A sample reading

A real reading on a sample dilemma, word for word as Sarathi wrote it, then followed step by step to its close. The dilemma, its one answer and how each step went are ours; every call, step and close is Sarathi’s. Yours arrives exactly like this, on your own words, and only you can see it.

Analyse my own dilemma
The sample dilemmaWe launch our payments app to 3,000 people on the waitlist this Monday. Yesterday my co-founder found a problem: about one refund in 200 shows as complete while the money takes up to four days to reach the customer. A proper fix needs three weeks. Our investor's next instalment depends on launching this month, and we have six weeks of cash. My co-founder wants to launch and fix it quietly. I want to delay. Do we launch on Monday?
SarathiOne thing first.

One question first

Can you reduce the refund display delay or add a customer warning before Monday?

You said: We could make the screen say pending in a day. The full fix still takes three weeks.

SarathiThat's enough to decide on. Here is the call.
Higher Path

The Right Action

Ship the one-day pending screen and launch to the waitlist this Monday, telling users plainly that some refunds can take up to four days to arrive.

First step

You: Agree with your co-founder to ship the pending screen and a short refund-timing notice before Monday.

The exact first sentence to say“Let's put pending on the refund screen before Monday and launch on time.”

On your own reading, an I’ll do this. Hold me to it. button sits here. Tap it and the step stays open until you mark it done, at your pace.

Why this option

You told us the screen can say pending in a day, so launching no longer means showing customers a false complete. That keeps the launch inside this month for the instalment while the three-week fix runs in parallel.

The question behind it: “Can we keep the company alive without letting customers believe their money has arrived when it has not?”

Based on what you wrote

Launch to 3,000 people Monday, but a refund bug affects 1 in 200 — money takes four days — and you and your co-founder disagree.

This hinges on
Would the investor accept a delay?

Sarathi3 options. I lean to Launch Monday with pending screen.

The options

Sarathi leans here

Launch Monday with pending screen

The one-day change removes the false complete status, so no customer is misled, and the launch still lands this month as the investor condition requires.

If you do this: Customers see pending until money arrives; a few may ask why. The instalment condition is likely met, and the full fix continues over three weeks.

Cost: A day of engineering before Monday and some visible imperfection at launch.

Costly to undo
First step

You: Agree with your co-founder to ship the pending screen and a short refund-timing notice before Monday.

The exact first sentence“Let's put pending on the refund screen before Monday and launch on time.”

Delay launch until full fix

Waiting three weeks means the refund path is properly fixed before 3,000 people trust it with money, which matches your own instinct to delay.

If you do this: No customer meets the defect, but launch may slip past this month, putting the instalment at risk with six weeks of cash left.

Cost: Possibly the instalment and half the remaining runway.

Costly to undo
First step

You: Ask the investor directly whether the instalment would survive a launch three weeks later.

The exact first sentence“We found a refund issue and want to fix it properly; would a three-week slip affect the next instalment?”

Launch and fix quietly

This is your co-founder's plan: it protects the date and the instalment with the least friction, betting that one refund in 200 stays small.

If you do this: About one refund in 200 shows complete while money is still up to four days away; if customers notice, trust in a payments app can break fast.

Cost: Customer trust and the risk of it being found out later.

Costly to undo
First step

You: Tell your co-founder which parts of the quiet plan you can and cannot accept before Monday.

The exact first sentence“I can live with launching Monday, but not with a screen that says complete when the money hasn't arrived.”

Why

Where this stands

You launch your payments app to 3,000 people on the waitlist this Monday, but about one refund in 200 shows complete while money takes up to four days to arrive. Your investor's next instalment depends on launching this month, you have six weeks of cash, and a proper fix needs three weeks. Your co-founder wants to launch and fix quietly; you want to delay.

