Jealousy - The green-eyed monster!
Hello all,
Namaste! Hope all of you had a great week where you were able to bring your fear of the unknown under control and take another step towards your goal. Somewhere I have read, courage is not, not having fear. But, courage is taking the step into whatever is the unknown in our life despite the fear. Today, I was planning to write about the path with a light load. But then another two emotions came into my mind that we have to tackle before talking about a light load. Jealousy and hate. Hate, we would discuss next week. This week let us discuss the emotion called jealousy.
Jealousy: What is jealousy? It is also called the 'green-eyed monster' in English. Jealousy is the emotion a human feels when he/she perceives someone has something that he/she does not have. In their inner core, they very much want that thing the other person is having, but cannot have it. That creates a sadness in them and maybe a slight admiration for the other person, which they don't want to acknowledge. Because to acknowledge and appreciate another person, one should be open minded enough to accept that the other person has achieved something. But when someone really wants something, how can they ever appreciate the same thing, which the other person is enjoying? This creates the jealousy.
For example, someone really wanted to get an education in their young age, but never had a chance to get an education, except for some schooling. Later they moved to a city sometime in their life and came across a neighbor in their same area who has a Ph.D. in a specific subject and is doing well in their career. The first person starts feeling jealous because they very much wanted an education in the first place and craved for it. Unfortunately, they didn't get the chance and the neighbor who had that chance had the education as well as their career as a result of it.
The jealous person is upset, they didn't get the same chance, a slight admiration for the other person, difficulty to acknowledge it, closemindedness not to acknowledge that fact, fear whether they would fall short before the other person, how the other person would perceive them, whether it is correct to have such fear and anxiety, anger at the luck of the other person. So here the person goes through a whole lot of emotions, taken together turns into jealousy. This is like a gnawing ache that eats away at the core of their being.
Unfortunate issue: The saddest part is the jealousy doesn't do anything to the object as many times the other person is not even aware of this fact, except when the jealous person takes selfish actions trying to put themselves in a higher spot. Then the other person does get affected. Otherwise, it is the jealous person who is going to have a lot of the effect in the modern times. It is like a knife poking every now and then in their soul, or a cancer of the soul that slowly grows inside them.
Above this, it is a whole lot of energy they are directing towards another person than directing it to their own life. As we have discussed before, all of us beneath our solid looking body is made up of atoms and molecules that are composed of the energy of protons, and electrons. So, all that energy is devoted to another person, so that their own life becomes stagnant. Above this, if they take actions to assuage the jealousy, those actions are being taken with a bad intention.
Even before acting, that bad intentions already have produced enough Karma to go through another lifetime. Why? What is the point? They are keeping the axe at their own root of soul progress. They become stuck in that stagnant energy of their life without the ability to move forward whether in this lifetime or even in another lifetime. Also because this is with a bad intention to bring somebody down, it also has the vibration of very heavy energy. That stagnancy and heaviness take a toll in their own life. Jealous people always have an air of heaviness around them, which everyone who is energetically aware may be able to feel.
The master Paramahansa Yogananda has quoted, "Some people try to be tall by cutting the head of others". This is exactly the attitude a jealous person embraces. We have an extremely famous person in mythology who embodies this aspect. As all of you know, perusing through Mahabharatha, you can find every scenario a human can find themselves in their life. It is such an epic.
Duryodhana:
The birth: In that, a character comes who embodies the energy of jealousy that led to the war and later the decimation of the Kuru kingdom. Duryodhana, the green-eyed monster incarnate. Even though his dad Dhritharashtra called him Suyodhana, he brought down the destruction of his own dynasty. It is written in Mahabharatha, during his birth, wolves and jackals howled, vultures were flying on the sky, there was a thunderstorm, torrential rain, lightning and floods to alert people of the impending doom.
Once Duryodhana was born, Vyasa, the sage came and told Dhritharashtra to discard the baby as doom would come to visit upon the Kuru dynasty, but the king was not ready for that as he had utmost love to his first son, Duryodhana. But as the natural disasters notified, the disaster did come upon the kingdom later in Mahabharatha war. As we cannot discuss the whole Mahabharatha in a tiny blog, let us analyze one or two incidents from Mahabharatha.
