gitasay

Simple command-line tool that displays verses (shlokas) from the Bhagavad Gita,
complete with Sanskrit, transliteration, and multiple scholarly translations ~ right in your terminal

Overview

gitasay brings the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita to your terminal. Whether you want daily inspiration or to explore specific verses, gitasay makes it easy to access this rich, ancient, and timeless spiritual discourse.

Inspired by the classic Unix fortune command, which displays a random quote or wisdom saying each time it's run. gitasay follows the same principle but focuses specifically on the Bhagavad Gita, providing a spiritual dimension to the terminal experience.

The program embeds a JSON collection of Bhagavad Gita verses obtained from the Vedic Scriptures API.

Features

• Displays random or specific verses from the Bhagavad Gita
• Shows original Sanskrit text and transliteration
• Support for multiple translation source
• View chapter information and summaries
• Text wrapping for improved readability in terminals
• Embedded JSON database (no internet connection required after installation)

Installation

Prerequisites

• Go 1.16 or later (for embedding functionality)

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/ashish0kumar/gitasay.git
cd gitasay
go build -o gitasay

After building, add the executable to your PATH to run it from anywhere.

Installing globally

go install github.com/ashish0kumar/gitasay@latest

Usage

Display a random verse

gitasay

Display a specific verse

gitasay -c 2 -v 47

Shows Chapter 2, Verse 47 of the Bhagavad Gita.

Show chapter information

gitasay -chapter-info

Change translation source

gitasay -translation purohit

List available translators

gitasay -list-translators

Available translators:

• siva (default)
• purohit
• adi
• san
• tej
• chinmay

Data Source

All Bhagavad Gita verses and translations are sourced from the Vedic Scriptures API. The data was fetched and converted to a local JSON format using a separate Go program.

Acknowledgements

• Thanks to Vedic Scriptures API for providing the Bhagavad Gita data

© 2025-present Ashish Kumar