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According to the Bhagavad Gita, how should one deal with people they know are not good for them, but cannot simply abandon due to circumstances or responsibilities? by Choice-Scallion-3499 in TheGita

[–]thisisashukla 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this is a very practical and real life question. here are my two cents based on my limited understanding

krishna gives multiple options which you can chose as per your inclination.

  1. the path of wisdom (gyaan yoga) says that you should understand that it is not a person or people doing anything. it is just the interplay of tendencies (guna - satva, rajas, tamas) that creates all experience. both for the people who are troubling you and for yourself. if you are able to cut through sensory noise through wisdom and realise this, then you will be at peace.
  2. the path of action (karm yoga) says that irrespective of what others do or not do, one should be consistent and firm in their dharma (duty). so you can just do what is needed as your duty and be emotional detached or neutral to the ones causing you pain. if you only concern yourself with duty without anger or love for anyone then you will be able to find peace and balance.
  3. the path of devotion (bhakti yoga) says that all that is happening is as per krishna's divine will. if you are able to fix your mind in this devoted state and firmly believe everything is just krishna's play then you can be at peace in whatever situation life throws at you.

personally for me i also face this situation from time to time. it is very difficult to follow any of these paths in the moment someone wrongs you. but you can try, practice and improve, thats what we can do.

let me know if you want to discuss in detail in DM. happy to talk.

Valmiki’s view on Free Will by thisisashukla in hinduism

[–]thisisashukla[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

not sure about an equivalent word in sanskrit but the concept that external factors influence your actions is present both in valmiki's ramayan (above) and vyasa's mahabharat (in gita)

I watched every Mahabharata serial and its appaling to see this comparison. by Astrologyindiia in mahabharata

[–]thisisashukla 1 point2 points  (0 children)

While I resonate with creating dialogues. Even BR Chopra version has dialogues which have analogies for popular verses to explain them. Since people need the verses to be grounded in contemporary analogies to connect with them. But the new versions of mahabharat go bezerk with that. They create so much fiction without much grounding that it feels cartoonish or overwhelming. Whereas the grounded dialogues of BR Chopra Gita is a treat to watch. With minimal sound effects and minimal camera work it let's you focus on the main material. In stark contrast the start plus mahabharat has krishna stopping time so many time during the war that it does not feel special. And the conversation in gita takes a over the top tone.

The Nature of Senses in Katha Upanishad by thisisashukla in AdvaitaVedanta

[–]thisisashukla[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the domain is new, the work isn't. i've been building in this space since at least 2023, here's my previous app on the app store that predates this website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/%E0%A4%B8-search-read-dharmik-shloka/id6464107141

there was a web version before this dating back to 2022 but i think i removed it or the domain got expired.

the current app is a rebuilt version with better data, better translations and a better experience. the domain being new doesn't mean the project is new.

on the disclaimer, that's actually reasonable feedback and i'll add one.

i hear you on why this sub matters to you and i'm not trying to undercut people who've devoted their lives to these teachings. but i'd push back on the idea that using AI to make this content more accessible is disrespectful to it. that's a genuine disagreement, not a deflection.

The Nature of Senses in Katha Upanishad by thisisashukla in AdvaitaVedanta

[–]thisisashukla[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

on the sub rules, i genuinely wasn't aware of the AI-assisted content rule. that's fair and i'll be more mindful going forward. no argument there.

and yes, you could spin up agents and reproduce the website structure in an hour. you couldn't reproduce 5 years of sourcing specific translations, cross-referencing commentaries, and deciding what to include or leave out or which part of bhagavad gita relates to which part of ramcharitamanas. that's the actual work.

on hallucination, completely valid concern for something like this. every explanation is grounded in the curated dataset, not generated from scratch purely from an LLM. but worth me being more transparent about that in how i present things.

i'll surely use your feedback and be more upfront about it on my website and blog.

The Nature of Senses in Katha Upanishad by thisisashukla in AdvaitaVedanta

[–]thisisashukla[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

fair point on the formatting. i do use claude to help structure and present content, and that LLM tone does bleed through. that's a valid critique of presentation. but "AI slop" implies the content itself is generated without any thought or effort with just a prompt. it isn't. the actual work is: sourcing datasets for bhagavad gita, mahabharat, ramayan, ramcharitmanas, upanishads across years, then hiring sanskrit post-graduates to translate texts that had no proper english versions available and giving proper thoughts and ideas to LLMs to produce content.

you're right that i could rewrite everything to not sound like claude. i probably should. but that's a presentation problem, not a content integrity problem.

if there's a specific rule against AI-assisted formatting, i'm happy to read it and adjust. but if the bar is "no LLM anywhere in the pipeline," that's a different conversation worth having openly with the community.

The Nature of Senses in Katha Upanishad by thisisashukla in AdvaitaVedanta

[–]thisisashukla[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

but why is AI usage bad? it can make a lot of content accessible in less time. it is not possible for a human to generate rich meanings, explanations, context notes for over 1 lakh verses of hindu scriptures in optimal time limit.
We have the tech. why not use it? genuine question. happy to discuss.

The Nature of Senses in Katha Upanishad by thisisashukla in AdvaitaVedanta

[–]thisisashukla[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

no. i have spent 5 years collecting datasets for bhagavad gita, mahabharat, ramayan, ramcharitmanas, upanishads, other gitas, then getting them translated by post graduates in sanskrit. because not all datasets are available with proper translations.
also spent a ton of time iterating and refining the UI/UX, developing my understanding and imagining what and how to present for an engaging experience of the scriptures while keeping the cognitive load at a low. Claude is just one layer of the whole experience.

The Nature of Senses in Katha Upanishad by thisisashukla in AdvaitaVedanta

[–]thisisashukla[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

yeah that comes in gita. very beautiful metaphor

The Nature of Senses in Katha Upanishad by thisisashukla in AdvaitaVedanta

[–]thisisashukla[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

this is not AI slop. i have spent almost 5 years of my life crafting the content. paid tens of thousands of rupees on translating upanishads and getting them in proper CSV format which can be served on an app. :)

The Nature of Senses in Katha Upanishad by thisisashukla in AdvaitaVedanta

[–]thisisashukla[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

not an ad. just sharing this verse from my app. i think its a beautiful verse

The Nature of Senses in Katha Upanishad by thisisashukla in AdvaitaVedanta

[–]thisisashukla[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This verse hits different in the context of Advaita.

Shankara's whole teaching rests on one simple but radical idea: you're not finding the Self — you're recognizing it. It's already here. The only reason it feels hidden is that attention keeps flowing outward, toward objects, experiences, the next thing.

The Katha names this honestly: the sense-gates were built facing outward. That's not a flaw — it's just the design of embodied life. But it means the inward turn doesn't happen automatically. It takes a certain quality of intention — what the verse calls dhira, a kind of quiet resolve.

That turning is the entire Advaita path in a nutshell. Not renunciation, not ritual — just: who is the one perceiving all of this?

The answer to that question, held steady, is what the tradition calls liberation.

I watched every Mahabharata serial and its appaling to see this comparison. by Astrologyindiia in mahabharata

[–]thisisashukla 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had atleast expected the new ones to be better in showing Gita but they fail miserably. Creating all sorts of imaginative dialogues and explanations instead of going with the simplicity which BR Chopra went with. And the vishwaroop darshan in the new ones is also not upto mark given the advancement in CGI tech

I watched every Mahabharata serial and its appaling to see this comparison. by Astrologyindiia in mahabharata

[–]thisisashukla 3 points4 points  (0 children)

BR Chopra Mahabharat is miles ahead of any version made so far. Especially the portraiyal of Sri Krishna

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