Duryodhana was born as the first son of the king of Hastinapura, Dhritharashtra. He had 99 brothers and one sister, Duhssala. As they were born into the Kuru dynasty they were called Kauravas. Dhritarashtra had a brother, who passed away very early in the epic, Pandu. Pandu had five sons, Pandavas. As Pandu was no more, the Pandavas also grew up in the same palace as Kauravas and there used to be friendly tussles between the cousin brothers.
Poisoned: Among the Pandavas, the second one Bhima was the strongest, who had the strength of thousand elephants. Duryodhana, had a peculiar and strong dislike towards Bhima, as Bhima was a big bully to the Kauravas. (Remember, bullying is not okay whether in an epic or in real life. Now read what Bhima went through.) At a point of time, Duryodhana became so angry he decided to take the matters into his own hands.
As per his wish, a nice resort near the Ganga river was made and Duryodhana invited his brothers and cousins for a one day picnic. All the kids were playing and later having their food. Duryodhana without anyone noticing slipped some poison into Bhima's food and Bhima became unconscious, near the banks. As it was late, no one noticed and it was time for the kids, that too 105 of them to go back to the palace. While others were going back to their respective vehicles (school bus, maybe ;-))), Duryodhana made a rope with forest creepers, tied Bhima, (remember, Duryodhana also was very strong compared to a normal kid) pushed him into the river, made sure he sank and went back with the other kids to the palace. At the palace, Bhima's mother Kunti was extremely worried, upset, and started crying for Bhima.
Now, Bhima being pushed into the river sank to the bottom and reached the Nagaloka (abode of the great snakes). There he was bitten by numerous snakes, which became an antidote to the poison he already had in the system. Now Bhima got up, started thrashing and destroying the snakes, and the snakes rushed to their king Vasuki. Vasuki hearing about this warrior kid came to see him. Then an old snake Aryaka came and reminded Vasuki this was Bhima and should be respected. So instead of putting him in prison, Bhima was given some potions to drink that the Nagas (snakes) knew to make so that Bhima becomes much stronger. After taking the potions Bhima slept for some days and later went back to Hastinapura much more stronger than before.
Almost burned: The kids grew up to be adults. As Yudhishthira, the first one among the Pandavas was the oldest he was supposed to become the king after Dhritharashtra. Even though the current king was not really happy about this decision, he kept quiet as his great uncle, Bhishma was the one who used to take such decisions. Duryodhana was fuming as he was denied the kingship. In his mind, anger started to rise against the Pandavas, who were getting more respect from the people, the elders and ally kings. It also got mixed with jealousy for the fame, acclaim, kingdom, army and other niceties the Pandavas were receiving.
Let us introduce another villain here, Sakuni. He was the brother of Gandhari, mother of Duryodhana. He is portrayed as an evil, deceptive, and covert character. Duryodhana asked Sakuni's help. Sakuni told him to make a palace using lacquer (Lakshagraha). Anyone who knows about lacquer knows that it is highly inflammable and can burn in a second. Duryodhana built a very beautiful palace and used lacquer as the glue that held the bricks together. He wanted to bestow it to his eldest cousin brother Yudhishthira as a token of love to the new king in the making. Yushishira without any hesitance accepted the beautiful yet deadly gift from his dear cousin brother.
Duryodhana's plan was to burn the palace down when the Pandavas were sleeping. But the very smart and honest minister of Dhritarashtra, Vidura sent a message to Yudhishtira, very early. As this is beautifully given in Wikipedia, I am borrowing the words from there.
Wikipedia,
Yudhishira who was very smart in unraveling puzzles understood the meaning and made a tunnel from the palace into the middle of the forest and escaped with his brothers and mother into the forest and used the stars as pathfinders for their later path. As along with Pandavas there was a cook who had five sons. Unfortunately, they died in the fire. Duryodhana and his crooked uncle were very happy thinking Pandavas and their mother Kunti were killed.
Insulted: Now to the last incident. After some time the Pandavas were called back to Hastinapura. Inbetween Pandavas go through many experiences and also gets their wife, Draupadi. Now Pandavas are back at Hastinapura. The minute Pandavas are back, Duryodhana started broiling in jealousy. As Yudhishira is the new king, he wanted to do the Aswamedha Yaga. This is a fire ritual where a horse is allowed to roam around through the neighboring countries and the army of the king follows the horse. Whoever tries to tie the horse is fought with, defeated and the defeated king should regard Yudhishira as the emperor and pay a yearly or monthly tax to him. This is basically to become an emperor, expand the land of the kingdom, get more money into the treasury, and get the respects from the other kings.
