Chris Grosso – The Indie Spiritualist – Ep. 132 – Peaceful Coexistence with Krishna Das and Nina Rao
Nina Rao learned traditional chants (bhajans) from her grandfather in a village in south India when she nine years old. The chants quietly stayed with her until she rediscovered chanting with Krishna Das in New York in 1996. Her childhood was spent living in and moving between many countries around the world and when she settled in New York her working life began in the banking world, switched to organizing and leading photographic wildlife safaris in Africa and India, and now for many years, is Krishna Das’ business manager and accompanist as well as chant leader on her own.
Nina tours with Krishna Das, playing cymbals and singing with him, and was honored in 2013 to accompany him at the Grammy Awards webcast performance. 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. Her second album “Anubhav” was released in 2018 entirely crowd-funded. For over 20 years she has supported conservationists in preserving the sacred wilderness and forests of India via her charity SavingWildTigers.org. Nina regularly leads kirtan, chanting of the Hanuman Chalisa workshops, and retreats in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York and beyond.
In her words: “Nature-and-the-Name is what I call the space where we explore the alignment and intersection of our spiritual hearts, the sanctity of Nature, and how we live with all Beings in this world. Chanting the divine or sacred names is my spiritual practice and Nature is our universal temple.”
You can learn about Nina’s wilderness conservation non-profit charity and ways that you can help preserve the natural habitat of India’s tigers at savingwildtigers.org
For upcoming events with Nina, music, teachings and more please take a moment to visit NinaRaoChant.com.
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