The future of Vine of Devotion

Hari bol dear devotees. Please accept my pranams.

At the moment, Vine of Devotion is a place where I can share my favorite devotional articles, thoughts on various topics, things I've learned or am learning, updates and announcements about various devotional projects, study groups and so on. I think it would be wonderful if in the future Vine of Devotion expanded so that others could contribute here as well, but for now, it's sort of just my personal place to share things. Since it is all so tied to me, when there are big changes in my life, it'll often effect Vine of Devotion as well. So while giving an update here on what's going on with VoD, I'll be also explaining a little what’s going on with other sevā projects I'm involved in and my life in general.

VoD at present

If you’ve been following the VoD YouTube videos, you’ve probably seen that my iPhone was stolen on Guṇḍica Mandir Marjana day inside Nrsimhadeva mandir just after I finished recording the last Rūpa-śikṣā video. Because I haven’t had anything else to record on, the Rūpa-śikṣā videos abruptly stopped, even though I had originally planned to continue them till Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī's disappearance day.

(I am still keeping the Rūpa-śikṣā Zoom sessions going for those who have been joining from the beginning. If you'd like to participate, reply to this email and I can send you the Zoom details.)

It seems to me that Nrsimhadeva directly arranged for this to happen because around that time, two very urgent GVP publication projects came up that required my full attention. The first project is nearly complete and I’m about to start on the next project: the next edition Śrī Gauḍīya Gīti-guccha, which is supposed to completed and ready for layout by mid-September (although I have a feeling it’ll take longer. 🤫). If you’re curious to know more about the new songbook, join our Discord server where I’ll be sharing my ideas for it, progress updates, taking everyone’s feedback, and sharing my screen live while I’m work on it for anyone interested to see. I find it motivating to focus on things with others who are also deeply focusing, so take this as an open invitation if you'd like to work with me on your personal projects or study. I'll be using the Pomodoro method (25 min deep focus sessions with 5 min breaks in between.)

Because there is so much to do for this new songbook, the Vine of Devotion newsletter and YouTube page is slowing down for now. I’ll still occasionally send out Rays of The Harmonist articles with videos of them being read out like I did the other day on Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s disappearance day, but I won't be able to commit to much more than that until this new songbook project is complete.

How I plan to divide my time

After Kartik, once the songbook has been printed, I’m hoping to divide up my time in a more balanced way across various projects. First and foremost, I need to focus my energy on (1) some simple form of sādhana and (2) GVP publication sevā. And after that there are (3) the Vine of Devotion videos, (4) the Gaudiya Kirtan project, (5) writing, (6) studying jīva-tattva and the inherency of bhakti, and (7) daily Bhāgavatam readings and other study groups.

What I usually end up doing is focusing on one thing intensely to the exclusion of all else. This is an area I especially need to mature in. I’m trying out calender time-blocking and finding ways to get people to hold me accountable (one of the reasons I'm going to be sharing my screen on Discord). As I experiment with different systems, I'm hoping to find something that sticks. If you have a tips, please share with me!

I have a lot to say on each of the projects I mentioned above, but since the is Vine of Devotion newsletter, I’ll stay focused on Vine of Devotion.

Plans for the future of VoD

I, of course, won't be able to start making videos until I have some device to record on. But in the meantime, I'm brainstorming ideas for future videos and reflecting on what I'd like to do differently so that whenever a camera does come into my hands, I'll already have prepared many things to begin working with.

Video ideas

Here’s a brain dump of some random ideas of what I'd like to make videos on:

• The publication process of a GVP book (translation, editing, fidelity checking, proofreading, layout, printing at the press, distribution)
• How to type diacritics
• A course on reading and writing in Bengali
• Basic Bengali grammar for understanding kirtans and Caitanya-caritamrta
• A series on prasāda (the prasad kirtans by Bhaktivinoda Thakura, lilas regarding prasad in Caitanya-caritamrta and other places, the traditional preparations in a normal Bengali feast, traditional prasada rules and etiquette, show how the day is centered around prasad in the math in subji cutting, cooking, bhoga offering, distribution, cleaning, serving what’s left over at the gate etc.
• The glories of Tulasi-devi and in depth explanation and memorization of Vrnda-devyastakam
• A series on Bengali kirtan melodies (three main types of meter, morning and evening melodies, the extra alankars/akars for Gaura-arati and other songs)
• A series on arcana (show full day arcana and puja in Gurudeva’s samadhi and in the temple, how to make offerings for those who have diksa and for those who don’t, the importance of arcan with quotes from our acaryas, the process of offering 16 items, etc.)
• A series on the four Vaisnava sampradayas (the lifes of the sampradayik acaryas and their philosophies)
• A series going through various Bengali kirtans and Sanskrit astakams
• My humble opinion on various issues (“progressive” Vaisnavism, my problem with Western devotees who take big issue with not being allowed in Jagannath Mandir, the dangers of managing donation money especially for brahmacaris and sannyasis, healthy unity and harmful unity among Vaisnava sangas, and many many other topics)
• The stages of bhakti
• The types of bhakti
• A series going through Madhurya-kadambini
• A nine-month Siksastakam program (going through the commentaries, Cc verses, Bhaktivinoda Thakura kirtans, etc)