Once Yudhishira became the emperor he made a fantastic palace for himself and his brothers using the help of the celestial architect, Maya and did a huge 'Ashwamedha' (Winner by virtue of a horse, fire ritual). Duryodhana was also invited. Seeing the fantastic palace, overflowing treasury, respects given by other kings to Yudhishtira, respect of people to Pandavas, Duryodhana became jealous to his core. He just wanted to decimate the Pandavas. He asked the help of again his uncle, Sakuni.
Sakuni who was a master, yet cheating chess player asked Duryodhana to invite Yudhishthira to a play of chess. Sakuni knew the one weakness Yudhishira had was gambling. Yudhishira first didn't accept. But then Duryodhana challenged whether the "king was afraid of a mere game of chess?"So Yudhishira decided to play. First, he lost his kingdom, then his army, then his palace, his brothers and finally himself. Then again Duryodhana urged him to play and said he has another precious possession with him -Draupadi, their queen. (Are women possessions of men? I don't think so. But this is mythology).
Yudhishira again played, lost his queen. Then Duryodhana asked his brother Dussasana to drag Draupadi to the court by her hair and was insulted by trying to disrobe her in front of the whole court. At last, seeing the anger and the curse Draupadi gave, Dhritharashtra asked Duryodhana to stop the game and gave everything back to Yudhishira and reinstated him as the king. This was the first time.
Then again Duryodhana's jealousy knew no bounds. He pestered his uncle again to do another game of chess. So again Duryodhana invited Yudhishira, and the game was on. This time the rule was different. If Yudhishthira lost in the game, he and his brothers along with Draupadi has to go to forest for twelve years and then the 13th year they have to be in disguise, incognito (Ajgnatha vasa). Duryodhana will send the army to find them. If they are found they would have to go again for 12+1 and this pattern would continue.
Anyway, of course, Yudhishira lost again, they went to 12+1 year to the forest. Luckily in the 13the year, they were not found out. So the divine, Krishna in the form of a messenger, when to Duryodhana to ask for at least a village. Duryodhana said, 'he would not give even a space to poke a needle.' The only way for the Pandavas was the war that took place in Kurukshetra, which is described in Mahabharatha.
In the war, the whole of the Kuru dynasty was decimated and none of the hundred brothers, the elders, the sons, the uncle Sakuni, friend Karna, none survived. In Pandavas side also except for Krishna (the divine charioteer) and the five Pandavas remained. Finally, who killed Duryodhana? The same kid who was poisoned many years back, Bhima. It is said that, 'a person dies by his sword.' The same sword of jealousy killed Duryodhana as well. Later in the epic, the sadness of Gandhari, the mother who lost all her hundred sons are described. See how jealousy brought a whole kingdom to dust!
Analysis: Here with Duryodhana his life purpose itself becomes the destruction of the Pandavas. For that, he was ready to do anything. He used a lot of wealth for this, whether to build a resort at the banks of Ganga or make a palace made of lacquer. Spending so much wealth didn't mean anything to him compared to the jealousy he was having for the Pandavas. He is portrayed as some one who has great leadership, vision, strategy, great strength, good in mace fight, leading an army and more. But everything was swept away in the river of jealousy.
The mental energy and focus he was putting towards this goal. He had no other thought. It was always what plot, what deed, what strategy to destroy the Pandavas. Here his whole energy was directed towards another person or group. Does he make any progress, even a little towards his own soul growth and evolution? For that first, we have to remove our lower emotions. A person roiled in jealousy, how can he ever think of mental, emotional, or soul growth? The jealousy led to his own destruction.
Above that his whole dynasty or clan was destroyed. His brothers, his elders, uncles, cousins, relatives, acquaintances, armies, people, everything was gone! This shows everyone has to take steps carefully as our actions and deeds very much affect our family, friends, and loved ones. Here all the elders were blind to the love for a youngster. Dhritarashtra, literally as well as metaphorically was blind, by the love for his son. Bhishma, the great uncle due to his sense of responsibility stood with the king Dhritarashtra's (blind) son. Drona was the teacher or guide in the court of Dhritarashtra, so again the responsibility of a court guide. Karna, being a friend of Duryodhana, the responsibility towards a friend. Nobody was ready to challenge, Duryodhana, and he also was not ready to listen to anyone.
