Jealousy-The Mother of Hypocrisy

SMALL STORY

(His Divine Holiness Bhagavan Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam has delivered almost 20,000 hours of recorded talks till date. As part of the talks, He shares simple small stories that give powerful cognitive shifts to the listener. Following is one such story.)

Because of jealousy, you suffer inside yourself. You feel something is missing in your life. To get that missing element, you try to become what you are not by nature. This is the start of hypocrisy. You try to imitate others and become what you are not. This is a vicious cycle. The more you pretend, the farther you go from your nature. This leads to further dissatisfaction and jealousy, which in turn leads to more pretence. The only way to break out of this vicious cycle is to realize your own uniqueness and express it. Be authentic in everything that you do. This new experience of freedom will help you tremendously to find your unique and authentic dimension of creativity. Love yourself just as you are, as the unique creation of the Divine. And watch the self-created myth of jealousy just drop.

Peer pressure – the stick of Jealousy

There is a beautiful verse in the ancient scriptures that says the power of maya* , the energy which runs the universe, uses jealousy as a tool to make you do whatever it wants you to do.

In India, there are people who do circus shows with monkeys in the street. They will have a small stick. Once they pick up the stick, the monkey will do whatever they say. If they just gesture to the monkey, it won't listen. Even though it knows that the man can pick up the stick at any time, unless he picks up the stick, the monkey won't listen. If he picks up the stick and tells the monkey to walk straight, it will walk straight. If the man tells the monkey to jump three times, it will jump three times. The man will use the stick like the ringmaster uses it in the circus. In the same way, the power of maya* uses peer pressure and jealousy as a stick to make you do whatever it wants. Understand, peer pressure is just a big ego game. Actually, It is not at all necessary for you to grow. There is enough food, shelter, medical care and clothing in the world to satisfy all of our basic needs. There is no need to compete.

Maya – Literally 'That which it is not'. It is the concept that life is but a dream, however real it may seem while being experienced.