Envy – What to Do With It?

Recently, one devotee asked me what to do when one is exposed to others’ envy.

Once again, one can only look towards Śrīla Prabhupāda, who—due to his success—was envied by many, including some of his disciples and godbrothers.

What did he do?

Nothing.

An envious snake can be charmed by some mantra, but an envious human being cannot be appeased.
Envy is an amazing quality, as it arises suddenly, sprouting directly from the heart, surpassing any intellectual faculty.
Anger, greed, and other anomalies may rise gradually, but envy is instant.
Especially when assisted by intelligence, it becomes most poisonous and dangerous.

And so, when exposed to the envy of others, the best thing is not to respond—as the envious person expects us to be envious as well, and tries to draw us into the whirlpool of envy he initiated.
Just as an aggressive person provokes conflict, the envious person automatically expects us to react with envy too, finally blaming us for being the ones who started this vicious game.

Ignoring him or her altogether is probably the worst thing one can do to an envious person—as he or she is left alone, playing their envious ping-pong game against the wall of our neglect.

Even if we are blamed for being separatists, we should go our own way, with full faith that we are protected by the Founder-Ācārya and the mission he left for us to be engaged in.

The envious ones will come and go, but those who are faithfully engaged in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission will live eternally, unaffected by birth and death.
Śrīla Prabhupāda used, in this regard, the example of elephants marching while ignoring the barking of the dogs.

It is due to envy that some deviants advocate "new types of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness," and it is due to envy of the Supreme Lord that we were born as conditioned souls into this world of disease, old age, and death.

And what to do when envy arises in one’s own heart?
Śrīla Prabhupāda gave a simple remedy: one should seek out the person one is envious of and do some service for him or her.
A simple offering of prasādam, or some service within one’s ability, will instantly break the spell cast upon us by Kali, the dominant deity of this age of quarrel and hypocrisy.

The best remedy for eliminating envy is to help each other serve the mission of Śrīla Prabhupāda in its original form—manifesting through the production and distribution of his books, his prasādam, and by distributing the Holy Name in the form of harināma, while organizing communities where such sincere souls can co-exist.

Once we are determined to serve Śrīla Prabhupāda in this way, envy will have little chance to arise.