Hidden Treasure Series – Part V- On ‘Jealousy’

My dear readers,

Am indeed grateful to Times of India (TOI) for giving me an opportunity as a humble ‘reporter’. Click for the article “Quality Time with Family counts” and the other, a masterpiece WHAT children taught the elders – as to HOW and how NOT to celebrate Diwali – Click for that story “Sound Bites: Go easy on Noise”.

Well, I take the debits for having discontinued the ‘Hidden Treasure’ series in our blogs, walking-the-talk with Shri.GRK and sharing LIFE JUICES. Well, NOW, i swear on Mother Earth, that shall key-stroke one per week till we complete the series and bring out the e-book on Amazon next year.

Ravi: A happy Sunday evening to you Shri. GRK. Today i am going to listen to you on the dreaded disease called ‘Jealousy” amongst mankind since time immemorial. I suspect that you shall DO something, through your enlightened thinking; share the naked truth, and ‘mantra’ as well - so that most ‘migraines among mankind’ are cured!

GRK: That’s nice to hear, Ravi.  However, not sure if migraines (Especially among women) be cured because of this sharing. Anyway together we can make an attempt.

Ravi: Tell us Shri. GRK, i see Jealousy as a weakness and find it more among the educated and ‘haves’? Why this anomaly?

GRK: “Jealousy is INDEED a weakness”, Ravi. “It is an intense FEELING which consumes more the person who feels jealous than who is the target of jealousy. Often it is due to comparison. A person who compares himself / herself and measures in relation to others, other things and situations; he/she feels jealous of those people and the things”.

Ravi: Are there any other reasons that could be the root causes of Jealousy?

GRK: Jealousy is also due to the sense of possessiveness. “We feel to possess things, gadgets, houses, motor cars, wives/husbands and children too. Whenever one wishes to possess somebody, (SAY a girl!) or something, and fails to possess, he feels jealous of that somebody or something”. The sad part is, “In our attempt to possess friends, girls and children, we forget that they have their own individualities, their own interests and their own will, and hence, cannot be possessed as dummies and tools”.

Ravi: Professor, we have witnessed people in power or the highly educated be “insecure”. Could that pave way for Jealousy – a heart-killer in real-life!

GRK: Yes, my friend – Jealousy is also due to the ‘feeling of insecurity’ nay, ‘inadequacy’ in one’s brain.  A highly dominant LEFT brain which is frightened of its realities and inadequacies, attempts to possess things, people, ideology, bank balance, religion or ‘love’, as a substitute for its inadequacy (feeling of insufficiency). The frightened LEFT brain feels possession as an anchor, as compensation and as a refuge. A frightened LEFT brain is a lonely brain. It is a desolate brain, which suffers from the feeling of insufficiency and inadequacy. Thus it lacks ‘peace’. Jealousy is the feature of an under-developed RIGHT brain AND an aggressive LEFT brain, nay, a possessive brain.

Ravi: That’s awesome learning – What I simply understand that Jealousy is a result of lack-of RIGHT brain development, notably, at childhood. We, in India, are conditioned to a particular religion, stream of study, ‘rote’ learning, societal conditioning etc – However the silver lining is, my dear GRK, Gen Y and Gen Z are different from yours and mine generation. They have clarity in their thought and an awesome RIGHT brain, furthered by Group activities in school, thanks to the eradication of a dreaded COMPARISON tool called ‘ranking’. Today it is ‘grading’, WITH both subjective and objective grading, you know well. And there are creative ‘projects’ activating Their RIGHT brain. Knowing their talent and the platform already laid to them, plus the opportunities in India, i swear professor, if their RIGHT brain is nurtured, there shall be many Nobel prize winners and more and more successful CLEAN entrepreneurs as well from upcoming generations - from India, in India, by Indians.

GRK: Yes, I agree on the upcoming generation To a great extent. We are in such a ‘rat-race’ that there is no time for people to introspect, FEEL people around them – Where is the time for RIGHT brain activities like ‘Caring and sharing? And knowing what their wards want?

Ravi: And, What are the implications when Jealousy breeds?

GRK: Jealousy breeds competition, nay conflict -It may result in sorrow, agony, sense of deprivation and a feeling of un-fulfillment, thus it becomes a self-consuming weakness-ultimately affecting the brain.

Ravi: Awesome learning Shri. GRK, helping understand the vagaries of human ‘brain’ behavior. Well, Shri.GRK, please could you share with us a ‘mantra’ for mankind to come out of this malaise- A source for ‘migraines’ or even ‘heart-attacks’!

GRK: Yes there are three ways. Very simple ones, indeed.

·         To STOP comparing things and people in relation to oneself.

·         To NOT to feel to possess things and people.

·         DEVELOP RIGHT brain activities consistently.

Ravi: Well, Shri. GRK, thank you so much for this ‘sharing’ and shall expect you to talk on ‘Self’ next Friday. So, long, THEN.

GRK: Thank you Ravi. Sure we shall share on ‘Self’ next week.

Folks, let me end this ‘piece’ with a quote from Aristotle on ‘Jealousy’

“Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbor to have them through envy”.

i even loved this one from Van Wyck Brooks:

“Magnanimous people have no vanity, they have no jealousy, and they feed on the true and purity wherever they find it. And, what is more, they find it everywhere”.

Love

Ravichander Venkatraman