About this project
Wisdom that has guided humanity for three thousand years — made conversational.
What is Shastras?
Shastras — from Sanskrit, meaning sacred teaching or scripture — is an AI-powered application that brings the wisdom of India's greatest sages, scholars, and divine figures into direct conversation with anyone who seeks it.
It is built on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) — a technique where the AI does not rely on general knowledge alone. Instead, when you ask a question, the system first searches thousands of actual scripture passages to find the verses most relevant to your words, then passes those passages to the teacher to ground every response in real text.
You choose a teacher. You ask what is on your mind — about purpose, loss, fear, duty, relationships, or the nature of the self. The teacher responds in their own voice, drawing from the actual scriptures they lived and taught.
Every response is grounded in real passages. You see the citations. Nothing is invented.
Our Intention
The texts that power this application — the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Dhammapada, the Complete Works of Vivekananda — have guided countless lives across millennia. They address the full range of human struggle with a clarity that modern self-help rarely matches.
Yet for most people, these texts remain inaccessible. They are locked behind complex Sanskrit, dense academic commentary, or the assumption that serious study requires a guru and years of preparation.
We built Shastras because we believe that is unnecessary. The questions these teachers addressed are the same questions people carry today. The conversation should be available — right now, in plain language, with the teacher whose approach resonates with you.
Our intention is not to replace tradition. It is to lower the threshold enough that someone in the middle of a difficult week might discover that a two-thousand-year-old verse speaks directly to what they are facing — and feel less alone because of it.
How It Works
When you ask a question, Shastras searches thousands of scripture passages to find the verses most relevant to your words. Those passages are given to the teacher, who responds entirely in character — in first person, from within their own experience and perspective.
The citations appear alongside every response. You can read the exact verse the teacher drew from, trace it back to its source, and explore further if you wish.
Under the hood, this is a RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipeline. Your question is converted into a semantic vector and matched against over 1,000 embedded scripture passages using Voyage AI embeddings. The top matches are retrieved and handed to the teacher persona, powered by Claude — Anthropic's AI model — which responds entirely in character.
The Teachers
Eleven teachers are currently available, drawn from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Buddhist tradition, and the modern Indian renaissance:
From the Mahabharata
The divine teacher of the Bhagavad Gita. On karma, duty without attachment, the nature of the self, and the path of action.
The archer-prince at Kurukshetra. On paralysis, grief, friendship, loyalty, and finding the will to act when everything is at stake.
The patriarch who lay on a bed of arrows and taught for days. On vows, regret, dharma under impossible conditions, and dying well.
The minister who spoke truth to kings. On integrity, governance, the courage to dissent, and the burden of honesty.
From the Ramayana
The ideal king and son. On duty, exile, loss, leadership, and the cost of standing for what is right no matter what it takes.
The embodiment of sovereign inner strength. On resilience, identity under pressure, dignity in exile, and grace under injustice.
The servant of Rama whose love knew no obstacle. On devotion, selfless service, strength born from surrender, and the power of purpose.
Buddhist Tradition
The awakened one. On suffering, impermanence, the nature of desire, the middle way, and the path toward liberation.
Modern Teachers & Strategists
The monk who brought Vedanta to the world. On strength, fearlessness, the divinity within every person, and the purpose of a human life.
The sage of Arunachala. On the nature of the self, the practice of Self-enquiry, silence, and the direct path to stillness.
The strategist behind the Mauryan empire. On leadership, power, pragmatic ethics, decision-making, and surviving complex systems.
The Scriptures
All source texts are public-domain translations. No copyrighted material is used.
- Bhagavad Gita — 700 verses — the core of Krishna's teaching
- Mahabharata — Passages from the Shanti Parva and narrative sections
- Shrimad Bhagavatam — Selected teachings and stories of Krishna
- Valmiki Ramayana — The foundational Sanskrit epic — Sundara Kanda and others
- Ramacharita Manas — Tulsidas's Hindi retelling — devotional and lyrical
- Aditya Hridayam — The solar hymn taught to Rama before battle
- Hanumad Purana — Teachings and episodes of Hanuman
- Dhammapada — The Buddha's verses on the path — 423 suttas
- Swami Vivekananda — Complete Works — Lectures, letters, and teachings (Vol. I–VIII)
- Ramana Maharshi — Collected Teachings — Who Am I?, Talks, and selected writings
- Arthashastra & Chanakya Niti — Chanakya's treatises on statecraft and ethics
A Note on Guidance
Shastras is a tool for reflection and exploration. The teachers here speak from their scriptures — with care, and in character — but they do not know you personally, and they cannot replace the relationship between a student and a living teacher.
If you are facing a serious personal crisis, mental health difficulty, or a decision with real consequences, please seek qualified human support. Traditional lineages, qualified counsellors, and trusted communities exist precisely for these moments.
Use Shastras to reflect, to discover, to be reminded of what the tradition has always known. Then take it into your life with the help of real people.
Privacy
Shastras is intentionally stateless. Your conversations are not stored, logged, or retained after your session ends. Each conversation begins fresh. No account is required.
We collect anonymous usage analytics (page views, session counts) via PostHog to understand which teachers and features are most useful — nothing that identifies you personally.