Question asked by Alo Devi at the Aum Centre in San Juan on 8 November 1969

Alo Devi: Gurudev, in your talk tonight, you mentioned jealousy. Could you say something to help those seekers who sometimes may feel jealousy in regard to their Master's giving more attention to some particular disciples?

Sri Chinmoy: In our ordinary human life, we see jealousy, we feel jealousy. In that state of consciousness, we are not conscious of what jealousy is or whether we harbour it or not. We are not conscious of wanting to transcend jealousy. But in the spiritual life, we know we have come here to this path to conquer everything that is damaging or that is creating a kind of sadness and sorrow in the Teacher's heart.

When a spiritual Teacher sees jealousy in his disciples, in the aspirants, immediately he gets a tremendous blow. Why? Because he feels, first of all, that each individual aspirant or seeker is his own, not in the way of ordinary possession, but in the way of union, oneness. So when he sees jealousy in a disciple, immediately he sees a spot, like a grease spot, inside himself, because he had promised that particular disciple, "You are mine, and I am yours, so whatever you have is, of course, yours, but whatever I have is now also yours. All the divine qualities; all the spiritual qualities that I dare to claim as my very own are now also yours. Similarly, both your good and bad qualities are now mine, on the strength of our indivisible oneness. How can I dare to separate myself from my disciple's weakness?" Jealousy is a form of weakness.

Now, you were speaking about the aspiring disciples, but I wish to say that when a disciple does something great and I appreciate it, when someone has done something very nice and I appreciate it very deeply, at that time, a third person has to identify himself immediately with the consciousness of the person who offered me something nice or good or helpful. At the same time, the third person who is about to become a victim of jealousy has to enter immediately into my consciousness and become one with me. The person who is giving me something and to whom I am showing concern and paying attention will enter into me with his achievement, and I will enter into him with my recognition and appreciation of his merit. But the observer who is becoming jealous has to enter into the person who is offering me his achievement and feel that it is he or she who has achieved that thing. That third person, when he enters into me, will see that it is he or she who is appreciating the thing that I have received. So your identification with the aspirant who is giving me the thing, and your identification with me, myself, who is appreciating the thing, will totally annihilate jealousy. Then jealousy cannot exist.

Jealousy exists just because we feel that the Master is only for him or only for her. But when I give you the assurance that you and I are one, you should feel, "The Master and I are absolutely one." Each disciple, each true disciple of mine, each individual can unfalteringly claim that he or she and I are absolutely merged in oneness. I give you that assurance. But until the disciple feels that he and I are one, immediately jealousy will come in. Why? Because when an individual feels that we are not one, then naturally, as a third person, he cannot be one either with me or with the second person.

So to conquer jealousy, the easiest way is to feel that the Guru has a body and that body is composed of the disciples' aspiration. My body has hands, legs, a nose, eyes and everything. I am telling you this not just to answer Alo's question, but I am telling you how we can conquer jealousy. So the individuals here are my closest disciples. Each individual should feel that he or she belongs to me and is a limb of my body. My right hand cannot be jealous of my nose — far from it — although we may say, "Yes, but with my nose I cannot write, and with my right hand I can write." But when we go deep within, we see that it is simply impossible for our hand to be jealous of our nose or our nose to be jealous of our hand, because we see that our nose is fulfilling its own purpose by breathing in and out, and the hand is fulfilling its own purpose by writing.

So in this spiritual world, jealousy can be conquered only by becoming one with the Guru outwardly and inwardly. When we inwardly and outwardly become one with the Guru, then we feel that other disciples are not 'others,' but that they represent our own 'I'-ness. This 'I'-ness is not the 'I'-ness of ego, but the 'I'-ness of oneness. This oneness feels, "I am in this particular disciple, and I am in that particular disciple as well."

Then again, to come back to jealousy, I should tell you that there are various ways in which I appreciate the disciples' service to me, to the Divine, to the Supreme. One way is that I look at, I bless or I appreciate the disciple in the outer world. The other way is that I appreciate someone with my soul's recognition. Immediately, the very moment that someone is thinking of me or someone is doing something for me, my soul, which is all knowledge, all wisdom, will appreciate that person even though my physical mouth is not saying anything and my physical body is not doing anything. The inner world is very vast and, in that inner world, I do appreciate each of you. Every disciple of mine, the moment they think of me or the moment they think of the Supreme, I appreciate them deeply. They need not bring something material to me in the outer world, or tell or show me the good things they have done. No, at each second I appreciate the seeker deeply, from the very depths of my heart, whenever he thinks of me or cares for me. People in the outer world need recognition — yes. But even that recognition is not enough for them because recognition is often misunderstood by the human mind. The human mind will never accept others as one with itself. But the human heart — I mean the aspiring heart — will always accept, not only others, but the entire universe, as one with itself.

So I wish to say that the easiest way to conquer our outer jealousy is to enter into the Master as often as possible and remain in the Master's consciousness. At that time, you become the Master himself.

I am not at all jealous of any of my disciples. The moment any of you will go beyond me in anything, I will be the happiest person. In Sanskrit, it is written that everywhere one desires to win victory, but not in the case of one's children or one's disciples. Unfortunately, in America I have seen parents fighting with their children over this; the parents would not allow the children to go beyond the parents' capacities. In the West (I should not say only in America), the mother is jealous of the daughter, the father is jealous of the son. This kind of thing I have often noticed in the West. In India, we have millions of faults, but we do not have that particular one.

Similarly, in the case of a spiritual father — and I happen to be your spiritual father — my existence, my very existence depends on your acceptance, on your aspiration and on your oneness with me. But the moment you identify yourselves with me, with my consciousness, you will represent me in your existence, both your outer existence and your inner existence. I cannot be afraid of, or jealous of anybody because I feel that your achievement is my achievement. If the disciple does something great, immediately I feel it to be my achievement, for I can never separate myself from my disciples.

However, the disciples either consciously or unconsciously or cleverly or wisely separate themselves. At that time, the wall of separation creates jealousy. But I say, "No, enter into me, remain in me, then become me, possess me and finally represent me. The moment you represent me, where is jealousy? Jealousy is nowhere."

So to come back to your question, I wish to say to all disciples: "Stay inside me. Then you will see that you are proud of someone because you feel that you have done it on the strength of your oneness with me. I cannot become jealous because I do not think I am fooling myself when I think that your possession is my possession. Therefore I take all credit in your great achievement, precisely because I have already become totally one with you.