AT THE FEET OF THE MOTHER
Ask Alok da

How do I get rid of jealousy🤢, it’s a really big problem for me. But I don’t want it. I tried searching through Mother’s works but can’t seem to find anything major. I know I should keep offering, but what effort am I to put in from my part ? When it comes it’s so overwhelming and no matter how much I try to step back, fight it with reason or simply reject it, it’s not working. I find myself comparing myself constantly, wanting what others have, even though I hate the thoughts. As far as I can remember, since I was a child this has been a problem for me and it’s grappling.

Jealousy comes due to a feeling of inadequacy within oneself. As a result we keep comparing ourselves with others with the attendant results of ambition, jealousy, and feelings of inferiority.  At the root of it is the sense of inferiority that leads to comparisons and thereby feel either vainly superior or else jealous. 

The remedy lies first of all in accepting ourselves as we are and know that each one is unique and different. And then to surrender oneself to the Divine with a prayer that may we be what She wants me to be. Along with this to trust that whatever the Divine has given us, in whatever position the Divine has placed is best for our growth, to shift the focus from what we have or have not outwardly to how much we are one with Her. It is the growing inner closeness with the Divine that alone can eliminate and annihilate these enemies of our soul and replace them with wideness, generosity and nobility of temperament,  and the spirit of renunciation and sacrifice in which these forces cannot stay for long. 

Affectionately,

Alok Da

Share this…

Related Posts

I remember once reading in Sri Aurobindo’s commentary on the Isha Upanishad that one cannot become a Brahmin without first becoming a Kshatriya. I believe that I never had the Kshatriya element developed sufficiently within me, and it has always been a source of embarrassment and insecurity for me as a man. šŸ’ŖšŸ™šŸ»šŸŖ·[…]

He said both are needed. But these are things ingrained within us. Brahmin and Kshatriya are notĀ  soul states, inner innate temperaments and not so much of outer actions. Nevertheless everything can be developed by practice. By taking the challenges of life, through vigorous physical exercises, by praying for strength, by reading …

Read More >

Bhaiya, Rishi Panchami fast is coming up, and I read the story behind it. Honestly, I found it quite absurd. The story talks about a woman unknowingly breaking certain rules during menstruation, cooking food that her husband eats, and then both of them facing severe karmic consequences in their next life. šŸŖ·šŸ™šŸ» […]

Yes, all these things have been added much later and have no authority in the mainĀ  Scriptures. It is a story added in some of the Puranas, mainly I suppose to enforce rules of hygiene for women during the menstrual period. This was one of the ways to instil certain hygiene practices through fear. It has no meaning now. Most of the fasts …

Read More >

How should we understand deities like Subrahmanyeshwara (Skanda/Murugan) and Vinayaka (Ganesha)? Are they individual divine beings, cosmic powers of the One Divine, or symbols of different aspects of consciousness? How should an aspirant in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga relate to them in practice? šŸ™šŸ»āœØ

The four original gods, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh and, behind them all Krishna, are, in their origin, the four aspects of the One Divine, named in Indian spiritual thought as Sacchidananda. Sat (सत) is infinite existence from which Brahma ji emerges. Chit is Chit-tapas, Consciousness and Force from which Hari or Vishnu ji and Hara or Shiv ji …

Read More >