Finally, in the Mahabharatha war at Kurukshetra, the divine, in the form of Krishna stood with the Pandavas, because that was the side of Dharma. The Pandavas were fighting for their right to have minimum five villages, if not at least one village. But Duryodhana thought Pandavas had no right to even exist. See the underlying energy. In their jealousy, these people can even become dangerous criminals and killers, who can destroy or decimate the enemy. They feel as the other person is making them jealous, they don't even have a right to exist or live. Really give a thought to that.
Jealousy is not a small, not that a big of a deal thing. It can bring down empires, kill people, and rewrite history whether in mythology or in our everyday modern life. It can create Mahabharata war in families with casualties on both sides. Bad emotions, bad energy, chaotic situation, fights, and more would be the result. Also, the divine grace moves away from the side of the jealous person, because most of the times they are working against their Dharma (duty). When the divine itself is against that person who else can help and protect them?
So, let us totally pull out jealousy of any kind from our life. It doesn't give us mental, emotional, physical or psychological health or peace. It also removes us from the grace of the divine and bring us to a level of low existence. Why in the world should we choose it? Then again everyone has their own free will and choice!
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉
Next week: Hate - Another monster!
Note: Images from Wikimedia Commons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
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SwaroopaBlog.
Namaste! Hope all of you had a great week where you were able to bring your fear of the unknown under control and take another step towards your goal. Somewhere I have read, courage is not, not having fear. But, courage is taking the step into whatever is the unknown in our life despite the fear. Today, I was planning to write about the path with a light load. But then another two emotions came into my mind that we have to tackle before talking about a light load. Jealousy and hate. Hate, we would discuss next week. This week let us discuss the emotion called jealousy.
Jealousy: What is jealousy? It is also called the 'green-eyed monster' in English. Jealousy is the emotion a human feels when he/she perceives someone has something that he/she does not have. In their inner core, they very much want that thing the other person is having, but cannot have it. That creates a sadness in them and maybe a slight admiration for the other person, which they don't want to acknowledge. Because to acknowledge and appreciate another person, one should be open minded enough to accept that the other person has achieved something. But when someone really wants something, how can they ever appreciate the same thing, which the other person is enjoying? This creates the jealousy.
 |
| Jealousy, the green-eyed monster! Charles Le Brun [CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
For example, someone really wanted to get an education in their young age, but never had a chance to get an education, except for some schooling. Later they moved to a city sometime in their life and came across a neighbor in their same area who has a Ph.D. in a specific subject and is doing well in their career. The first person starts feeling jealous because they very much wanted an education in the first place and craved for it. Unfortunately, they didn't get the chance and the neighbor who had that chance had the education as well as their career as a result of it.
The jealous person is upset, they didn't get the same chance, a slight admiration for the other person, difficulty to acknowledge it, closemindedness not to acknowledge that fact, fear whether they would fall short before the other person, how the other person would perceive them, whether it is correct to have such fear and anxiety, anger at the luck of the other person. So here the person goes through a whole lot of emotions, taken together turns into jealousy. This is like a gnawing ache that eats away at the core of their being.
Unfortunate issue: The saddest part is the jealousy doesn't do anything to the object as many times the other person is not even aware of this fact, except when the jealous person takes selfish actions trying to put themselves in a higher spot. Then the other person does get affected. Otherwise, it is the jealous person who is going to have a lot of the effect in the modern times. It is like a knife poking every now and then in their soul, or a cancer of the soul that slowly grows inside them.
Above this, it is a whole lot of energy they are directing towards another person than directing it to their own life. As we have discussed before, all of us beneath our solid looking body is made up of atoms and molecules that are composed of the energy of protons, and electrons. So, all that energy is devoted to another person, so that their own life becomes stagnant. Above this, if they take actions to assuage the jealousy, those actions are being taken with a bad intention.
