Hari Haribol! All Glories to Śrī Śrī Guru and Gaurāṅga!

I am excited to announce that we are kicking off 2026 by restarting the daily Bhaktivinoda-gīti-dhārā program.

I want to invite you to join us for five weeks—from January 1st until February 14th—as we dive into the ocean of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s powerful, transformative songs together. (You can still participate even if you’re not able to join every day.)

To keep this program focused and grounded, I am using the GPS (Goal, Plan, System) method to structure our journey. This is a framework I learned from this video video I came across the other day.

1. The Goal

Our aim is for Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s songs to become more than just something we occasionally sing at temple programs. We want them to become an integral part of our daily devotional practice, something we take shelter of, and develop a personal relationship with.

By the end of these five weeks, you will have your own unique selection of up to 20 songs, with five specific songs that you have spent an especially good amount of time with, understood clearly, and perhaps even memorized. My hope is that this sparks a desire within us to continue exploring the vast array of other songs he wrote and cultivate a daily habit of incorporating them into our practice.

My Personal "Why": I’ve found that when my devotional practices, like chanting and so on, are not guided by specific prayers from our ācāryas (especially Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s), then it all becomes mechanical. I'll chant my rounds just for the purpose of finishing them so that I can move on to whatever other things I have attraction for.

But I’ve found the songs and prayers of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura to be the most effective way to bring life into my otherwise meager, dry attempts at performing sādhana. They are the biggest source of hope because they show a secret glimpse into the deep, rich world of a perfected rūpānuga ācārya’s absorption and what is in store for us if we sincerely follow them. Even though our goal of kṛṣṇa-prema is an unimaginably far-off prospect, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s songs make the process and goal feel much closer; they have the power to immediately lead us onto the direct, fast, and steady track of genuine progress in bhakti, no matter what anarthas we have or what condition we happen to be in.

2. The Plan

Our journey in this particular Bhaktivinoda-gīti-dhārā series will last five weeks, with each week dedicated to a specific category of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s songs:

• Week 1: Śaraṇāgati (The Path of Surrender)
• Week 2: Upadeśa (Instructions to the Mind)
• Week 3: Daily Kīrtans (Our Daily Practice)
• Week 4: Nāma and Dhāma (The Holy Name and the Holy Abode)
• Week 5: Siddhi-lālasā (Hankering for Spiritual Perfection)

Weekly Selection: Every Thursday, I’ll send a Google Form with a list of songs from the upcoming category, including a short overview of each song. You’ll choose 1–4 songs that you feel naturally drawn to.

The Focus: From those selected songs (which you’ll receive via email), you’ll narrow it down to the one song you want to focus on most for that week. The goal is to become familiar with the meanings of all the words in your chosen song and to go deeper into it through recitation, journaling, or other personal reflections.

3. The System

A goal and a plan usually only last as long as the initial excitement—unless you have a dependable system. I am generally not someone who is good at maintaining things. But amazingly, I have managed to maintain my enthusiasm to read the books of our ācāryas daily online for over an hour a day for five years because of these three things:

• Progress Tracking: I get to see my progress through the books we’re reading.
• Blocking a Time: I do it every day at the same time (7–8 AM), treating that time as sacred.
• Community: I have a group of devotees waiting for me who I’m genuinely excited to read with, which keeps me accountable.

To ensure we dependably stick to the program, I have both a digital and an analog option for tracking:

The Digital Option
I’ve started a Bhaktivinoda-gīti-dhārā "circle" on a free app that is compatible on all devices and platforms called Habitify. You can download the app, join the group, and set a specific time or location in the app to study your song. When you’ve gone over your song and press the checkmark, everyone in our circle will see your progress. This is a great way to stay motivated through accountability.

The Analog Option
I fully understand if you don’t want to download a new app. If you prefer keeping track on paper, you can make a simple sheet to cross off every day you review the song. Every Wednesday or Thursday, you can send a photo of your tracking sheet to our Bhaktivinoda-gīti-dhārā Reflection and Application WhatsApp group to share your progress with the community.

For Memorization
Although memorizing your songs is encouraged, it is not required for this program. If you do memorize them, however, you can record a video or audio message of your recitation in our Bhaktivinoda-gīti-dhārā Melodies and Memorization WhatsApp group. Throughout the program, I will be sharing the specific methods I’ve found most effective for making memorization fun and easy.

How to Join

This online program will take place daily on Zoom and YouTube from 7–8 AM India Time (check your local timezone). If you aren’t able to join live, you can always watch the livestream later on YouTube. Even if you don’t have time to watch every day, you can still participate by filling out the form I will send to the Vine of Devotion mailing list every Thursday to select your songs of focus.

This five-week online journey leads right up to the Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura Retreat (Feb 15–21), a deep immersion into his teachings and glories held at his home in Surabhi-kuñja. I am honored to be part of a diverse team of teachers, including Sundar Gopal das, Candramukhi dasi, Manjari dasi, and others, who will be facilitating various seminars and workshops on his life and teachings. My specific contribution will be a daily interactive class focused on those five categories we’ll be going through each week. You can find the full list of teachers and retreat details here.

Later in the year, after Gaura Pūrṇimā, it is very likely that we will continue the program as we did with Śaraṇāgati last year, going through his songbooks (Kalyāṇa-kalpataru, Gītāvalī, and Gītāmālā) one song at a time. But for now, let's spend these five weeks getting a general overview of this ocean of prayers and possibly finding some new songs of his that will become our companions for life.

Last year, I made a video talking about this BGD program, why it is so dear to my heart, and what I hope we will get out of it. It includes an incredible clip from Śrīla Gour Govinda Gosvāmī Mahārāja explaining why it is essential to try to understand the writings of our ācāryas in their original language.

I’ll send you an email the day before our program starts with all the necessary links and details. I hope to see you then!

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura ki jaya!