Freedom from Envy

All Glories to HDG Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaj

All Glories  to HDG Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Sraswati Prabhupada

In the beginning of  the  second verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam , we can understand  from that  there is no enviousness in a saintly person. The envious non devotee is full of hypocrisy. Sridhara Swami has defined enviousness as one who is unable to see the happiness or advancement of others. By the influence of the six enemies of the mind  together with aversion to the Supreme Lord makes one susceptible to the infection of enviousness. Then it becomes the practice of these individuals to become averse to both the Lord and His devotees. On there being a disruption in the enjoyment of the senses can lead a person to  losing his faith in the Supreme Lord. Such a person comes under the definition as he who is the killer of one's soul. The latter becoming averse to the Lord and the devotees  fathoms such atheistic tendencies as the right way to enlightenment. The heretic  is ignorant  regarding the Lord and the devotees  while the envious person is habituated to sins and severe offences .The Bhagavatam has not mentioned any religious stance  for the  envious person. The scriptures reminds us that the offence to devotees has more grave consequences then offences to the Lord   .Offences to the Lord make one to become fallen.  ninda kurvanti ye mudha vaishnavanam mahatmanam  patanti pitrrbhih sardham maharaurava samjnitam

 But offences at the feet of pure devotee  will send not only you but you with all your ancestors inclusive to reside in the various terrible hells as mentioned in the Bhagavatam  .In ordinary scriptures ,it is the doer who is implicated and punished for his actions. The father  is responsible for the wrong actions of his children .In the same way ,the grandfather is totally responsible for the wrong actions of the miscreant grandson. According to the actions of the grandfather,  the father is born with a certain nature. Therefore the great grandfather is in one sense directly responsible for the wrong deeds of the grandfather, father ,son and his lineage . It can be compared to a stack of bricks where the lower layers have to bear the weight of the top layer by default .In the same way ,the father has to bear the sons misdeeds' as well as his predecessors actions. That is the reason the sons ' blasphemy of the great Vaishnavas will lead to his ancestors all going to the hellish planets.  In actual context, a attached householder engaged in sense objects and averse to the Lord will usually  have a similar atheistic son. That sort of atheistic son in whatever his striving in an incomplete dogma averse to Vishnu will  end up him being envious. This envious nature will lead him to be antagonistic to the pure devotee and will mislead him as to what is true and untrue ending in blasphemy of the pure devotees. That is why the scriptures declare for any one who is steadfast in the chanting of the Name should firstly give up the blasphemy of the devotees. One who persists in committing offences against the saintly in order to increase his prestige will have neither any gain nor service to Lord Hari.  Actually their service to Hari is nil for even their so called service to the name will at best simply increase their offences.  The nature of the envious person makes him commit blasphemy against the stalwart devotees.  Actually one should never associate with such envious person. Association as in the sense of giving or collecting from such people, to speak or hear in secret from them ,to eat their food or to feed  them. This is the verdict of the Bhagavatam. The nature of a saintly person is that he tries to rectify the sinful and inauspicious  defects  of individuals by his mercy. But generally an envious person like me thinking the saintly person is trying to obstruct my sense enjoyment immediately judges him as being envious as one own self  with also being intolerant ,hypocritical and engaged in  causing harm to others .The fact of the matter  is that there is no trace of even an iota of envy in a saintly person. kanak kamini pratistha bhagini cahdiyache yare sei to vaishnava

 The aspirant infected by wealth ,women and fame and with that vision tries to advance on the deviant path but he soon  becomes  bombarded by the stone like  cutting words of the spiritual preceptor desiring his welfare. An envious son is born to an envious father. If one takes the shelter of a spiritual master fixed in pure goodness, free from envy and fixed in qualities like compassion then by implicitly following him, one  may be able to develop such similar qualities. This is the Lord's greatest compassion in this dismal world in giving this transcendental knowledge to the conditioned souls like me in order to overcome the strong illusory energy.  That day will be considered fortunate when I can take the  heavy instructions of the spiritual master seriously to heart. Just as in taking the proper bitter medicine for recovery one in reverse  may scold the doctor for the administration of that bitter  medicine  likewise  if I with my group  dare criticize the spiritual master, I will fall away with that group of mine. People generally advice that the plate used to eat nice foodstuffs is not the proper place to pass urine and stool. The living entity by his envious nature how much contaminations and sinful reactions has he  not gathered in toto! In ancient history, there is much stated evidence  regarding that stock.  Even in our previous lives on account of this envy how much have we suffered ?.If we were to discriminate and decide with determination  that at least in this life to strive to give up enviousness  ,will that not be to our advantage? If we cannot  give up envy and hypocrisy in our actions to the guru and the Vaishnava  then there will be simply no gain at all. Hurling some unwanted thing  from a bottom level  to the top floor directed to a person will only make the object fall on you.     The murderer revels in killing ,the envious person in calumny while the saintly person engages  in  the  rectification of an envious hypocritical person.  He has no envy while the envious person  conveniently try to equalize both the murderer and the envious with that of the saintly person in order to carry out  and fulfill his diabolical plans.  The saintly person is satisfied with some little remnants of food to the Lord -he does not long for other people's opulence having no trace of envy.  The Supreme Lord has  promised too that he will take care of the needs of his   dear devotee.  Sri Krishna is the maintainer of the devotees.  Sri Krishna was never fooled by Putana who came in the guise of a devotee.   Even though Putana hid her real nature externally ,her hearts intentions was understood by the Supreme. The saintly person also by his influence is able to fathom the nature of persons .Therefore having obtained this somewhat envious form from our ancestors by not performing service to  Lord Hari one will again stray away to the hedonistic path in mistaking the material  for the spiritual by the force of the illusory energy. Sri Ramanucharya   had performed the pastimes of punishing these envious people   three times during his lifetime. Factually all these envious attached householders can only be delivered by the mercy of  such non envious saintly devotees.