JEALOUSY THY NAME IS HELL

                                  

Jealousy is a common trait of majority of mankind. What is it ? In the world, broadly speaking , there are two categories – one performs and the other decries.  When somebody is succeeding and the other, who lags behind, does not like the performer, he is the example of a jealous person.  Such persons either do not work or their effort lacks the dedication which takes one to the summit. Instead of honest attempts, they also take resort to shortcuts. Most of this lot does not accept the challenge of trying again and again and simply turn into a jealous class.

When there is a game or sport, say sprint, the hardest trying player wins gold. Somebody had said, ‘We do not get silver, instead we lose the gold’. The losing ones go back to their club and increase their efforts to come up on the top next time. On the other hand, many of them complain that the judge/umpire was biased, rules did not suit them, the climate was bad, the crowd was parochial, so no and so forth. Sometimes a few charges could be true but not all. Such decriers may be treated as jealous.

The best example of this scenario can be seen in history when the courtiers of a monarch were proverbially jealous of one another. The king kept the best brains in the court who could give the best suggestions for enhancing governance. One thing was very clear that they tried their best to block the entry of any new talent in the court and pulled the legs of the co-courtiers so that they could not succeed in going in the goodbook of the king. Particularly in the courts of the Mughal emperors, we hear and read the story of secret plots to defame the competitors and ensure their banishment from the court. Often the queens, harem ladies, eunuchs and other such personnel having access in the durbar were involved in such well planned conspiracies. One courtier was willing to be one-eyed if it turned the enemy blind.

Jealousy has triggered off wars in the history of mankind. If we do not wake up to restrain this self- destructive feeling, the devastating encounters will continue to torment mankind. So it requires to be curbed.