Bhaktivinoda-gīti-dhārā Returns — Beginning with Śikṣāṣṭaka

I’m delighted to announce that, by the mercy of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and our guru-varga, we’ll be restarting the Bhaktivinoda-gīti-dhārā program on Śrīla Gadādhara Paṇḍita’s appearance day—the same auspicious day it was inaugurated last year!

📚 What We’ll Study Together

We will start off this program by going through:

• The verses of Śrī Śikṣāṣṭaka
• The corresponding Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta verses
• The Sanmodana-bhāṣya of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura
• The songs he composed for each Śikṣāṣṭaka verse
• The Vivṛti of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda
• The corresponding Bhajana-rahasya verses and Śrīla Gurudeva’s comments (Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja)
• Additional commentaries and explanations from our recent ācāryas

We’ll mainly be reading from this edition of Śikṣāṣṭaka, translated into Hindi by Śrīla Gurudeva.

🌀 Format and Approach

This is a live, interactive online journey. Each session will unfold organically as we read and reflect together.

Just a heads-up: Like in all our recent programs, I won’t have much time to prep for them until we wrap up the Gauḍīya Gīti-guccha project. But honestly, sometimes I feel a special kind of joy hitting that Go Live button and diving into the unknown together—reading for the first time, discovering special treasures, spontaneously looking for relevant quotes from our ācāryas or passages in the scriptures, and letting the sessions take shape naturally. It’s like a collective exploration.

If you’re interested in memorizing the corresponding Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta verses and Śikṣāṣṭaka songs, you’re welcome to join our BGD Melodies and Memorization WhatsApp group. You can share voice messages of your memorized recitations in a friendly group with no judgment or pressure—just mutual inspiration. Personally, I gain so much more momentum when learning collectively rather than alone. That’s one of the main reasons I started this program.

✨ The Path of Sādhana

As we’ll read in the preface tomorrow, back in 1929, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda published these commentaries on Śrī Śikṣāṣṭaka in a book he titled Sādhana-patha (The Path of Sādhana).

Given the essential nature of Śikṣāṣṭaka on the path of sādhana, we're not going to rush through this program. We’ll take as many sessions as we need for each verse. After that, we’ll increase the pace and return to the “song-a-day” rhythm we followed before.

I’m looking forward to resuming this journey with all of you—delving once again in the ocean of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s kīrtanas. I hope you’ll join for the introduction tomorrow or the day after (27 April) on Śrīla Gadādhara Paṇḍita’s appearance day, when we begin with Verse One.

Our daily programs always start at 7AM IST (view in your timezone).

The WhatsApp link above is where I’ll share program announcements and the Zoom/YouTube links before each session. If you don't want to join the group, then you can still follow along by subscribing to my YouTube channel.

Jaya Śacīnandana Gaurahari!