Does Jealousy Arise from Ego?
Acharya Prashant: The question asked by Shubham is, does jealousy arise from ego? It’s simple, very simple if you look at it. What is ego? Your sense of yourself which has been borrowed from others, correct? So, I do not know myself directly, I am depending upon somebody else to tell me who I am, correct? The fellow comes and says, you are brilliant and what do I start believing, that I am brilliant. Now my sense of being brilliant, my idea of myself that I am brilliant depends totally upon this other person, who told me that I am brilliant. Otherwise, I am not brilliant.
If too many of them come and say that you are stupid, I will have to believe that I am stupid, because even my idea of brilliance comes from others. If he says I am brilliant and I believe it, then I have to also believe him when he says that I am stupid, are you getting it? So, now my brilliance is not coming from my own understanding, my sense about myself is not coming from my own understanding, but from his words, I am dependent upon him. And now I want him to keep saying that I am brilliant, because my brilliance depends on his saying. The more he keeps saying, the more special I feel. A direct result of this would be, that the day I see him telling someone else that you are brilliant. Let’s say I am A, he is B and there is another entity C. Now B tells C that you too are brilliant; how will A feel?
Audience: Jealous.
Acharya Prashant: Now do you see what jealousy is? Now let’s take a different situation. I know I am brilliant, but my sense of the self is not coming from B. I know that I am brilliant, I just know, it’s not a borrowed idea. Now will it matter to me, if B says to C that you are brilliant? Will I be jealous anymore? No, I will not be jealous. So, jealousy comes from dependency. The one who is not dependent cannot be jealous, are you getting it? The one who is his own master cannot be jealous. To be jealous means that I have accepted somebody as my master, and now I want this master to remain with me. If he goes to someone else, then I feel a certain pain and this pain is called jealousy. Do you get it? All right.
