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So my question is - :What we think about Personal Advice Questions whose answers are present in scriptures.i.e. scripture itself is providing some personal advice and providing some kind of Personal Advice in some special cases?

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    Good point. Personally I am in favour of not closing those questions, which can be answered from scriptures.
    – iammilind
    Mar 12, 2018 at 11:40
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    That's not a personal advice question. A personal advice question would be something like "Me and my wife have been trying to have a child for nearly two and a half years. We've tried going to doctors and running genetic tests, but it hasn't worked. What else can we do? Why is God punishing us like this? Should we try to change his mind, or should we adopt a child, or should we just give up?" If someone posted a question like that, it would be closed as personal advice.
    – Keshav Srinivasan Mod
    Mar 12, 2018 at 14:02
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    But then if the personal details were removed and the question was made more general, like "What is the remedy for couples unable to have children?" then it could be reopened. Because then it's a question about Hinduism rather than a question about someone's specific personal situation. The question you linked to is already that sort of general question.
    – Keshav Srinivasan Mod
    Mar 12, 2018 at 14:04
  • @KeshavSrinivasan - Oh , , so in the above case the question is not a personal advice one Ok. So shall i edit the META question and delete the part where i mentioned about q and my answer ? And will just ask question without any example.
    – SwiftPushkar
    Mar 12, 2018 at 14:05
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    No need to edit your question, your example illustrates the point well. When a question is about a specific personal situation, it should be closed. If the question is a general question about Hinduism rather than asking for advice about the OP's specific personal situation, then it's fine.
    – Keshav Srinivasan Mod
    Mar 12, 2018 at 14:17

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The other answers have missed the point on what to do if a personal advice question is asked and can be answered with authoritative references.

The close reason for personal advice is as follows.

Personal advice questions are considered off-topic here. See the related meta post for details.

Now what is a personal advice is clearly explained in our Asking for help / solutions to solve personal issues should be considered off-topic.

It is as follows:

Hence, questions asking for help or solutions related to personal issues should be considered off-topic.

So, it depends on the question and not the answer. Any question whether it is a personal advice question or a too broad question can be answered. But we chose not to. We do that because it affects the site quality. It increases the flow of such questions more and more. They would help the person seeking it. Example of such questions is a question which asks for remedies to solve a problem. E.g : For a better understanding, I will give an example.

I worship god daily. But when I start the process of pooja sitting on a mat, I feel terribly low after sometime and I experience pain in the abdomen. So, what is the correct way to overcome this as per Hinduism scriptures?.

Tags:

So, above question is asking about Hinduism scriptures. But the main problem is not about the pooja process but the pain in the abdomen and feeling low. Hence, the main question is not related to Hinduism and seeking a help in their personal issue. That is closeable using said reason.

Now, there is another case which some users follow to modify a question and vote to reopen.

What to do when someone has a problem in their abdomen and feeling low after starting pooja process. This has been the case since one month. So, what do Hinduism scriptures say about this situation? What should one do according to Hinduism?

If we read above two questions, the difference is changing first person pronoun to third person pronoun. The gist of the question haven't changed even the modification is changed from 'I' to 'someone'. A question which seeks personal advice is still off-topic which can be answered from Hinduism scriptures and other valid references. It depends on the topic of the question and not the source of the answer.

So, they should be closed as off-topic with above mentioned reason. They can be salvaged but not by editing 'I' to 'someone' and adding 'Hinduism scripture' in the question. We are a site about Hinduism. We answer according to Hinduism but not according to other religions.

Related discussion : Is "What scriptures/XYZ say about ...<my off topic query>?", a freeway to convert a Qn to on-topic?

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  • There's a third way to ask the same question which is: "are there any mantras or pujas to relieve pain..." which is perfectly valid without using 'I', 'they', 'someone I know', etc.
    – Say No To Censorship
    Oct 14, 2018 at 23:31
  • @sv. Yeah. Do you think they should be closed as well? Community has been considering it as borderline when tagged with scripture.
    – Sarvabhouma
    Oct 15, 2018 at 15:50
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    No. They are perfectly valid, IMO. Like the mantras for growing hair, prolonging life, etc.
    – Say No To Censorship
    Oct 15, 2018 at 16:25
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This is trivial actually.

If the question is asking for a personal advice like say:

Today accidentally, while driving, I killed a stray dog. What should I do as a remedy as per Hinduism?

Then, without doubt, that's off-topic and will be closed, although the answer to it might be found in Hindu scriptures.

Now, if someone asks the same question, without any personal details in it, like say:

What are the remedies, as per Hinduism, for those who had accidentally killed a stray dog?

then that's not any longer seeking personal advice and will be allowed.

So, we have to judge upon seeing in what manner, among these above two ways, a particular question has been asked.

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    Nice Explanation.Yes I agree with you. I just linked the question for example purpose ,for getting a good idea about what I am asking etc. My focus was not that particular question but questions which are similar but very much related to pure personal problems. Anyway i will edit my question and will delete the question part. Thanks.
    – SwiftPushkar
    Mar 13, 2018 at 4:32
  • I agree questions should be as you described, but I do not think closing questions is wise. If people come asking for advice, shutting them down could be more harmful than helpful. It is better to place some kind of warning & flag on the article. Then, those with an interest can reword flagged questions.
    – Rubellite Yakṣī
    Mar 23, 2018 at 0:37
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    @RubelliteFae Yes i agree with u.. i am also not in favor of closing questions unless they are absolutely non sense or abusive. BTW i did not receive notification for ur comment probably because u did not add at-myusername in it.
    – Rickross
    Mar 31, 2018 at 7:28
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    The question in both the cases you tool is the same. Changing first person to third person doesn't make the question off-topic to on-topic. It is off-topic even when you ask for your friend or other family member. The reason for off-topic is "Asking for help and solutions in personal life are off-topic" . It doesn't matter if it is asked in first person pronoun, second person or third person.
    – Sarvabhouma
    Oct 14, 2018 at 15:42
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People can easily get a lot of understanding from reading the sacred texts or encyclopedia entries. So, when someone has a difficult question and comes to SE it is likely to be for: personal advice, minutiae, historic context, or deep dives like "what does (person/text) mean by (term)?", "where did (person) claim (term)?", or "what does (person) say about (term)?" My understanding is this SE is here mostly for the deep dives. However, these are more useful to the initiated than to the newcomer.

Therefor, I suggest we create a separate section for advice, particularly to attract newcomers. Just as there is hinduism.meta.SE, there could be a hinduism.advice.SE. I think this would work much better than allowing advice questions with a tag in the main Hinduism SE.

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  • No, this SE is not only for deep dives. It is also for all of them including new comers and non Hindus. If you got the feeling that it is only for Hindus and initiated, we are sorry for that. Trivial questions and easy questions are also welcome here and they have been many such questions on the site but they should not be personal advice ones. They harm the site in long run. For proposing a new site, you can go to Area 51.
    – Sarvabhouma
    Apr 1, 2018 at 14:59
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    @Sarvabhouma I understand that the intention is to welcome newcomers and non-Hindus. In reality, there is a chasm between questions like "How does Karma work?" & "How does Swami Vivekananda interpret the Brahma Sutras' criticism of the Yoga school?" This is not the fault of Hinduism.SE, but because Eastern philosophy can be mind boggling for Westerners. We almost never have the benefit of gurus nor Hindu knowledge imparted from our families. A sub-site would help bridge the gap between the curious beginner and practitioner. A separately proposed site would only fracture us.
    – Rubellite Yakṣī
    Apr 3, 2018 at 19:46

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