Nina Rao
Experience an auspicious inner state of gratitude, intention, and wellbeing through the ancient devotional practices of Vedic and kirtan chanting — to access fortitude, focus, guidance, and inner peace during life’s most challenging times.
How do you cope when circumstances feel out of control?
How do you sustain yourself and heal when events occur in your life, or in the outside world, that leave you feeling destabilized, afraid, or grieving — as if you’ve been thrown off your path with no roadmap to follow?
What strategies do you use to find your footing again?
According to beloved chantress Nina Rao, spiritual seekers have for centuries turned to the ancient devotional practice of chanting mantras to cultivate a powerful internal container — providing a sense of sanctuary and the kind of inner refuge we’re all longing for.
Even in our busy modern world, the discipline of a daily chanting practice can help you access this space of strength, comfort, and safety within yourself whenever you need to.
Chanting offers spiritual sustenance that feeds and supports you — providing inner strength and peace that you can return to time and again when life throws you off your axis.
Thousands of years ago, this mantra tradition was shared with all spiritual seekers. Over time, however, in an effort to suppress the masses, it became a privilege only accessible to monastic men. Our culture today is harkening back to the ancient roots of chanting to re-establish that Vedic mantras were meant to be available to everyone who wishes to undertake the practice.
Iterations of mantra chanting are found in the form of call-and-response kirtan, which is easily accessible to everyone and practiced all over the world by those who long to immerse themselves in the ocean of divine love through prayers sung from the heart.
Nina grew up in India and learned traditional chanting from her grandfather when she was just nine years old.
When she moved to the States, she met world-renowned chant master Krishna Das, and began chanting and working with him. Her own personal chant practice grew organically out of a natural resonance with music, mantra, and the Divine Feminine.
Nina draws on both her background and on ancient Sanskrit sacred texts to bring a unique perspective to her chanting and teaching... one that fuses East with West.
Join her for a nourishing hour-long event where she’ll share the sacred practices of both Vedic and kirtan chanting, which you can carry with you into your own practice.
During this illuminating experiential workshop, you’ll:
- Learn how Vedic mantras are precise and rule-driven,which helps you develop stronger concentration, deepen your practice, and honor the ancient tradition... compared to the kirtan that most of us are used to hearing (and singing!) in the West
- Discover how mantras create an auspicious inner state of gratitude, intention, and wellbeing — a sanctuary for refuge and sustenance in times of duress
- Hear Nina chant one verse from the Sri Rudram, the invocation of Rudra in the Vedic style — to cope with the karma of life and ask Shiva for his blessings
- Sing Om Namah Shivaya with Nina in kirtan style — call and response — repeating the name of God to calm your mind, open your heart, and help realize your inner Self
- Experience the dispelling of fear, and the peace and love that can wash over you as you chant mantras
Drawn from the highest authority in Hindu dharma, Vedic chanting is the practice of repeating a mantra in which exactness in notes, rhythm, and pronunciation is vital...
... while kirtan, which evolved from the original roots of the Vedic mantras, is sung.
They both result in a state of wellbeing of your physical, mental, and emotional bodies, although the Vedic style guides you deeper into your own devotion.
As Nina will explain, knowing how to access your palpable inner haven can soften anxiety and inspire feelings of confidence and calm you can carry throughout your day.
Sustained practice will help you deepen your devotion and cultivate a greater sense of surrender, patience, courage, generosity, clarity, and wisdom.
Chanting helps you develop a loving heart of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. As a form of prayer, mantras guide you to exercise your true free will, turning what can feel like helplessness into positive action.
With Nina’s guidance, you’ll experience for yourself the exhilarating truth that chanting is an expression of your own innate devotion.
You’ll also be among the first to hear about her brand-new 4-week, 5-module course, in which she’ll take you on a deeper journey using both kirtan and Vedic chanting to help your own devotional mantra practice flourish...
... and create a nurturing, auspicious container of gratitude, intention, and wellbeing so you can navigate your life and thrive, no matter what arises that may otherwise throw you off center.
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Join this FREE video event with Nina Rao and experience both Vedic and kirtan chanting to find an auspicious inner state of sustained fortitude, focus, guidance, and inner peace, even during life’s most challenging times.
Free Video Event
What People Are Saying About Nina Rao...
“[Nina Rao’s] chanting is rich with timeless longing... calling us to live in the love that is our true being.”
From deep in the heart-cave Nina calls us... Her chanting is rich with timeless longing... calling us to live in the love that is our true being.”
— Krishna Das, worldwide icon and bestselling Western chant master
“Her vocal style is so pure and clear...”
I know Nina well through my role as Krishna Das’ music producer and guitar player. On our retreats I have also sat in with Nina for her own kirtan sets and workshops. Her vocal style is so pure and clear, and when she sings I am transported to the inner chambers of the Hanuman Mandala. She is also gifted at explaining the meaning and essence of these practices. I have learned a lot from Nina about the Bhakti tradition and consider her one of my teachers and a dear friend.
— David Nichtern, author and founder of Dharma Moon
“A combination of deep soul and melodious magic.”
Nina Rao has the voice of a genuine practitioner in her tradition. A combination of deep soul and melodious magic. She also comes from India and so has experience in that tradition since birth. Personally, I love her music and always have it with me. What an opportunity to have her at The Shift Network!
— Lama Tsultrim Allione, author and founder of Tara Mandala
“Nina’s chanting is an angel’s lullaby fused with the divine energy of awakening.”
Nina’s chanting is an angel’s lullaby fused with the divine energy of awakening. I listen to it in my car, in my office, on long walks, and after I meditate. It’s the soundtrack of love.
— Mirabai Bush, author and teacher of contemplative practices
“Nina’s loving, soaring, ecstatic voice... lifts the soul...”
The first time I heard Nina chant live on her own, I thought I was in the presence of the late immortal Anandamayi Ma — transported instantly into a transcendently easy way of being right where I had always been. Now that I hear Nina’s loving, soaring, ecstatic voice so beautifully recorded, I can echo back to that moment any time. It lifts the soul, stirs the unsought but welcome inner bliss, and is a wondrous gift that sweeps me into the clear stream of gratitude and devotion to the infinite yet gentle force of the clear light of love.
— Tenzin Robert A.F. Thurman, student of life, author, and grateful upholder of the Buddha teaching found in all ways of love and in every flower and blade of grass
About Nina Rao
Nina Rao learned traditional chants (bhajans) from her grandfather in a village in South India when she was nine years old. Her childhood was spent living in and moving between many countries around the world. Prior to rediscovering chanting with Krishna Das in New York in 1996, she worked in banking before switching to organizing and leading photographic wildlife safaris in Africa and India. For many years, she has been Krishna Das’ business manager and accompanist as well as a chant leader in her own right.
Nina tours with Krishna Das, playing cymbals and singing with him. In 2007, she recorded the track “Nina Chalisa” on Krishna Das’ CD Flow of Grace: Chanting the Hanuman Chalisa. In January 2013, she released her debut album, Antarayaami: Knower of All Hearts, which includes a duet with Krishna Das. Later that year, she was honored to accompany him at the Grammy Awards webcast performance. Her second album, Anubhav, released in 2018, was entirely crowdfunded.
For over 20 years she has supported conservationists in preserving the sacred wilderness and forests of India via her charity, Saving Wild Tigers. Nina regularly leads kirtan, chanting in workshops, festivals, and retreats in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, and beyond.
