Hinduism

Aartis, stotras and hymns, verse by verse — in plain words, with a deeper commentary.

Sung

Aartis, bhajans and the Chalisa — sung by the whole family.

Hymns

Vedic hymns, stotras and mantras — often recited by one voice.

Coming

  • Bhagavad GitaChapters 1 and 2, for Gita Jayanti

How these texts were made

Each text here is built in the same seven layers as everything on qMonk: the text in Devanagari, a transliteration, a literal translation, a plain-English rendering a child can follow, a deeper layer for the adult beside them, a one-line takeaway, and a question to sit with.

The Devanagari is checked line by line against at least two independent printings, and every place they differ is recorded. Where a family might sing a different word, the deeper layer says so.

The transliteration uses the standard scholarly system (IAST), so ā, ṣ and ṛ show exactly how a word is pronounced.

The literal translation. For most aartis and stotras there is no public-domain English translation, so we drafted our own, and every verse says so beside it. We never attribute our draft to anyone else.

The plain-words layer and the deeper layer are drafted with the help of AI under a written framework, and read and corrected by people. They read Hindu texts in their own terms — not through the vocabulary of another tradition.

Draft means draft. Every Hindu verse is marked Draft — awaiting reviewer until someone who knows the text has read it. That label is taken from the verse itself and changes only when a reviewer signs it off.