The previous post in this series was about the Bible. This one is about everything else — the canonical libraries that hold the Talmud, the hadith, the Buddhist Pali Canon, and the Vedic literature. The places people go online to read scriptures that are not the English New Testament.
These five sites — Sefaria, Sunnah.com, SuttaCentral, Vedabase, Chabad.org — have one thing in common with the Bible portals and one important thing not. The shared part is structure: chapter, verse, paragraph, commentary; a navigable text that the same passage looks like across translations. The different part is length and depth. The Talmud alone runs 2,711 double-sided folios. The Pali Canon is 84,000 dharma teachings by traditional count. The Srimad-Bhagavatam is 18,000 verses across 12 cantos. Sahih al-Bukhari has 7,563 hadith.
You don't read these straight through. You read the daily portion, you keep coming back, you make it years of your life. Audio is what makes the keeping-coming-back sustainable.
CastReader is a free Chrome extension that reads any web page aloud with the paragraph you're hearing highlighted on screen. On all five of the sites below, that's enough — open the page, click the icon, listen. The reading happens with your eyes following along, the way these texts were written to be read.
Why Audio for World Scriptures, Specifically
Daily-cycle texts are the use case. Almost every tradition has one — a daily portion designed so you finish the entire corpus in a fixed period.
For Jews, Daf Yomi is the most ambitious: one folio of Talmud per day for seven and a half years until the entire Babylonian Talmud is finished, then start again. Chitas in the Chabad tradition is gentler: a portion of Chumash, Tehillim, and Tanya every day, all year. The weekly parashah cycle gets you through the Torah every twelve months.
For Muslims, the cycle is the Qur'an reading plan (typically a juz a day during Ramadan, finishing the whole text in 30 days), plus Riyad as-Salihin as a daily-hadith devotional reader and the 40 Hadith of Nawawi as the canonical introduction.
For Buddhists, the Dhammapada is the daily-verse text — 26 chapters of 423 verses, easy to do one chapter a day for a month. For deeper practice, the suttas are read in their original sequence or sometimes by topic.
For practitioners of bhakti yoga, the Bhagavad Gita is the daily verse — eighteen chapters, often read one verse with the purport over the morning. The Srimad-Bhagavatam is the longer arc: a chapter a day for years.
Five very different rhythms. The same audio strategy: have the chapter read aloud while you're getting ready, walking, doing dishes, riding the train. Have the highlight on screen so when you sit down with your tea and glance at the phone, you see exactly where you are. The audio + the eye keep the practice consistent on the days you would otherwise skip.
Sefaria
Sefaria is the largest free digital library of Jewish texts in the world. The Tanakh in Hebrew and English. The complete Babylonian Talmud with translation. The Mishnah. The Mishneh Torah. The Shulchan Aruch. Centuries of commentaries — Rashi, Ramban, Sforno, Or HaChaim, Kli Yakar, Malbim, the Vilna Gaon. Modern thinkers including Rav Soloveitchik. All of it open-source, all of it linked, all of it free.
The signature view is bilingual — Hebrew on one side, English (or another translation) on the other. CastReader reads the English column. The Hebrew is for your eyes; we don't ask the English-trained TTS to attempt biblical Hebrew. The paragraph alignment between the two sides means the highlighted English passage sits next to the Hebrew passage you're hearing about — useful for learners working their way into the original.
Daf Yomi is where Sefaria earns its place in the daily cycle. Today's daf is one click from the homepage. CastReader reads the Mishnah, the Gemara discussion, and the Rashi and Tosafot commentaries that the daf includes — about 25–35 minutes at 1.5x. A morning commute. The seven-and-a-half-year arc becomes one walk a day.
For parashah preparation, Sefaria's parashah pages overlay multiple commentators on each verse. Open the parashah, expand the commentaries you want (most learners pick Rashi plus one or two others), and CastReader reads the verses and the commentaries inline — verse by verse, the way it would be learned with a chavruta partner.
The Connections panel — Sefaria's signature feature linking every passage to every related source in the corpus — is skipped from audio. To listen to a connection, click into it; CastReader reads that page. The audio is the linear text; the connections stay visual.
Sunnah.com
Sunnah.com is the open hadith database. Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan an-Nasa'i, Sunan Abu Dawud, Jami at-Tirmidhi, Sunan Ibn Majah, Muwatta Malik, Riyad as-Salihin, Bulugh al-Maram, Mishkat al-Masabih, the 40 Hadith of Nawawi, the 40 Hadith Qudsi. Every major collection, every authenticated tradition, every chain of narrators, all in one searchable database with English translations.
