What Are Some Ways To Avoid Jealousy And Greed? How Useful Is It To Live Life?

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Let’s take the second question first, ‘How useful it is to live life?’

Not at all, provided you want to live a happy and peaceful life. This is a fact! If we believe, jealousy and greed are useful to live life, such wrong understanding would only boost these weaknesses further. Our consciousness will always be drawn into it, and one day, would drown us character-wise. Therefore, to see a fault as a fault, and have the awareness of the damage that the fault can cause, is crucial to live a good life and even thereafter. And if we have the desire for bliss that lasts forever, then to be free from all faults and attain ultimate liberation should be our end-goal of life.

To accomplish this, following are the ways:

Attain Self-Realization. In Akram Vignan, we are able to attain Self-Realization very easily, with the direct grace of Gnani, the Enlightened One!!!

Really speaking, jealousy and greed are in the worldly self known by the name ‘John’ (you may insert your own name here), and not in our real Self i.e. the Pure Soul. Hence, when we attain Self-Realization, we realize, “Oh! I am a Pure Soul, and my nature is only to see and know.” With this, our belief that, ‘I indeed am the one who is having jealousy and greed’, drops. So thereafter, we are able to see all our mistakes, without any attachment or abhorrence within, in the awareness of the Self (the Pure Soul). Consequently, these mistakes begin to leave. This is absolute science!

Follow the 4 Steps

Now, to further speed up the exit of our mistakes, including that of jealousy and greed, the Enlightened One has shown 4 technical steps, that will help us eradicate these vice even faster:

A firm opinion that jealousy and greed (or any weakness for that matter) is certainly wrong.

Jealousy arises when there is tremendous greed or an intense craving for something. On account of this, the tendencies that arise within are indeed difficult and very problematic, not only for us, but for everyone around us. Therefore, jealousy and greed are certainly wrong. Once it is understood that, ‘this is wrong’, the wrong begins to leave from that very moment.

Yes, if the layers of mistakes are far too many and far too strong, we may not be able to immediately see results outside. However, saying, ‘Ah! Forget it! My nature does not improve’, will not lead us to the solution. Akram Vignan explains, “Do not worry if it does not improve on the outside, you just improve things from within.” Have a firm determination within that jealousy and greed are totally wrong. That’s it. Things will soon improve, that’s guaranteed!

A thorough analysis of how jealousy and greed are wrong.

Gather information and study use-cases that further enrich your understanding of how jealousy and greed are indeed wrong. Study how jealousy and greed are born out of our endless desire to get more and more of the material things we like, and establish how they have made us nothing but feel miserable in life.

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, an enlightened being, explains, ‘In this endless process of running, one has hardly done anything for anyone else. And he has lost interest in all other matters, one does not even take a proper meal….” He further says, “You will run in the racecourse for countless of lives and you will still be cheated at the end. This is how the world is. Everything will go to waste. And on top of that, you will also suffer miserably in the process. Instead discover your rightful place, your home of bliss, the Self (the permanent Soul) and then run to it.”

So, make a list of what you lose on account of these vices of jealousy and greed, and what you would gain in absence of these, and then see. Our analysis will help us realize, ‘There is no fun in being jealous of others or being greedy for things that are so temporary!’ Once this happens, we automatically begin to see a sea change in our tendencies in some time.

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Do pratikraman everytime someone is caused hurt by our greed and jealousy.

Pratikraman means repentance. When you make a mistake and you recognize it, you should immediately wash it off, isn’t it?! So, whenever jealousy or greed, narrow-mindedness or wickedness arises, and especially when anyone gets hurt because of such jealousy and greed, we’ll remember the God (the Pure Soul) residing within that person and do pratikraman to help wash away our mistake immediately.

Pratikraman means, praying to God, “Dear God, I made this mistake. Please forgive me; and grant me strength so that I do not do this mistake again.”

Even after doing pratikraman, such instances may continue to happen because everytime we do pratikraman, one layer of the tuber of greed and attachment withers away. Today, the jealousy that you see in your nature is actually an effect of a previously made cause. By doing pratikraman, the new cause changes and the old effects slowly get purified and come to an end!

Do not protect the mistake

Protecting our mistake means supporting the mistake, which we are otherwise eager to get rid of. Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan says, “The very things you want to get rid of, will stick around if you keep feeding them. If you stop fueling them for three years, they will not remain.” Therefore, we’ll try our best, not to defend ourselves or take the side of our mistake.

Following these four steps will open up the doorways to be free from jealousy and greed.

Yet another easiest way is to keep company of a noble person

While jealousy and greed makes an individual selfish and narrow-minded, one who does not think about himself and always thinks about others is said to be noble. If we observe a noble person’s nobility and appreciate it, we also start becoming noble. That is a natural law. So, remain in the company of a noble person and closely observe his mannerisms. By watching him and appreciating his nobility, our self-centeredness will start diminishing for sure!

Finally, a decision from our side, ‘I don’t want any temporary thing in this world’ will do miracle

Greed means, ‘I want this, I want this even more’. And this want is for all materialistic things, which are temporary by nature. When a decision ‘I don’t want any temporary thing in this world’ is made, things that are destined to come to us will come our way anyways, but our greed will go away.

Therefore, to quit the weaknesses that bring us down, our inner intent should always be to have no need or want for any worldly thing. Such intent or decision is easily done after Self-Realization. So, go to Gnani and attain Self-Realization, as soon as you can!

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