our body and mind through lifestyle correction that primarily involves the intake of food that is relatively bland and not high in spices or sour constituents. Substances like meat and liquor also aggravate rajas and their intake needs to be reduced.
Abjuring jealousy establishes a chain reaction of positivity, which makes the atmosphere of human interaction conducive to health and happiness. It makes the persons appreciate divine justice that bestows rewards on worthy human subjects of the almighty creator. Let each one of us see our own happiness and welfare in that of others, never allowing the demon of jealousy to raise its ugly head.