Envy and devotion are both levelers — envy levels downwards; devotion, upwards(Gita Daily)

Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07, Text 27
By Chaitanya Charan Das

We like to have a level playing field. Yet the world hardly ever offers a level playing field. Some people have more wealth, better looks and greater intelligence, for example, than others.
Seeing this inequality and feeling the inequity, we desire a leveler. In the uninformed, this desire expresses itself as envy. Resenting those who are better off than them, the envious fantasize perversely about bringing them down to their level. Thus, envy is a downward leveler. The Bhagavad-gita (07.27) indicates that the duality of desire and envy causes the delusion of all living beings, keeping them obsessed with the material things that they have or lack.

There’s a healthier way to a level playing field: through devotion. The great advantage of devotion as a leveler is that it levels upwards — it raises our consciousness to the spiritual level of reality, and enables us to perceive and relish the spiritual equality of all of us as beloved parts of Krishna. This egalitarianism of devotion characterizes not only its apex point but also its entry point. That is, it not only declares all pure souls equal, but also opens its doors for the practice of bhakti-yoga to all souls irrespective of their level of purity, as the Gita (09.32) indicates.

Read More – http://www.gitadaily.com/2014/02/23/envy-and-devotion-are-both-levelers-envy-levels-downwards-devotion-upwards/