The closest verse we found

अनुबन्धं क्षयं हिंसामनपेक्ष्य च पौरुषम्।मोहादारभ्यते कर्म यत्तत्तामसमुच्यते।।18.25।।

anubandhaṁ kṣhayaṁ hinsām anapekṣhya cha pauruṣham mohād ārabhyate karma yat tat tāmasam uchyate

The action undertaken from delusion, without regard to capacity and consequences—loss and injury to others—that is declared to be dark.

BG 18.25 — English: Annie Besant, via Wikisource (public_domain)

The closest verse, named as the closest. Never made up.

Why this verse, for youClosest found

This teaching speaks to starting something without weighing 'about one refund in 200 shows as complete' while money is late — the cost to customers and your capacity to fix it.

Where it points

This teaching holds that action taken without looking at its cost, its reach and the harm to others is the darkest kind. Your refund gap has been looked at in full. "Launch Monday with pending screen" is the path where that harm is named to customers, so the launch rests on weighed ground.

If nothing changes

Monday arrives with the disagreement unresolved and the complete screen still live, so the choice is made by default.

Then, step by step, to the close

The same reading, followed to its end: each step marked done with how it went, and the next one written from that, until nothing was left to decide.

How each step went is ours, written for this sample like the dilemma. Every step and the close are Sarathi’s.

  1. Step 1 done

    You: Agree with your co-founder to ship the pending screen and a short refund-timing notice before Monday.

    The exact first sentence to say“Let's put pending on the refund screen before Monday and launch on time.”

    Partly You wrote:My co-founder agreed to the pending screen, and it is built. He still wants to leave the refund note out until after the launch, and we have not settled that.

Pro

Every step after the first is part of Pro: each one written from how the last one went, until the dilemma is closed.

  1. Step 2 done

    You: Sit down with your co-founder and settle the refund note: show him the exact wording users would see, and decide together whether it ships before the launch.

    The exact first sentence to say“The pending screen is built, so let's settle the refund note now and decide if it goes live with the launch.”

    Went as planned You wrote:We put the note in after all and ran a test refund, which showed pending with the note beside it. We launched on Monday, and the two people who asked about a pending refund were fine once we explained.
Closed

Nothing is left to decide. This one is closed.

What you decided

Launch to the waitlist on Monday with the pending screen and a plain refund-timing note.

What you did

You agreed the pending screen with your co-founder and got it built, then settled the refund note together, put it in, ran a test refund that showed pending with the note beside it, and launched on Monday.

Where it stands, in your words

We launched on Monday, and the two people who asked about a pending refund were fine once we explained.

Why it is closed

The launch question is answered: you launched on Monday with the note in place, and the people who asked about a pending refund were fine once you explained.

Sleep peacefully.

The line you could share

“I think we can keep Monday if refunds say pending until the money lands; can we decide that together today?”

KarmaLensBhagavad Gita 18.25

On your own reading, only this line and the verse ever travel. Your words never do.

The eight lenses, as they read this
DutySvadharma +2 Launch to 3,000 waitlist people with honest pending status
TruthSatya +3 Replacing false complete status with pending screen
Non-harmAhimsa +2 Removes misleading complete status that could harm customers
DetachmentNishkama karma +1 Still aims to meet investor's monthly launch condition
Clean intentShaucha +2 Rejects quiet fix in favor of disclosed pending status
RestraintSanyama +1 Delays full three-week fix while shipping a one-day interim step
Welfare of allLokasangraha +2 Protects customer trust by telling them refund timing plainly
DiscernmentViveka +2 Weighs cash runway and investor condition against customer honesty
How this reading was made
  • AskedCan you reduce the refund display delay or add a customer warning before Monday? — you said: We could make the screen say pending in a day. The full fix still takes three weeks.
  • LensesEight lenses read the dilemma; the call rests on the ones in play.
  • The verseThe closest verse, chosen by reference from the curated Gita corpus and attached word for word; named as the closest, not a confirmed fit.
  • The callMade once, after the facts, with the first step.
Next steps

On your own reading

Decision Record (PDF)

The call, the first step, the options and the verse in one record you keep. Owner-only, dated, free.

Freeyours to keep

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