Jealousy

As humans, our brains are programmed to analyze our surroundings and people around us. In doing so, we are constantly comparing how we measure up to others. In today’s fast-paced world of increased access to goods, travels, and a variety of career options, it is easy to become competitive or develop jealousy towards others. However, what we do not realize is that each person in this world experiences suffering and has his or her own set of struggles. Someone who you may feel has everything you have ever desired in life might be living a completely different life than what meets the eye.

Pujya Niruma says that jealousy arises either from having negative thoughts about someone else or from not being satisfied with what you have. In order to combat jealousy affecting your life, attitude, and behaviors around others, one step that can be taken is adapting a more positive mindset. Pujya Niruma says the moment you start having negative or jealous thoughts about another person, you should try and think of at least three positive attributes of the individual. These positive attributes are what you have to keep in mind when you need to interact with that individual. You should not let your negative thoughts or jealousy come in the way.

Narrow-mindedness too often leads to jealousy and once we change our perspective, it becomes easier to be jealousy-free. From a spiritual standpoint, Pujya Niruma explains that people in this lifetime reap the fruits of the seeds planted in the past life. Each person in this world, from their clothing to intelligence, receives what they have based on karmic accounts. No two people’s karmic accounts will be the same. Therefore wasting time and energy worrying and desiring what someone else has is pointless. Comparison increases worries and decreases self-confidence. The more one focuses their attention on other people and what they have, the less they will be able to focus on improving themselves.

Authored by: Dada Bhagwan