Even before acting, that bad intentions already have produced enough Karma to go through another lifetime. Why? What is the point? They are keeping the axe at their own root of soul progress. They become stuck in that stagnant energy of their life without the ability to move forward whether in this lifetime or even in another lifetime. Also because this is with a bad intention to bring somebody down, it also has the vibration of very heavy energy. That stagnancy and heaviness take a toll in their own life. Jealous people always have an air of heaviness around them, which everyone who is energetically aware may be able to feel.
The master Paramahansa Yogananda has quoted, "Some people try to be tall by cutting the head of others". This is exactly the attitude a jealous person embraces. We have an extremely famous person in mythology who embodies this aspect. As all of you know, perusing through Mahabharatha, you can find every scenario a human can find themselves in their life. It is such an epic.
Duryodhana:
The birth: In that, a character comes who embodies the energy of jealousy that led to the war and later the decimation of the Kuru kingdom. Duryodhana, the green-eyed monster incarnate. Even though his dad Dhritharashtra called him Suyodhana, he brought down the destruction of his own dynasty. It is written in Mahabharatha, during his birth, wolves and jackals howled, vultures were flying on the sky, there was a thunderstorm, torrential rain, lightning and floods to alert people of the impending doom.
Once Duryodhana was born, Vyasa, the sage came and told Dhritharashtra to discard the baby as doom would come to visit upon the Kuru dynasty, but the king was not ready for that as he had utmost love to his first son, Duryodhana. But as the natural disasters notified, the disaster did come upon the kingdom later in Mahabharatha war. As we cannot discuss the whole Mahabharatha in a tiny blog, let us analyze one or two incidents from Mahabharatha.
 |
| Duryodhana with Drona in the Mahabharatha war! By Ramanarayanadatta astri[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
Duryodhana was born as the first son of the king of Hastinapura, Dhritharashtra. He had 99 brothers and one sister, Duhssala. As they were born into the Kuru dynasty they were called Kauravas. Dhritarashtra had a brother, who passed away very early in the epic, Pandu. Pandu had five sons, Pandavas. As Pandu was no more, the Pandavas also grew up in the same palace as Kauravas and there used to be friendly tussles between the cousin brothers.
Poisoned: Among the Pandavas, the second one Bhima was the strongest, who had the strength of thousand elephants. Duryodhana, had a peculiar and strong dislike towards Bhima, as Bhima was a big bully to the Kauravas. (Remember, bullying is not okay whether in an epic or in real life. Now read what Bhima went through.) At a point of time, Duryodhana became so angry he decided to take the matters into his own hands.
As per his wish, a nice resort near the Ganga river was made and Duryodhana invited his brothers and cousins for a one day picnic. All the kids were playing and later having their food. Duryodhana without anyone noticing slipped some poison into Bhima's food and Bhima became unconscious, near the banks. As it was late, no one noticed and it was time for the kids, that too 105 of them to go back to the palace. While others were going back to their respective vehicles (school bus, maybe ;-))), Duryodhana made a rope with forest creepers, tied Bhima, (remember, Duryodhana also was very strong compared to a normal kid) pushed him into the river, made sure he sank and went back with the other kids to the palace. At the palace, Bhima's mother Kunti was extremely worried, upset, and started crying for Bhima.
Now, Bhima being pushed into the river sank to the bottom and reached the Nagaloka (abode of the great snakes). There he was bitten by numerous snakes, which became an antidote to the poison he already had in the system. Now Bhima got up, started thrashing and destroying the snakes, and the snakes rushed to their king Vasuki. Vasuki hearing about this warrior kid came to see him. Then an old snake Aryaka came and reminded Vasuki this was Bhima and should be respected. So instead of putting him in prison, Bhima was given some potions to drink that the Nagas (snakes) knew to make so that Bhima becomes much stronger. After taking the potions Bhima slept for some days and later went back to Hastinapura much more stronger than before.
Almost burned: The kids grew up to be adults. As Yudhishthira, the first one among the Pandavas was the oldest he was supposed to become the king after Dhritharashtra. Even though the current king was not really happy about this decision, he kept quiet as his great uncle, Bhishma was the one who used to take such decisions. Duryodhana was fuming as he was denied the kingship. In his mind, anger started to rise against the Pandavas, who were getting more respect from the people, the elders and ally kings. It also got mixed with jealousy for the fame, acclaim, kingdom, army and other niceties the Pandavas were receiving.
