The one who is not dependent cannot be jealous

To start with, see what is Ego. It is your sense of yourself that has been borrowed from the others. I do not know myself directly. I am depending upon somebody else to tell me who I am.

A fellow comes and says, “You are brilliant”, and what do I start believing? “I am brilliant!” Now my sense of being brilliant, my idea about myself that I am brilliant depends totally upon this other person who initially told me that I was brilliant; otherwise, I am not brilliant.

If too many of them come and say that I am stupid, then I have to believe that I am stupid because even my idea of stupidity comes from others. If he says that I am brilliant and I believe it, then I will also have to believe him when he says that I am stupid.

My brilliance is not coming out of my own understanding. My sense about myself is not coming from my own understanding but is borrowed.

Now, I am dependent upon others and I want them to keep saying, “You are brilliant,” because my brilliance depends on their saying. The more they keep saying, the more special I feel.

A direct result of this would be that the day I see them telling someone else, “You are brilliant,” I will feel jealous. Let us say that I am ‘A’, he is ‘B’ and there is another entity ‘C’. Now ‘B’ tells ‘C’ that you too are…