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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

The job itself — what it asks of me and what it costs.

Anything more specific? (optional)

No — the whole thingBeing treated unfairlyAsked to do something I think is wrongWondering whether to leaveMore than I can carry

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 Work — more than i can carry, 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 there is a legal dispute in this, get advice from a lawyer. Nothing here is a statement of your rights or obligations under Indian law.
  • 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

Bhagavad Gita

Mahabharata

Why this was shownThe Gītā's teaching on work is about the relationship between doing and getting, which is where most difficulty at work actually sits.

The passage

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन । मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥

Transliteration

karmaṇy-evādhikāras-te mā phaleṣu kadācana | mā karma-phala-hetur-bhūr-mā te saṅgo’stv-akarmaṇi ||

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

2.47Spoken by Krishna to Arjuna.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.

श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात् । स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः ॥

Transliteration

śreyān sva-dharmo viguṇaḥ para-dharmāt sv-anuṣṭhitāt | sva-dharme nidhanaṃ śreyaḥ para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ ||

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

3.35Spoken by Krishna to Arjuna.The Yoga of Action (Karma Yoga). Arjuna asks: if wisdom is superior, why must I act? Krishna answers - no one can refrain from action even for a moment. Action offered as yajna (sacrifice) does not bind. Doing one's own duty imperfectly is better than another's well performed.

सहजं कर्म कौन्तेय सदोषमपि न त्यजेत् । सर्वारम्भा हि दोषेण धूमेनाग्निरिवावृताः ॥

Transliteration

saha-jaṃ karma kaunteya sa-doṣam-api na tyajet | sarvārambhā hi doṣeṇa dhūmenāgnir-ivāvṛtāḥ ||

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

18.48Spoken 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.

2.47 separates what you can do from what you will receive. 3.35 says your own work, imperfectly done, is better than another's done well — a hard line for anyone measuring themselves against a colleague. 18.48 adds that every undertaking carries some fault, so waiting for a role without one is waiting for nothing.

What it does not mean

None of this says stay where you are. The Gītā is not an argument against changing jobs, and it is not a reason to accept unfair or unlawful treatment quietly. 3.35 ends with better death in one's own duty — emphasis, in a text spoken on a battlefield. Read as workplace advice it would be precisely the misreading this line exists to refuse.

Read Bhagavad Gita in the Wisdom library

Questions to sit with

  • Is the difficulty the work itself, or what you are not receiving for it?
  • What would you do here if nobody were watching or comparing?
  • Is there something being asked of you that you think is wrong?

One thing you could do

  • Write down what you would need to be true to stay, and whether anyone has been told.

Corpus 7a532a24 · mappings 1.0.0 · reference sc_tc8s8g

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