Jealousy is a product of one’s own incapacity and imbecility. It is the greatest obstacle in one’s own growth of personality. It also sprouts out of selfishness and greediness. It eliminates good qualities and sinks a man into inhuman activities.

Guru Ram Das ji tells us about a jealous person on page 308 of the G.G.S. ;

“He, in whose heart there is jealousy, for others, never gathers any good.
None heeds what he says. He is a fool, ever crying in wilderness.”

Jealousy destroys the beauty of life and poses the ugliest scene of life. No one listens to a person who has no goodness for others. He just cries in wilderness and no one listens to him. Jealousy is a pest on the beauty and other qualities of life.

People of wisdom and sagacity do not allow the shade of jealousy to eclipse their beauty of life. They remain enlightened and judicious by keeping themselves away from the shadow of covetousness and cupidity. In which ever society they move, they sow the seeds of righteousness, justice, clemency and compassion.

As a person gains excellence in his occupation or profession, he procures liberty from this malign and malevolent emotion. Jealousy is revile, vilifying and malicious. The impression and marks on the face destroy the beauty and ascendancy. Its only remedy is to enhance one’s own abilities, capacity and competency.

Guru Arjan Dev ji tells us on page 215 of the G.G.S. how to get rid of jealousy :

“ Here a wonderful thing, O brother, the Guru has imparted unto me such an understanding, that when, throwing off the curtain, I met my Lord, I forget to be jealous of others since then.” Meeting the Lord is absorbing in altruism and generosity. The rays of the Great Soul saturate life with love for humanity. Service and kindness become the goal of life when life is impregnated with the shafts of sympathy and compassion. Life becomes active, creative and morally high when the goal of life becomes. obvious and magnetic. Realization of one’s innermost seef, the soul, leads one to the goal of life.

Empty and aimless life is a source of sufferings, sins and sorrow. Melancholic and dismal life cannot infuse creativity and inspiration into the activities of life. Empty life has to be instilled and integrated with the goal of life that would sow the seeds of agility and nimbleness in life. Only a filling life can grow wings and probe into the heights of wisdom. Covetous life grows pains, grief and distress. On the other hand a generous and charitable life sows the seeds of happiness, beauty and cheerfulness. Capacity grows and flourishes in a joyous and blithesome life. Thus the secret of growth in life is happiness and bliss.

On page 741 of the G.G.S. Guru Arjan Dev ji narrates how detrimental is jealousy to life :

“Pleasures, strife, jealousy and pride of wealth, attached to these man wastes his gem-like life.”

By indulging in pleasures man destroys his life. The pleasures of the world are false and transitory. They are just like the worm that infests wood or grain and reduces them to ashes. Pleasures are just like the colour of the saf-flower which fades within a few days. A man who indulges in sensuous pleasures suffers from pains from within, but remembering God and living in His will brings beauty to life. When life thinks of God it absorbs itself in the service of humanity. Service gives good health and beauty to life.

In the same way strife and jealousy annihilate and desolate the good qualities of life. Where there is jealousy, there cannot be justice and generosity. Compassion, sympathy and kindness disappear from life where jealousy exists. Life becomes ugly, unethical and greedy under the influence of jealousy.

Guru Nanak Dev ji also tells us the same on page 472 of the G.G.S. :

“Avarice is the mind’s impurity and falsehood is that of the tongue.”

Avarice is the impurity of the mind that drains away the altruistic and philanthropic sense of life. Man can only enhance his life by lifting himself above these malevolent emotions that decay the beauty of life.

Company of good people and enhancing one’s abilities help to rise above this degenerating passion of life.

Guru Arjan Dev ji narrates in raag kanra on page 1299 of the G.G.S. :

“ I have given up jealousy ever since I associated with the company of good people.
No one is my enemy; none is a stranger to me;
I am the friend of all.”