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Whenever I think of 'jealousy & envy', I recall RK Narayan's piece on 'donkey & ass':
...he says he couldn't find any difference between the two...when one tires of writing 'donkey', one resorts to 'ass'.
That was possibly because there was no Google in his time.
And whenever I think of donkey I recall Samson's boast:
"With the jawbone of a jackass I slew a thousand men"
The exact King James Version of the Holy Bible is this:
"14.And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. 15And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
16And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
By the way, what a fantastic movie that was! Cecil DeMille's Samson and Delilah. I watched it in our Leela Mahal of Vizagh in the early 1960s. It was the first Technicolor Cinemascope movie of our generation. Just loved it...couldn't follow a single word of the dialogues :)
And then I recall Mark Twain's famous quote on his pet aversion (bete noire): Jane Austen (whose 'Pride & Prejudice' was read, as he boasted, by Benjamin Disraeli all of 17 times; and I, twice in my romantic teens and once five years back).
"Everytime I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone"...Mark Twain
The first I saw "Pride and Prejudice" was as a paperback with the cover portraying a gentleman and a lady. I was then 14. The book was in the hands of my cousin (sister) who pointed to the gent and said he was the Pride and the lady Prejudice. That I knew as the figure of speech called "Personification" taught by my father.
I loved the book when I read it, twice at 18, back to back. The only mistake I did was to buy and read her two subsequent books "Emma" and "Sense and Sensibility" which were poor copies of her "Pride and Prejudice". But, just because of that, I wouldn't dig up her shin bone and beat her skull with it. After all I have known a Professor of IIT KGP who produced 26 PhDs using the same Q-Meter that was my nemesis in my MSc Lab Exam...I have no love for it because I lost my Metcalf Medal to my good friend and benefactor Linga Murty, owing to its being too easy to do.
I can't say why Mark Twain is so angry with poor Jane Austen who lived and died a virgin despite all her romantic tales.
Perhaps it is a case of Jealousy or even Envy personified :)
Those who know say there is a difference between jealousy and envy:
Apparently, jealousy is when you have something that you don't want others to have.
Envy is the obverse: you want that thing you don't have but your neighbor has (like that Madhubala-wife)
But that distinction is too nice for me...so let me use the two words as synonyms...no harm.
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There doesn't seem to be much envy among the lower animals except in the mating season.
Envy starts with apes and goes way upwards...men and women (mostly women), and gods.
Taking of gods first, I happened to read five years back an authentic English translation of the Greek Classic: Homer's "Iliad" (that has to do with the Helen of Troy) by the English Professor Riew (Penguin Classics)...an enchanting book.
There I found sundry Greek Gods and Goddesses fighting not only among themselves but taking sides in warring humans that they started.
These gods of course have heavenly names, heaven being that Mount of Olympus.
"Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Iris, vagairah vagairah"
And a sea nymph Thetis whose son Achilles had that famous heel (and...the Achilles Tendon).
Coming to our own Goddesses, I don't know...some pundits say Shivji didn't marry Gangaji;... just gave her a 'second setup' on his head. Some deny it wholeheartedly. In any case, grounds exist for jealousy between Gangaji and Hymaji.
Vishnuji certainly had Lakhsmiji as his only wife.
But there is this charming tale thereby:
Apparently when Vishnuji proposed marriage to Lakshmiji, she said:
"But I have an unwed elder sister, Alakshmiji. I can't very well marry before she gets married".
And Vishnuji found Alakshmiji (aka Jyeshthaji) not very comely...she had white hair, dark face, black teeth vagairah vagairah.
So he gave her in marriage to that eternal goat called Rishi Uddalaka; and married Lakshmiji happily.
And Sage Uddalaka (of the Swetaketu fame) took his new bride to his cottage in the forest and tried to keep her happy.
But apparently Alakshmiji found Uddalaka a happy man in happy surroundings....not quarrelsome, not poor, not jealous, nor even envious :)
So she told him she can't stay in such happy homes...like our Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says (often):
"Like a dung-worm can't stay in a flower basket...chat phat morey jabey..."
So Uddalaka found a second home for her....@ the root of the holy Aswath Tree...bo tree, bodhi tree, peepal tree, రావి చెట్టు, under which Lord Buddha got enlightened much later (along with his followers Ambedkarji and Mayaji).
And blessed her saying:
"Stay here happily...all unhappy people whom you love to see will come to you first and pray to you and appease you before they go to your sister Lakshmiji seeking wealth and happiness".
Alakshmi find a mention in the Vedic Text: Sree Suktam:
चन्द्रां प्रभासां यशसा ज्वलन्तीं श्रियंलोके देव जुष्टामुदाराम्।
तां पद्मिनीमीं शरणमहं प्रपद्येऽलक्ष्मीर्मे नश्यतां त्वां वृणे॥५॥
This device of adding 'a' to Sanskrit words to make their opposites is widely prevalent in Bengalis naming their sons:
Alok, Ajit, Aniket, Amit, Arup, Ashok vagairah vagairah...
I asked my neighbor in Kharagpur, Professor Amit Bhattacharya, why they are fond of these negative names starting with 'A' for their sons:
"We want them called first in the alphabetical Roll Call"
And then I remembered Didi trying to change the name of her state "West Bengal" because she was called upon to speak last (when everyone else had left) in the Prime Minister's Meetings with Chief Ministers...alphabetically. She tried to drop that "West" from her state's name so that it would at least start with the second letter in the English Alphabet, B.
But apparently no one wanted to listen to her funny speeches, so nothing came of it as of now.
And there is this famous saying:
"Ladies first...when tiger comes"...alphabetically...
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పూర్తిగా ఓపిగ్గా చదివి ఆనందించాను.
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