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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

Whether to let something go, and what that would mean.

Anything more specific? (optional)

No — the whole thingI am not readyThey have not asked to be forgivenForgiving myself

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 Forgiving — they have not asked to be forgiven, 2 sources speak to this. They are shown separately, in their own voices, because they do not all say the same thing.

Source perspectives

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Why this was shownPatañjali prescribes equanimity specifically toward those behaving badly, which is the hardest of the four attitudes and the one this concern needs.

The passage

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.

The four are matched to situations: friendliness toward the happy, compassion toward the suffering, gladness toward the good, equanimity toward the non-virtuous. The stated purpose is that the mind becomes clear — the benefit is to the practitioner's own mind, not to the other person.

What it does not mean

Equanimity is not approval and not silence. It describes what you carry inwardly, not whether wrongdoing should be named or addressed.

Read Yoga Sutras of Patanjali in the Wisdom library

Tirukkuṟaḷ

Why this was shownValluvar's answer to the wish to retaliate is concrete: return a kindness, and let that be the response.

The passage

இன்னா செய்தாரை ஒறுத்தல் அவர்நாண நன்னயம் செய்து விடல்

Transliteration

Innaa seydhaarai oruthal avarnaana / nannayam seydhu vidal

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

Kural 314

SevaCart’s reflection

Written by SevaCart, not by the source above.

The couplet does not ask for a feeling. It asks for an action, which is often available before the feeling is.

What it does not mean

Not an obligation to be warm toward someone who is still causing harm. This addresses a wrong that has happened, not one that is ongoing.

Read Tirukkuṟaḷ in the Wisdom library

Where they meet, and where they differ

Different emphases

  • Yoga Sutras of Patanjali — practice — what to do with attention and restraint.
  • Tirukkuṟaḷ — a question of conduct, character and prudence.
  • These are different kinds of answer. SevaCart shows each under its own source and does not merge them into a single teaching.

Questions to sit with

  • Which of the four attitudes are you actually holding right now?
  • Is this a wrong that is over, or one that is still going on?

What this is not

  • 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.

Corpus 7a532a24 · mappings 1.0.0 · reference sc_j8hzh2

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