Envy is a force in life that chains you to the person that you envy. I believe there are karmic consequences to being envious and judgmental which is what we will discuss today!
What is envy?
First of all, there are different types of envy.
1. Classical envy
The first type of envy is probably what we consider to be envy in the classical sense. This is where see someone who seems to have something that we believe we deserve more. This could be a house, a car, money, fame, good looks, good life opportunities etc. In this case, we just cannot feel happy for them because we feel frustrated that we were not given these opportunities. Perhaps we feel we deserved them more, or that we would do more with it if we were the ones given these things.
2. Judgement of a person:
The second type of envy is more subtle but is still considered a form of envy. This is when you are very judgmental about other people. This is when you can look at a person and think “Oh he is such a bad person, look at all the bad things he has done in his life! How did he manage to turn out this way?” or similar strands of thought. Either way, this person consumes your thoughts. You think about them a lot and put a lot of energy into criticizing them, even if only in your mind.
But your judgment of them actually stems from a deep feeling of jealousy of the fact that they can be more relaxed than you, that they can live life in a slightly easier way than you do, that they don’t bear the weight and requirements of the values you hold in your own life. Because of this you take the things they do personally, and there is a hint of malice behind your judgements.
The karma of envy
The force of envy has the power of attracting a very heavy type of karma for us in our lives. For example:
1. You will have to go through everything they go through
The first way that the karma of envy works is that your life will arrange itself in such a way that you will have to go through the same ordeal that you judged in another person. It will either be a similar situation or something that brings out in you the exact same character qualities that you judged in the person of your envy. If you judge someone, you will also have to take this exact same test in life. And these tests are very hard to pass. So in this way, it is often the case that you judge someone for something, and then at some point in your life you will be in a position where you will do the exact same thing. Of course you don’t have to do the exact same thing, but life will arrange in such a way that it will be very hard not to. That is the test. If you can react differently, you pass, and if not, you lose, and attract more karma for yourself through your actions. That is the karma of envy and judgment.
For example, if you severely judge a man for leaving his wife, and you often think about what a bad man he is to have done such a thing, then one day you will be placed in a position where you will need to leave your partner in a similar and unforgiving way.
And if you judge his wife, and criticize her for her unloving and fighting behavior that lead to the breakdown of her marriage, then one day you will also start being unloving and fighting with your own husband, and he too, will begin to turn away from you.
This is why it is better not to judge anyone.
2. You take on the karma of their sins
When you envy a person, or when you harshly judge a person, you are signing a contract with God that you are willing to take on all of their bad qualities, karma, and sins. As a result of this your life becomes heavier with their burdens on a spiritual level.
So if you look at someone and think “Oh look at how easy life is for them, all the good opportunities that came their way, they don’t deserve that, I deserve that, I work so hard!” then you will take on all their bad character traits. All their inner darkness that they struggle with, will also be shared with you. The karma that they have laying ahead of them, also becomes your karma. Their bad habits and bad qualities, also becomes yours.
A similar thing happens if you look at a person and judge them.
There are saintly people who are also envied by the people around them. Dr. Torsunov says that when a saint person comes across a person that they sense envies them they simply say “Thank you!” The person is confused and asks “What are you talking about?” but the saint replies with only “Thank you, my dear.” And the reason the saint is thanking him is that this man is taking away the sins of the saint. Whatever bad karma the saint has in his life, and whatever bad qualities remain in the saint, this envious person takes it from him slowly. So there is nothing to do but to thank them for that.
3. You are deprived of good opportunities in life
Because you have envied and judged someone, you will be busy working through their karma in additional to your own karma. So life will become more difficult for you. And because repaying karma takes a high priority, you will have less time, energy and focus for new good opportunities in your life.
4. It ruins your hopes for life
Lack of new good karma in-flow due to having to dedicate your time to solving past shared karma, begins to grate on your hopes for life. Your hopes and dreams become slowly tainted and you find it hard to generate energy and enthusiasm to overcome all this karma. And all of this, because of envy and judgment. Who would have thought!
Envy is a force that collects dirt from everyone and everywhere. Envy makes the person develop the consciousness of a fly. Unfocused, but not only unfocused, but if you’ve noticed, flies tend to always fly towards garbage. Similarly a person with this consciousness will always fly towards the garbage in life. They can’t explain why they are so attracted to it, but they can’t help it.
What to do when you are the focus of someones envy
Envy can slowly poison the lives of the one that envies and the person who is envied. If you feel that someone envies you or judges you deeply, then you need to try to forgive that person. You need to try to think about them in good ways, and look at the good qualities in that person. If you cannot forgive them for their envy and judgement, then your life will also begin to get tainted. Dr. Torsunov also reminds us that there is no smoke without fire when it comes to envy, and if we are envied there is a strong chance that we are also in some way incorrectly relating to that person. So we need to try to be more sincere, more loving, more kind, more forgiving, and see the good qualities in all people.
Oh no! how can I correct my karma?
What is important to remember is that we create our karma for the future right now, as we work through old karma. By correcting our relationships, and ourselves right now, we can make our future run smoother and lighter. By being envious now, we attract hardships into our lives in the future, that we will have to go through. By choosing to stay away from such degrading thoughts, I believe we can change the course of our fate.
If you feel that you have been guilty of envy and judgment (I know I have) then the best thing to do is to try to pass the tests you have set for yourself, with consciousness and awareness. This means you need to try your hardest to fulfill your dharma in life (your duties and responsibilities in life) well. Serve. Offer. Be there. Be responsible.
Look at your life, do you find yourself in a similar situation that you once judged someone else for? Or do you feel that your life is leading to that point? That just shows that you have been judgmental and envious in the past. Try to correct your situation. Try to pass the test. Try to act differently, try to act in the right way, try to forgive the people that you judged and show compassion for them. When you see how difficult it can be for you to act differently when you are put in their shoes, you will start to develop compassion (if you are aware of what is going on).
I think it is very important in life to forgive people and try not to judge them for who they are. It can hurt us more deeply than we realize.
Thank you for reading <3
