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Sacred Counsel

Timeless guidance for life's questions, from the Bhagavad Gītā, the Tirukkuṟaḷ and the Yoga Sūtras — each passage cited, and shown only where SevaCart can trace it.

This is not a chatbot and nothing here is generated. Every passage shown is real text from a source SevaCart already holds, selected by a reviewed mapping, and shown with its citation. Where a source has nothing to say about your situation, the page says so instead of finding a verse that nearly fits.

What are you facing?

I cannot decideWhat is actually my responsibilityFearGrief and lossAngerI cannot stop thinking about the outcomePride is in the wayThe mind will not settleI keep putting it offWorkLeading othersWho to listen toTrust and betrayalWhat to sayFamilyMoneyForgivingLearningFailurePurposeDeathThe right thing is the harder thingGiving and service

Something happened, and I am still burning about it.

Anything more specific? (optional)

No — the whole thingAbout to say or send somethingAnger I cannot put downAnger at being wronged

Which sources?

All relevant sourcesBhagavad GitaTirukkuṟaḷYoga Sutras of PatanjaliKatha Upanishad
Why some works are not offered here
  • Vidura NītiSevaCart's scripture library does not yet hold a citable passage of this work. It is reviewed and suitable — the text has not been entered, so there is nothing to quote and nothing has been substituted for it.
  • Bhīṣma's counselSevaCart's scripture library does not yet hold a citable passage of this work. It is reviewed and suitable — the text has not been entered, so there is nothing to quote and nothing has been substituted for it.
  • Yakṣa PraśnaSevaCart's scripture library does not yet hold a citable passage of this work. It is reviewed and suitable — the text has not been entered, so there is nothing to quote and nothing has been substituted for it.
  • Chāṇakya NītiNO LOCATOR. Maxims attributed to Chāṇakya circulate widely with no edition behind them. Without a verse reference, printing one as scripture would manufacture the citation. Note also that Chāṇakya Nīti is not the Arthaśāstra — they are separate works and separate entries here, so the two cannot be conflated by accident.
  • ArthaśāstraWRONG GENRE. A manual of statecraft: its counsel on rivals, leverage and force is addressed to a ruler managing a kingdom, and does not transfer to a devotee's difficulty with a colleague.
  • The Principal UpaniṣadsWRONG GENRE at the depth available. A mahāvākya is the summit of its Upaniṣad, not counsel for a difficulty, and selecting one to answer a personal problem flattens it. The Kaṭha carries the reflective load instead, because it can be quoted at enough length to keep a passage inside its own argument.
  • RāmāyaṇaWRONG GENRE, with a locator problem besides. Rāma's choices are narrative: what a character did under one dharma is not a rule for a devotee, and a card implying otherwise would teach the wrong thing about the epic.
  • Aṣṭāvakra GītāWRONG GENRE. Uncompromising Advaita addressed to a listener already established in it — Janaka is realised before the dialogue begins. "You were never bound" is true inside that dialogue and cruel outside it, and a person in grief or fear is not its audience.
  • SubhāṣitaNO LOCATOR, unevenly. Some verses name a work; others record only an anthology tradition with no verse. Quoting the collection wholesale would put well-cited and uncited verses on one card under one authority. Splitting it verse by verse is a content-authority pass.
  • The minor GītāsNOT ONE WORK. This names several distinct texts — Guru Gītā, Devī Gītā, Śiva Gītā and others — and it must stay several: any future enablement gives each its own entry. A blended "other Gītās" source would erase the difference between a Śākta text and a Śaiva one.
  • Dharma ŚāstraNOT SUITABLE, and this is not a coverage gap to be closed. The smṛtis carry historically situated social and penal prescriptions, some ordered by birth and by sex. Surfacing those as personal guidance would put SevaCart on the wrong side of both Indian law and its own devotees. They belong in the library with their historical context intact.
  • Brahma SūtrasWRONG GENRE. The sūtras adjudicate between readings of the Upaniṣads. They are a text about texts, and there is no honest route from one to a devotee's difficulty at work.

Your situation

On Anger — about to say or send something, one source in SevaCart's library speaks to this closely enough to cite. What follows is its perspective, not a decision.

What this is not

  • If anyone in this situation is being hurt, threatened or controlled, your safety comes first. In India: 112 for police and emergencies, 181 for the women's helpline, 1098 for a child at risk. No teaching on patience, duty or forgiveness asks you to stay in harm.
  • This is reflection, not a ruling. Nothing here decides anything for you.
  • The passages are shown under their own source. Where SevaCart has added an application, it is labelled as SevaCart's words, not the text's.
  • Where a passage shows no English, its translation is withheld pending source and rights review — not missing. The original text is shown as the library holds it.
  • Different sources answer differently. Where they do, both readings are shown rather than merged.

Source perspectives

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Why this was shownPatañjali gives an actual technique rather than an exhortation: when a disturbing thought takes hold, deliberately cultivate its opposite. 1.33 names which attitude to bring to which situation.

The passage

वितर्कबाधने प्रतिपक्षभावनम्॥

Transliteration

vitarka-badhane pratipaksha-bhavanam

English translation pending source and rights review. The received text is shown above.

Note from SevaCart’s library: If anger arises - cultivate maitri. If greed arises - cultivate aparigraha. The classical CBT-prototype from 2nd-century India.

2.33Pratipaksha bhavana - counter-thought

मैत्रीकरुणामुदितोपेक्षाणां सुखदुःखपुण्यापुण्यविषयाणां भावनातश्चित्तप्रसादनम्॥

Transliteration

maitri-karuna-mudita-upekshanam sukha-duhkha-punya-apunya-vishayanam bhavanatah chitta-prasadanam

English translation pending source and rights review. The received text is shown above.

Note from SevaCart’s library: The 4 brahma-viharas (also central in Buddhism). The single most-quoted ethical sutra. Without these 4, no meditation succeeds - because the mind remains agitated by social relations.

1.334 attitudes - friendliness, compassion, joy, equanimity

SevaCart’s reflection

Written by SevaCart, not by the source above.

2.33 is method, not sentiment — it assumes the disturbing thought will arrive and asks what you do next. 1.33 is more precise still: friendliness toward those who are happy, compassion toward those suffering, gladness toward the good, and equanimity toward those behaving badly. That last one is the one anger needs, and Patañjali does not pretend it is the easiest.

What it does not mean

Equanimity toward wrongdoing is a description of your inner state, not approval of the behaviour and not a reason to stay silent about it.

Read Yoga Sutras of Patanjali in the Wisdom library

Questions to sit with

  • What is the opposite attitude here, stated concretely rather than as a nice idea?
  • Is there something to be said plainly that anger is currently making impossible to say well?

One thing you could do

  • Name the opposing attitude out loud before the next conversation about this.

Corpus 7a532a24 · mappings 1.0.0 · reference sc_el0z47

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