It’s a fact that most of us are prejudiced or have an opinion for something before actually knowing the facts. One of the earliest psychological explanations of prejudice described it as: “an antipathy based on faulty and inflexible generalisation towards a group as a whole or towards an individual because they are a member of that group.” The first thing that this explanation tells us is that prejudice is not something logical or based in fact, but rather, on a series of assumptions, half-truths and guesses. Secondly, it tells us that prejudice is based on generalisation - on a whole host of characteristics and qualities that we assume a person has, based purely on the fact that he or she is a member of a particular group.

We often talk of giving up lust, anger, ego, pride and attachment but, perhaps, we do not put proper emphasis on giving up prejudice, bias and jealousy. In practical life, however, we find that, because of bias and prejudice, a person does not listen to spiritual knowledge and, if at all he does, he looks at it with suspicion, fear, hatred or feeling of opposition and, many a times, he misinterprets it, picks holes in it and criticises it unjustifiably. The result is that such a person does not derive benefit from such a precious knowledge even if he is offered this with love and goodwill. The doctors may not be able to identify the virus that has infected his mind. One can only pity such a person suffering from prejudice and bias because the person resists all pathies, including sympathy. But we cannot leave him in the cruel hands of ill-luck or the strange disease and have to perform the operation rescue’ in the moral theatre of virtues, with the surgical instruments of yoga after putting him on anaesthesia of love, glucose of good-will and, later, treating him with the curative preparations made from spiritual knowledge, and using the therapy, called ‘Yoga’.

Jealousy also, like prejudice, is a dangerous disease. A jealous person cannot digest the facts of life nor can he tolerate the truth. His arteries of love have been blocked and so he feels a kind of heart-attack when he sees another person gaining high success, making good progress or earning a good name. Isn’t it a strange disease which reduces one’s level of tolerance and appreciation or approval when it should actually enhance it! Such a person is always sulking, fretting and fuming and, sometimes, even boiling. He is in a pressure-cooker, making hissing sounds and whistling as he is boiling in the steam of jealousy. He wants peace and, unlike a prejudiced person, he wants to be cured or relieved. Meditation helps him feel relieved and it builds in him a reservoir of goodwill and love that finally cures him of jealousy. If a person wants to be free from hatred, he has to banish jealousy because jealousy and peace cannot live together. Universal love is the antidote to jealousy and universal love can be generated and nourished only through Meditation. So, let’s start Meditating.

(Writer is a spiritual educator & popular columnist for publications across India, Nepal & UK. Till Date 8500+ Published Columns have been written by Him)