Tomorrow's the day: Nurturing the Seed begins! 🌱

In a little less than 24 hours from now, on the most auspicious day of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda’s disappearance, we will commence our first daily live focus session, set to unfold throughout the entirety of 2024. I’m extending my warm invitation for you to join.

If you can spare nine minutes, I made a detailed video this morning (see below) where I explain the updated format of the program I wrote about in my previous email. Otherwise, you can simply read this brief email where I've distilled the key points.

Firstly, a significant update: we renamed this program from Daily Devotional Journaling to Nurturing the Seed – A Daily Focus Session.

I chose this name because this program is not limited to journaling. It is about setting our intention, planting the seed of our chosen practice (whatever it is), and daily nourishing, nurturing, and protecting it. This program offers you a valid excuse against distractions – a commitment to a daily practice at a set time with a supportive community of devotees.

Starting time:

GMT, British Time 3:30pm • Central European Time 4:30pm • South Africa 5:30pm • Eastern European Time 5:30pm • India 9:00pm • Hong Kong 11:30pm • Brisbane, Australia 1:30am • Hawaii 5:30am • PST, Pacific Time 7:30am • CST, Central Time 9:30am • EST, Eastern Time 10:30am • Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 12:30pm

If this time doesn’t work for you, you can watch the replay on the Vine of Devotion YouTube channel. Also, if you’re interested in hosting other focus sessions like this at different times, let me know and I can help get you set up. I’ll also promote it here on VoD.

Updated program format

Following my previous email, I received valuable feedback from devotees, which prompted me to make some adjustments. Here's the updated format:

• A few minutes before the program begins, I send the YouTube and Facebook links in this WhatsApp group.
• The program commences with a 2-minute countdown to give everyone a little time to gather. During this time, you can share your intentions for the session in the chat.
• We read a short passage from one of our ācāryas. Over the next 22 days, we’ll be reading from Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda’s Upadeśāvalī.
• Then the focus session begins! I start a video featuring beautiful scenes of Navadvīpa's nature along with three countdown timers: 20, 30, and 40 minutes. Feel free to conclude your session after 20 or 30 minutes, or stay for the full 40.
• Then we conclude with a rereading of the initial quote, offer praṇāmas to everyone assembled, and call it a day! We’re keeping it short and simple so that it will be easy to maintain throughout all of 2024.

Our two WhatsApp groups:

The group in which I send the Zoom and YouTube links:

The community group where we can introduce ourselves, and share and discuss anything related to our daily focus sessions:

Monthly, Bi-weekly, or Weekly Reflection

In addition to the daily focus sessions, I've initiated a closed, supportive, and non-judgmental space where we can reflect on the main areas of our life – such as sādhana, health, sevā, and relationships – and have an opportunity to make adjustments on a monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly basis. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura Ekādaśī is an opportune day to do this, but you can choose a schedule that suits you best.

You can join the Google group here:

Dang, I was trying to send this email by 9pm my time so that you could see exactly when it would start in your time zone, but I took too long to write it. Anyhow, just subtract about 30 minutes from the time you received this email, and that's when we're starting. 😄

Okay, that’s all for now. I look forward to embarking on this journey together!