We've made this behind the scenes video to show you how my YouTube presentations are produced
here at our ashram in New Jersey. When I'm not teaching, I'm almost always here in my room,
either sitting in that chair, studying Vedanta and preparing for classes, or sitting in this chair,
writing scripts and editing videos, or meditating in the cozy alcove just behind me.
For the past several years, I've been quite busy producing videos on various spiritual topics.
In fact, those videos happen to be a unexpected good outcome of the recent pandemic. When we
had to close our ashram during the outbreak, our regular in-person classes were moved to YouTube.
I was surprised and delighted to find so many of you watching those videos.
I learned that YouTube is a great medium for teaching.
Before the pandemic, about two hundred students attended my weekly Bhagavad Gita classes.
But after those classes became available online, more than three thousand students watched them
each week. It's extremely rewarding to see that so many people find these videos helpful.
I was also surprised to receive donations from viewers all over the world, mostly through PayPal.
With all that financial help, we could continue to pay our bills while our ashram
remained closed for two long years. I'm so grateful to all of you who have donated.
Now, let me tell you about the process of producing videos here.
My regular classes are recorded in our lecture hall and then directly uploaded to YouTube.
But many of my most popular videos are recorded, not in the lecture hall,
but downstairs, in our crowded little studio. Just for fun,
I made a short clip that shows what's involved in recording those videos. I hope you like it.
What you can accomplish
today with modern technology is absolutely amazing. Just a few decades ago, producing a
film required a big crew and bulky equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Today, with no crew and modest equipment costing just a fraction of that,
you can produce videos with the same quality.
But for me, the most important part of each video is not the quality of its production,
but rather, the quality of its content. For each presentation, I first research the topic
thoroughly and develop an outline. Then I write a script that gets reviewed and rewritten many
times before it's finished. Later, the script gets transformed into English subtitles that
help non-native speakers of English understand me more easily. Those subtitles are also sent
to volunteers who translate them into Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hindi, and even Turkish.
After recording everything in the studio, the last step takes place here,
where I use professional software tools to edit the recordings and to add helpful material like
pictures, diagrams, and Sanskrit text. Then, after adding an introduction, a closing,
and some music, the video is complete and ready to be uploaded to YouTube.
This whole process takes a lot of time and effort, but the fact that so many people will be benefited
really motivates me. Also, I truly enjoy this work. It allows me to combine my Vedantic
learning and technical skills in a creative and artistic way. And of course, like teaching,
producing videos is seva, service to others. It's an important part of my spiritual practice.
And I'm delighted that it can help others on their paths of spiritual growth.