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A painting for envious

Envious

Someone else has the life you were supposed to have.

  1. Better your own work done imperfectly than another's done well. Envy is a proposal that you should have had a different life; this refuses the premise rather than the feeling.

    श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात्
    स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः

    Better your own work done imperfectly than another's done well. Better to die in your own work than to live in someone else's.

  2. Free of longing, free of mine, free of I — and then peace. The order matters: the possessiveness goes first and the peace follows, not the reverse.

    विहाय कामान्यः सर्वान्पुमांश्चरति निःस्पृहः
    निर्ममो निरहंकारः स शांतिमधिगच्छति

    The one who has given up all desires and lives without longing, without “mine” and without “I” — that one comes to peace.

  3. Without hatred toward any being, friendly, compassionate. Listed as the first quality of someone dear to the divine, which is a strong claim about where envy sits.

    अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्रः करुण एव च
    निर्ममो निरहङ्कारः समदुःखसुखः क्षमी

    Without hatred toward any being, friendly and compassionate, free of “mine” and of “I”, the same in pain and pleasure, patient;