Let us introduce another villain here, Sakuni. He was the brother of Gandhari, mother of Duryodhana. He is portrayed as an evil, deceptive, and covert character. Duryodhana asked Sakuni's help. Sakuni told him to make a palace using lacquer (Lakshagraha). Anyone who knows about lacquer knows that it is highly inflammable and can burn in a second. Duryodhana built a very beautiful palace and used lacquer as the glue that held the bricks together. He wanted to bestow it to his eldest cousin brother Yudhishthira as a token of love to the new king in the making. Yushishira without any hesitance accepted the beautiful yet deadly gift from his dear cousin brother.
Duryodhana's plan was to burn the palace down when the Pandavas were sleeping. But the very smart and honest minister of Dhritarashtra, Vidura sent a message to Yudhishtira, very early. As this is beautifully given in Wikipedia, I am borrowing the words from there.
Wikipedia,
- "A weapon not made of steel or any other material element can be more than sharp to kill an enemy, and he who knows this is never killed."
- "Fire cannot extinguish the soul but can annihilate the material body. But one who protects the soul lives".
- "The conflagration that devastates a forest cannot hurt a rat which shelters itself in a hole or a porcupine which burrows in the earth. The wise man knows his bearings by looking at the stars."
Yudhishira who was very smart in unraveling puzzles understood the meaning and made a tunnel from the palace into the middle of the forest and escaped with his brothers and mother into the forest and used the stars as pathfinders for their later path. As along with Pandavas there was a cook who had five sons. Unfortunately, they died in the fire. Duryodhana and his crooked uncle were very happy thinking Pandavas and their mother Kunti were killed.
Insulted: Now to the last incident. After some time the Pandavas were called back to Hastinapura. Inbetween Pandavas go through many experiences and also gets their wife, Draupadi. Now Pandavas are back at Hastinapura. The minute Pandavas are back, Duryodhana started broiling in jealousy. As Yudhishira is the new king, he wanted to do the Aswamedha Yaga. This is a fire ritual where a horse is allowed to roam around through the neighboring countries and the army of the king follows the horse. Whoever tries to tie the horse is fought with, defeated and the defeated king should regard Yudhishira as the emperor and pay a yearly or monthly tax to him. This is basically to become an emperor, expand the land of the kingdom, get more money into the treasury, and get the respects from the other kings.
Once Yudhishira became the emperor he made a fantastic palace for himself and his brothers using the help of the celestial architect, Maya and did a huge 'Ashwamedha' (Winner by virtue of a horse, fire ritual). Duryodhana was also invited. Seeing the fantastic palace, overflowing treasury, respects given by other kings to Yudhishtira, respect of people to Pandavas, Duryodhana became jealous to his core. He just wanted to decimate the Pandavas. He asked the help of again his uncle, Sakuni.
Sakuni who was a master, yet cheating chess player asked Duryodhana to invite Yudhishthira to a play of chess. Sakuni knew the one weakness Yudhishira had was gambling. Yudhishira first didn't accept. But then Duryodhana challenged whether the "king was afraid of a mere game of chess?"So Yudhishira decided to play. First, he lost his kingdom, then his army, then his palace, his brothers and finally himself. Then again Duryodhana urged him to play and said he has another precious possession with him -Draupadi, their queen. (Are women possessions of men? I don't think so. But this is mythology).
Yudhishira again played, lost his queen. Then Duryodhana asked his brother Dussasana to drag Draupadi to the court by her hair and was insulted by trying to disrobe her in front of the whole court. At last, seeing the anger and the curse Draupadi gave, Dhritharashtra asked Duryodhana to stop the game and gave everything back to Yudhishira and reinstated him as the king. This was the first time.
 |
| Insult of Draupadi by Dussasana! Duryodhana can be seen sitting on the throne! By Mahavir Prasad Mishra [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons |
Then again Duryodhana's jealousy knew no bounds. He pestered his uncle again to do another game of chess. So again Duryodhana invited Yudhishira, and the game was on. This time the rule was different. If Yudhishthira lost in the game, he and his brothers along with Draupadi has to go to forest for twelve years and then the 13th year they have to be in disguise, incognito (Ajgnatha vasa). Duryodhana will send the army to find them. If they are found they would have to go again for 12+1 and this pattern would continue.