The longer I sit here typing, the more ideas will flow out. I can go on forever. I’m not saying that I’m going to make videos on all these topics, but it’d be so nice to have a large selection to pick and choose from rather than having to think up a new topic every time it comes time to make another video.

Yesterday, Śrīpāda B.V. Padmanabha Mahārāja mentioned his desire to make nice-quality videos where he reads through Śrī Guru and His Grace, explains Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s unique language, and shares various anecdotes. I think Śrīpāda B.V. Padmanabha Mahārāja is one of the best devotional-book-narrators I know. I could listen to him all day. Wouldn't that be such an amazing series?

Areas I'd like to improve in

Having had some time away from making VoD videos, it's become clear to me what I'd like to do differently.

• Work with ideas and content that have been brewing over time. When I was doing this Rupa-siksa program, I would start writing the script for each video with no idea of what to say and I’d have only one or two days to complete it. It was extremely stressful and I was neglecting my sadhan, health, other sevas and everything else. I don’t ever want to put myself through that again. Also, I will be able to produce much better quality content if everything’s based on topics that I’ve spent a longer time exploring and developing.
• Keep a slow steady pace. I would like to either make a video once a week or once a fortnight depending on how demanding the other projects I’m working on are. I was getting close to reaching burn out when I was making two videos a week.
• Make a good, fixed recording set up in my room. Something that created a lot of friction for me in making the previous videos is that I wanted each one to look interesting and unique with different backgrounds, recording in different places. That caused maaany obstacles like people constantly interrupting, construction, temple programs, lighting changes, etc. So now I’d like to make a good permanent set up in my room with nice background visuals (plants, lights, cloth, etc.) and also get a good lighting system so that I can record at any time of the day and be able to give more attention to quality of content I’m delivering rather than all these other external things each time.
• Use an actual camera with a good camera lens. The iPhone camera was great and easy. But I’d prefer to have an actual camera. The Sony ZV-E10 mirrorless camera and Sigma 16mm lens is what I have my eyes on. The challenges with recording on an iPhone were having to wirelessly move each video file to my iPad (which is where I’d edit the videos) and my iPhone was constantly getting filled up. Before recording every video I’d have to search for things to delete to make enough space to record new videos. Also I’d love to get that nice blurred background effect that you see on the real pro YouTube videos.
• Edit on a more powerful laptop with FinalCut Pro. I used a cheap app on my iPad to make all the previous videos. It got the job done, but it was slow, tedious and I was very limited in what I could do. I want to learn now how to properly edit on FinalCut Pro so that I can save time and produce higher quality, more engaging videos.

So, as you can see, three of the five things listed above have to do with getting better equipment.  I’m planning to start fundraiser at some point. To be honest, I feel a little uncomfortable about starting a fundraiser but I don't know how else to get these things.

If you’d like to chip in a little something so I can slowly start building up a recording set up, my PayPal email is madhukar.das@gmail.com. (If you’d like to contribute another way, you can reply to this email.) Then I won’t have to ask for as much whenever I do go to make a fundraiser and I might be able to get started making videos earlier. Some of you already contributed and I was able to get a good mic and put down $350 toward getting a new laptop. I am very grateful.

Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s disappearance day is only ten days away! I’ll try to post something for that occasion soon.

That is all for now. Thanks for taking the time to read this all. Jaya Śrī Rādhe!

Aspiring to serve Śrīla Gurudeva and the Vaiṣṇavas,

-Madhukar das

P.S. Last week, after two years of daily Bhāgavatam readings, we, sadly, reached Śrīla Prabhupāda’s last purport. Now we are continuing the Bhāgavatam with Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura’s commentary. If you’d like to join in the daily readings, you can subscribe to my personal YouTube channel where I go live to read every day at 7:30AM (India time).