CastReader reads the English. Each hadith on Sunnah.com is its own paragraph block — narrator, chain, text, grading. The audio reads them in order, with the paragraph highlight tracking. You hear "Narrated Abu Hurairah: The Prophet, peace be upon him, said..." and the structure is preserved. The chain of narrators (isnad) is part of the rhythm of hadith study; listening makes the isnad feel less like a footnote and more like the introduction it traditionally is.
The reference number triplet at the end of each hadith — Reference, In-book reference, USC-MSA reference — is skipped. The Arabic original above each English translation is also skipped (we don't read Arabic with an English voice). The audio flows from one English hadith to the next.
For daily hadith reading, Riyad as-Salihin works beautifully. The chapters are short, thematic, and devotional — patience, mercy, knowledge, fasting, prayer. A chapter is 5–15 minutes at 1.2x. The 40 Hadith of Nawawi is even shorter — one commute and you've heard the canonical introductory compilation in its entirety.
For deep study of Sahih al-Bukhari or Muslim, listen by chapter (kitab). The chapters are organized topically — Book of Belief, Book of Knowledge, Book of Prayer — which means you hear themed traditions rather than navigating chronologically through 7,000+ entries.
SuttaCentral
SuttaCentral is the most complete free repository of early Buddhist texts. The entire Pali Canon. Parallels in Sanskrit (Sarvāstivāda Āgamas), Chinese (the Chinese Āgamas — Madhyama, Saṃyukta, Ekottarika, Dīrgha), Tibetan (Mūlasarvāstivāda fragments). Modern translations across forty-plus languages by Bhikkhu Sujato, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Maurice Walshe, and the older translations by Rhys Davids, Horner, and Woodward.
CastReader reads the modern English. The Bhikkhu Sujato translation is the most complete and the most readable; for many practitioners it has become the default. The Bhikkhu Bodhi translations from Wisdom Publications are the scholarly standard. The page lets you switch translators with a dropdown; the audio reads the new version.
The Pali is for your eyes. SuttaCentral's signature view puts Pali and English side by side — paragraph aligned. CastReader reads the English column and the highlight tracks the paragraph; you can glance at the Pali and see exactly which original term is being translated as "mindfulness" or "suffering" or "right effort."
The Dhammapada is where most listeners start. Twenty-six chapters of 423 short verses on mindfulness, anger, the wise, the fool, the hundredfold path. Open by chapter — Yamakavagga, Appamādavagga, Cittavagga — and listen. A chapter is 5–15 minutes. The whole book is roughly 90 minutes at 1.2x — a single afternoon walk and you've heard the most-read Buddhist text in the world.
For longer suttas, the Pātika section of the Dīgha Nikāya works well, as do the middle-length discourses (Majjhima Nikāya). The Mahāparinibbāna Sutta — the Buddha's last days — is about five hours at normal pace; listen across several sittings and use the seek feature to resume.
Vedabase
Vedabase is the official online library of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's Vedic translations and commentaries. The Bhagavad Gita As It Is. The Srimad-Bhagavatam (in twelve cantos, the longest narrative in Vedic literature). The Caitanya-caritamrta. His Krishna Book. His decades of lectures, conversations, letters, and morning walks.
The page format is canonical: each verse shows the Sanskrit (devanagari + IAST transliteration), a word-for-word breakdown, an English translation, and Prabhupada's purport — sometimes a paragraph, sometimes several pages. CastReader reads the translation and the purport. The Sanskrit and the synonyms list are for your eyes; the English-trained TTS would not handle the Sanskrit cleanly.
The IAST diacritics — Kṛṣṇa, Pāṇḍu, Kurukṣetra, Dhṛtarāṣṭra — are preserved on screen exactly as Prabhupada transliterated them. The verse highlight tracks them correctly. Some IAST names will sound a bit elongated when the English TTS hits an unusual diacritic combination — a known limitation of English TTS on Sanskrit transliteration. The text on screen is what you read; the audio approximates the English pronunciation.
For the daily-Gita practice, open a chapter in the chapter view (which loads all verses with their purports on one page). Chapter 2 — Contents of the Gita Summarized, the famous Sankhya-yoga chapter that Gandhi called the meditation of his life — runs about 60 minutes at 1.2x. Listen on a long walk. The famous verses (2.20, 2.47, 2.62) come up in canonical order; the purports unpack each one in plain English.
For the Bhagavatam, the 10th canto on Krishna's pastimes is the most-read section. It's also the longest — thousands of verses. Listen by chapter; expect 30–90 minutes per chapter. The Adi-lila, Madhya-lila, and Antya-lila of the Caitanya-caritamrta work the same way.
