Envy - an essential subject

One can never expect to find any kind of utopia, even in the spiritual world. Where ever there are persons, there are bound to be differences, one should not expect any kind of perfect arrangement, especially here in the material world. Even sometimes among the gopis there is envy, but that enviousness is transcendental and should not be accepted in the mundane sense. Devotees have no need to compete with materialists because they are on the path back to Godhead, back home where everything is eternal, full and blissful.

Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, conversations and letters offer a comprehensive presentation of this essential subject as seen in the Vaniquotes Envy category. An introduction from his books is given below in the following 15 quotes.

Quotes from Srila Prabhupada's books


vanipedia.org 		Everyone desires to be the greatest personality in this material world. Dveṣa means "envy." When one becomes envious of Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one thinks, "Why should Kṛṣṇa be the all and all? I'm as good as Kṛṣṇa." These two items, desire to be the Lord and envy of the Lord, are the beginning cause of material bondage. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.27.20)



vanipedia.org 		It is not wonderful for persons who have accepted the transient material body as the self to engage always in deriding great souls. Such envy on the part of materialistic persons is very good because that is the way they fall down. They are diminished by the dust of the feet of great personalities. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.4.13)



vanipedia.org 		A person who is unaffected by attachment and envy is said to possess equilibrium. An example of Kṛṣṇa's equilibrium is given in the Tenth Canto, Sixteenth Chapter, verse 33, of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in connection with His chastising Kāliya, the hundred-headed serpent. While Kāliya was being severely punished, all of his wives appeared before the Lord and prayed as follows: "Dear Lord, You have descended to punish all kinds of demoniac living creatures. (Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 21)



vanipedia.org 		When a man earns money by unfair means and maintains his family and himself with that money, the money is enjoyed by many members of the family, but he alone goes to hell. A person who enjoys life by earning money or by envying another's life, and who enjoys with family and friends, will have to enjoy alone the resultant sinful reactions accrued from such violent and illicit life. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.30.31)



vanipedia.org 		He who is satisfied with gain which comes of its own accord, who is free from duality and does not envy, who is steady in both success and failure, is never entangled, although performing actions. (Bhagavad-gītā 4.22)



vanipedia.org 		For temporary sense gratification, such a person creates a society of envy, and due to this mentality, he plunges into the ocean of suffering. Such a foolish person does not even know about this. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.5.16)



vanipedia.org 		By making plans with determination, one should give up lusty desires for sense gratification. Similarly, by giving up envy one should conquer anger, by discussing the disadvantages of accumulating wealth one should give up greed, and by discussing the truth one should give up fear. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.15.22)



vanipedia.org 		Even in this material world, in the forest the animals live together, and when they go to drink water they do not attack anyone. Envy develops because of sense gratification, but in Vṛndāvana there is no sense gratification, for the only aim is Kṛṣṇa's satisfaction. Even in this material world, the animals in Vṛndāvana are not envious of the sādhus who live there. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.13.60)



vanipedia.org 		As is the nature of this material world, the King of heaven, Indra, is very anxious if a great sage undergoes severe austerities. The whole material world is filled with such envy that everyone becomes afraid of his neighbors. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.30.13)



vanipedia.org 		Dakṣa, who is so hardhearted that he is unworthy to be a brāhmaṇa, will gain extensive ill fame because of his offenses to his daughter, because of not having prevented her death, and because of his great envy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.4.30)



vanipedia.org 		Any religious system but the process of bhāgavata-dharma-service as an eternal servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead—is a system of envy of one's own self and of others. For example, there are many systems of religion in which animal sacrifices are recommended. Such animal sacrifices are inauspicious both for the performer and for the animal. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.16.42)



vanipedia.org 		An uncontrolled mind and an unchaste wife are the same. An unchaste wife can kill her husband at any time, and an uncontrolled mind, followed by lust, anger, greed, madness, envy and illusion, can certainly kill the yogī. When the yogī is controlled by the mind, he falls down into the material condition. One should be very careful of the mind, just as a husband should be careful of an unchaste wife. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.6.4)



vanipedia.org 		In the material world, everyone is envious of everyone else, and therefore there is competition. But the transcendental devotees of the Lord are not only free from material envy, but are well-wishers to everyone, and they strive to establish a competitionless society with God in the center. The contemporary socialist's conception of a competitionless society is artificial because in the socialist state there is competition for the post of dictator. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.2)



vanipedia.org 		A Vaiṣṇava is always an object of envy for nondevotees, even when the nondevotee happens to be his father. To give a practical example, Hiraṇyakaśipu was envious of Prahlāda Mahārāja, but this envy of the devotee was harmful to Hiraṇyakaśipu, not to Prahlāda. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.4.69)



vanipedia.org 		A devotee must therefore be completely free from envy, especially of other devotees. To envy other devotees is a great offense, a vaiṣṇava-aparādha. A devotee who constantly engages in hearing and chanting (śravaṇa-kīrtana) is certainly freed from the disease of envy, and thus he becomes eligible to go back home, back to Godhead. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.11.23)


Envy - explore more within this category.

Vanipedia has now over 903 introductory articles compiled from Srila Prabhupada's books under the series titled Essential Subjects. All these articles can be seen in the Table of Content on the right side of this article and also here in this Umbrella Category. Browse through them to relish the breadth and depth of Srila Prabhupada's teachings - There is a subject for everyone.


   
 

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