Envious?

After Kunti left, the wicker basket with her newborn child, floated from Asva to Carmanvati river & then to Yamuna. Thereafter, it went to Gangā & was carried past the city of Campā, which was ruled by a Suta king. By will of destiny and power of the armor & earrings, that was made from celestial nectar, the tiny baby remained alive

Dhritrāshtra had a suta friend named Adhiratha, who lived in Campa. His wife’s name was Rādha. The couple were childless. It so happened that as the basket was floating by, the couple came to Gangā to bathe. When Rādha saw the basket, she with great curiosity took it out & was surprised seeing a baby boy inside, brilliant like the Sun. With astonishment the couple saw the child adorned with golden armor & rings. Adhiratha took baby on his lap & said: This child must have been sent to us from heaven by demigods. He named him Vasusena & gave the baby to his wife

By means of spies Kunti soon learned that her child had been adopted by a charioteer within Anga kingdom. Thereafter, Adhiratha & Radhā had other sons. As Vasusena (also called Karna) grew up, he exhibited exceptional prowess & so was sent to Hastināpur to learn use of weapons under Dronācharya’s direction. When Karna first saw Arjun, a natural attitude of envious rivalry sprang within his heart & that jealousy continues throughout his entire life

Due to this envy, Karna forced himself to align with Duryodhana despite knowing that he was nourishing Adharma. All the good qualities of Karna came to a nought due to this and he found himself on the wrong side

Krsna says to Arjun in Bhagvad Gita:

idaṁ tu te guhya-tamaṁ pravakṣyāmy anasūyave

jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ yaj jñātvā mokṣyase ’śubhāt

My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most confidential knowledge and realization, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence

The word Anusuyave: non-envious is very significant

Leave aside the troubles one brings upon self by being envious, he also loses the opportunity to gain wisdom/advice from others by being loaded with false ego, preventing him to even listen. Prosperity of others burns the envious with resentment, driven by the illusion that he deserves all good and all others are no good

The envious mind cannot feel satisfaction in whatever he has and gets carried away by images that look good on the externals. It delves on elusive perfection of self and finding faults in others

We can see in our work place, that even one envious person can poison the team and create havoc to the environment. Let’s be very alert about this trait both for the self as well in others & not get carried away

Every man should act like this: when he meets a person more qualified than himself, he should be very pleased, when he meets someone less qualified than himself, he should be compassionate toward him & and when he meets someone equal to himself, he should make friendship with him

Thoughts? #gameoflife