Chabad.org
Chabad.org's library is one of the largest Jewish learning resources online. The Tanakh in English with Rashi — verse and commentary on the same page in canonical layout. The Mishneh Torah. The Tanya, the foundational text of Chabad Hasidism. Holiday guides for every festival in the calendar. Lifecycle topics. Hundreds of articles by contemporary teachers. Daily-study cycles.
The Tanakh-with-Rashi format is the centerpiece. Each verse appears on its own line followed by Rashi's comment on that verse. CastReader reads the verse, then Rashi, then the next verse — the rhythm Jewish learners have used for centuries, now in your ears. Open Genesis 1, Exodus 12, the Akeidah in Genesis 22, and you walk the chapter with the master interpreter at every step.
Daily Chitas — Chumash, Tehillim, Tanya — is published every day. The Chumash portion is the parashah segment for the calendar day. The Tehillim is the daily psalm slice (the entire book is divided across the month). The Tanya excerpt is the calendar-year cycle. CastReader reads all three in one listen — about 10–20 minutes at 1.2x. A morning commute and the day's learning is done.
The Hebrew text inline above each English verse is skipped from audio (we don't read Hebrew with an English voice). The donate banners, the "light a Sabbath candle" widgets, the related-articles sidebar — all skipped. The audio reads the English text and the commentary, top to bottom.
For weekly parashah preparation, the Parshah of the Week pages collect the Chumash text plus multiple commentaries (Rashi, Hasidic discourses, video lectures, articles). Open the Chumash text page itself; CastReader reads the parashah verses with Rashi inline. About 90–150 minutes for a full parashah at 1.2x.
For broader study, Chabad.org has thousands of articles — holiday guides for Pesach, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Purim, Shavuot; lifecycle pieces on bar/bat mitzvah, marriage, mourning, conversion; history; Hasidic teachings from the seven Lubavitcher rebbes. Any article page reads end to end with paragraph highlighting.
Choosing Where to Start
Five sites, five traditions, five rhythms. The right starting point is the practice you already do.
If you study Talmud, Sefaria is the daily site. Open today's daf, hit play, walk.
If you read hadith devotionally, start with Sunnah.com Riyad as-Salihin. Short chapters, deeply thematic, suitable for any commute.
If you're a meditator and the Buddhist tradition speaks to you, the SuttaCentral Dhammapada is the most accessible entry. A chapter at a time. The whole book in two weeks of walks.
If you read the Bhagavad Gita, Vedabase with the Bhagavad Gita As It Is gives you the verse, the translation, and Prabhupada's commentary in one continuous listen. One chapter is one walk.
If you keep the Jewish daily cycle but prefer the Hasidic frame, Chabad.org Daily Chitas is the package — Chumash, Tehillim, and Tanya in one daily listen.
All five are free. All five work with the same Chrome extension, no account, no chapter limits, no ads. Open the page, click CastReader, listen.
That's the post. The rest is daily, and that's the point.
FAQ
Does CastReader read Hebrew, Arabic, Pali, or Sanskrit? No. CastReader uses an English-trained TTS engine. Hebrew text on Sefaria and Chabad, Arabic above Sunnah.com hadith, Pali on SuttaCentral, and Sanskrit on Vedabase are all skipped from audio. The English translations on each site are what reads aloud. The original-language text remains on screen for your eyes — the bilingual layout on Sefaria, Chabad, and SuttaCentral is preserved.
What about IAST transliteration on Vedabase (Kṛṣṇa, Pāṇḍu)?
Preserved on screen. The English TTS handles common Sanskrit transliterations (Krishna, Arjuna, Vrindavan) reasonably well. Less common names with unusual diacritic combinations — Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Bhīṣma — may sound a bit elongated. That's an English TTS limitation on Sanskrit transliteration; the text you see is exactly what Prabhupada wrote.
Can I listen to the whole Talmud / Pali Canon / Bhagavatam straight through? Not in one sitting — these are years-long projects. CastReader reads one page at a time, so the practice is one daf, one sutta, one chapter per session. Across years of daily listens, you can complete any of them. That's the design.
Does it cost anything? CastReader is completely free. No account needed, no page limits, no ads, no premium tier. All five of the source sites — Sefaria, Sunnah.com, SuttaCentral, Vedabase, Chabad.org — are also free, run by non-profits or religious institutions.
Why isn't there a tradition I follow? This post covers five major libraries. If your tradition's primary online text isn't here, the same Chrome extension works on any site that displays text — Christian patristic readers, Sikh GurbaniNow, Bahai writings, Jain texts, Zoroastrian Avestan translations. Open the page, click CastReader, listen. The five sites here are the ones with the largest current libraries; the technique generalizes.
Will the extension stay free? Yes. CastReader is and will remain free. No payment, no upgrade prompts, no data collected beyond anonymous usage analytics.