Anyway, of course, Yudhishira lost again, they went to 12+1 year to the forest. Luckily in the 13the year, they were not found out. So the divine, Krishna in the form of a messenger, when to Duryodhana to ask for at least a village. Duryodhana said, 'he would not give even a space to poke a needle.' The only way for the Pandavas was the war that took place in Kurukshetra, which is described in Mahabharatha.
In the war, the whole of the Kuru dynasty was decimated and none of the hundred brothers, the elders, the sons, the uncle Sakuni, friend Karna, none survived. In Pandavas side also except for Krishna (the divine charioteer) and the five Pandavas remained. Finally, who killed Duryodhana? The same kid who was poisoned many years back, Bhima. It is said that, 'a person dies by his sword.' The same sword of jealousy killed Duryodhana as well. Later in the epic, the sadness of Gandhari, the mother who lost all her hundred sons are described. See how jealousy brought a whole kingdom to dust!
 | |
| Battle of Kurukshetra! Most probably a manuscript from (18th C.?) Image Courtesy - Wikimedia Commons |
Analysis: Here with Duryodhana his life purpose itself becomes the destruction of the Pandavas. For that, he was ready to do anything. He used a lot of wealth for this, whether to build a resort at the banks of Ganga or make a palace made of lacquer. Spending so much wealth didn't mean anything to him compared to the jealousy he was having for the Pandavas. He is portrayed as some one who has great leadership, vision, strategy, great strength, good in mace fight, leading an army and more. But everything was swept away in the river of jealousy.
The mental energy and focus he was putting towards this goal. He had no other thought. It was always what plot, what deed, what strategy to destroy the Pandavas. Here his whole energy was directed towards another person or group. Does he make any progress, even a little towards his own soul growth and evolution? For that first, we have to remove our lower emotions. A person roiled in jealousy, how can he ever think of mental, emotional, or soul growth? The jealousy led to his own destruction.
Above that his whole dynasty or clan was destroyed. His brothers, his elders, uncles, cousins, relatives, acquaintances, armies, people, everything was gone! This shows everyone has to take steps carefully as our actions and deeds very much affect our family, friends, and loved ones. Here all the elders were blind to the love for a youngster. Dhritarashtra, literally as well as metaphorically was blind, by the love for his son. Bhishma, the great uncle due to his sense of responsibility stood with the king Dhritarashtra's (blind) son. Drona was the teacher or guide in the court of Dhritarashtra, so again the responsibility of a court guide. Karna, being a friend of Duryodhana, the responsibility towards a friend. Nobody was ready to challenge, Duryodhana, and he also was not ready to listen to anyone.
Finally, in the Mahabharatha war at Kurukshetra, the divine, in the form of Krishna stood with the Pandavas, because that was the side of Dharma. The Pandavas were fighting for their right to have minimum five villages, if not at least one village. But Duryodhana thought Pandavas had no right to even exist. See the underlying energy. In their jealousy, these people can even become dangerous criminals and killers, who can destroy or decimate the enemy. They feel as the other person is making them jealous, they don't even have a right to exist or live. Really give a thought to that.
Jealousy is not a small, not that a big of a deal thing. It can bring down empires, kill people, and rewrite history whether in mythology or in our everyday modern life. It can create Mahabharata war in families with casualties on both sides. Bad emotions, bad energy, chaotic situation, fights, and more would be the result. Also, the divine grace moves away from the side of the jealous person, because most of the times they are working against their Dharma (duty). When the divine itself is against that person who else can help and protect them?
So, let us totally pull out jealousy of any kind from our life. It doesn't give us mental, emotional, physical or psychological health or peace. It also removes us from the grace of the divine and bring us to a level of low existence. Why in the world should we choose it? Then again everyone has their own free will and choice!
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉
Next week: Hate - Another monster!
Note: Images from Wikimedia Commons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
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©SwaroopaStargazer and Swaroopa, 2017- Eternity.
©SwaroopaStargazer and Swaroopa, 2017- Eternity.
![By Ramanarayanadatta astri[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duryodhana_showing_his_army_to_Drona.jpg){kind=link}
![By Mahavir Prasad Mishra [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Draupadi_%26_dushashan_scene.jpg){kind=link}
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