Wisdom for Living True Timeless Gujarati Wisdom for an Honest, Courageous Everyday Life

What does it mean to live true?

In Gujarat, the answer was never kept only in a temple or a library. It was said at the well, over the shop counter and around the dinner table: keep your word, protect the weak, feel another's pain, think before you act, earn cleanly, give with an open hand, hold back the worst in yourself, honour your people, wait without bitterness, stay humble, and let go when it is time.

Wisdom for Living True gathers twelve of these everyday teachings in one warm, plain-English guide, for readers anywhere in the world, whether or not you have ever read a word of Gujarati.

Inside every chapter:

• Verses of Narsinh Mehta, Akho, Kabir, the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, together with Gujarat's own proverbs, in the original script, with an easy "Say It" reading guide and a clear English meaning
• A teaching on what each verse really says, and what it does not promise
• A simple framework for the theme
• An imagined scene from ordinary daily life
• Seven small practices for one ordinary day
• A short personal reflection
• A full-page colour illustration

The twelve chapters: Satya (Truth), Shaurya (Courage), Karuna (Compassion), Vivek (Discernment), Kamai and Dharma (Honest Earning), Dan and Atithi (Giving and Hospitality), Sanyam (Restraint), Parivar (Family), Dhiraj (Patience), Namrata (Humility), Mrityu and Samay (Time and Letting Go), and Jivan (A True Day, Lived Daily).

No sermon. No pretence. Just an old idea, said plainly, that has never stopped being useful, and a family rule behind it: Kadi koi nu kharab karvu nahi. Never do harm to anyone. Live your own life on your own values, and let nothing cheap enter it.

A good fit for readers who enjoy Indian wisdom and the Gita, young Gujaratis who never learned the old verses, families who want to pass values to the next generation, and anyone looking for calm, practical guidance on honest living. It also makes a thoughtful gift.

About the author: Keyur Shaileshkumar Patel was born and raised in Mansa, in the Gandhinagar district of Gujarat, India. He writes as an ordinary man who has found that the old Gujarati values still hold up on ordinary days.

Take one verse a day. Then go and live it.