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 The mind will not settle, 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 the weight of this is not lifting, or you are thinking of harming yourself, please reach someone today. Tele-MANAS, the national mental-health helpline, is 14416 — toll-free, day and night, in most Indian languages. In an emergency, 112. Scripture is not a substitute for any of that, and asking for help is not a failure of faith.
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 defines the whole discipline as the stilling of the mind's movements, then says how — and 1.14 is unusually specific about what makes practice hold.
The passage
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः॥
Transliteration
yogah chitta-vritti-nirodhah
English translation pending source and rights review. The received text is shown above.
Note from SevaCart’s library: The single most important sutra. Chitta = the totality of buddhi + ahamkara + manas. Vritti = wave / modification. Nirodhah = stilling. When the mind-waves stop, yoga happens.
1.2The definition of yoga
अभ्यासवैराग्याभ्यां तन्निरोधः॥
Transliteration
abhyasa-vairagyabhyam tan-nirodhah
English translation pending source and rights review. The received text is shown above.
Note from SevaCart’s library: The two wings of yoga. Abhyasa = sustained effort over long time, uninterrupted, with reverence (1.14). Vairagya = non-attachment to seen + heard objects (1.15).
1.12The 2 means - practice + dispassion
स तु दीर्घकालनैरन्तर्यसत्कारासेवितो दृढभूमिः॥
Transliteration
sa tu dirgha-kala-nairantarya-satkara-asevitah dridha-bhumih
English translation pending source and rights review. The received text is shown above.
Note from SevaCart’s library: 3 requirements: dirgha-kala (long-time) + nairantarya (uninterrupted) + satkara (reverent). Skip any one - and the foundation crumbles.
1.14Practice firm by 3 conditions
SevaCart’s reflection
Written by SevaCart, not by the source above.
1.14 is the sūtra most worth sitting with: practice becomes firmly grounded when done for a long time, without break, and with seriousness. All three conditions, not one. Most attempts at steadiness fail on the second — not because the practice was wrong but because it was intermittent.
What it does not mean
Not that a still mind is the requirement for beginning. 1.2 is the definition of the destination, not the entry price.