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.
Vidura Nīti — SevaCart'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 counsel — SevaCart'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 Praśna — SevaCart'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 Nīti — NO 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.
Arthaśāstra — WRONG 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 Upaniṣads — WRONG 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.
Rāmāyaṇa — WRONG 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 Gītā — WRONG 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.
Subhāṣita — NO 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 Gītās — NOT 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 Śāstra — NOT 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 Sūtras — WRONG 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 Purpose — drifting, 2 sources speak to this. They are shown separately, in their own voices, because they do not all say the same thing.
Source perspectives
Katha Upanishad
Why this was shownThe Kaṭha frames a life as a repeated choice between the good and the pleasant, and 2.1.1 explains why the question is hard to even ask.
English translation pending source and rights review. The received text is shown above.
2.1.1The inward turn (pratyak-drishti). Non-duality (advaita) - the same Atman in all beings. "As above, so below."
SevaCart’s reflection
Written by SevaCart, not by the source above.
1.2.1–2 make the distinction the text is best known for: the good and the pleasant both come to a person, and the wise one examines and separates them. 2.1.1 gives the reason it takes effort — the senses were made to face outward, so a person looks out rather than in, and only a rare one turns the gaze around.
What it does not mean
The pleasant is not being called sinful. The claim is about which one you are choosing when both are available, not that enjoyment is forbidden.
English translation pending source and rights review. The received text is shown above.
2.7Spoken by Arjuna to Krishna.The Yoga of Knowledge (Sankhya Yoga). Krishna's first teaching. Arjuna formally surrenders as disciple. Krishna's answer begins with the deathless Self - the atman cannot be slain. This chapter contains the seed of the entire Gita: the famous verse on action without attachment (2.47) and the description of the sthitaprajna, one of steady wisdom.
English translation pending source and rights review. The received text is shown above.
18.66Spoken by Krishna to Arjuna.The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation (Moksha Sanyasa Yoga). The longest and concluding chapter. Sannyasa = renunciation of action; tyaga = renunciation of fruit. Krishna sums up all earlier teachings and ends with the supreme word: surrender all dharmas to me - I will free you from all sin.
SevaCart’s reflection
Written by SevaCart, not by the source above.
2.7 is the request: my nature is overcome, my mind confused about dharma — tell me decisively what is best, I am your student. 18.66 is where it arrives, and it is an instruction about refuge rather than about a course of action.
What it does not mean
18.66 is not an instruction to abandon your responsibilities. It comes after seventeen chapters arguing for acting, and it is read within that.
Katha Upanishad — a longer view of the situation, rather than an answer about what to do.
Bhagavad Gita — direct counsel to someone facing this and unable to decide.
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
Over the last month, which of the two have you mostly been choosing?
What did you want before you started wanting what you want now?
What would you ask, if you could ask one question and be answered plainly?
One thing you could do
Take one hour this week with nothing to consume in it, and see what surfaces.
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_ytc0c0