Women's Satsang Stories of Siddhi Ma (Feb 2021)

From Love Serve Remember Women's Virtual Satsang Feb 2021: Dharma Talk portion includes a short intro about Sri Siddhi Ma and some of us who feel very close to Her: Nina, Ambika, Shyama, and Mirabai Starr. To learn more about the Womens Satsang on Love Serve Remember's affinity groups see here: https://www.ramdass.org/fellowship

An invitation: Sacred Traditional Mantra & Chant Practices to Find Your Way Home to Your Heart

Come join me and satsang!

April 19-May 17, 2022

5-module weekly online course

Sacred Traditional Mantra & Chant Practices to Find Your Way Home to Your Heart

We will talk about chanting as a personal practice and actually practice together, kirtan, japa, prayers to the goddess, the vedic form of Gāyatrī mantra, chants to Mother Earth.

Details and registration for the course directly here:

https://shiftnetwork.isrefer.com/go/mcpNR/a18602/

Click here to receive a recording of my free hour-long online event, "Open Your Inner Sanctuary With the Power of Devotional Chanting: Find Empowerment & Inspiration Inside a Daily Practice of Kirtan & Mantra.” https://shiftnetwork.isrefer.com/go/iscNR/a18602/

Sri Rudram, I took the plunge!

This simple certificate means the world to me. Staying home during COVID times allowed me to pursue studies into the roots of chanting and when I found my teacher Shantala Sriramaiah of VedaStudies.com, I took the plunge. I started by taking courses on shorter prayers and she convinced me that I would be able to dive into the one-year course to start learning Rudrapraśnah, so this past Shivaratri I was able to celebrate my course completion by chanting along with priest Prakash at Eddie Stern’s newly-reopened Broome Street Temple.

Showing up weekly at the crack of dawn and endeavoring to practice regularly gave me such a sense of purpose and continues to feed me in ways I hadn’t foreseen as I continue to learn by repetition. I loved hanging out virtually with students from all around the world - beginners and more seasoned practitioners.

Now, I’m hooked and knowing there’s a universe of Vedic chants, I’m happily continuing on this journey of study in this practice.

Kirtan at Home with Nina Rao

This is an experiential program in chanting the names of the Divine from the Indian tradition. Chanting of these Names creates a devotional space for your hearts to open into. As we follow the simple practice of listening to the call, and singing the response we allow for the waves on the surface of our mind to calm so that we might immerse into the depths of the stillness within that is unperturbed by the winds and waves. This equanimous space of unconditional Love that is not received or given, but just IS, exists within each one of us. Spiritual practice using mantra is the instrument for clearing the mind and opening the heart. Like any practice it must be done with some amount of discipline and regularity for the beneficial effects. In each episode, Nina will talk a little about the practice but most of the time is spent in the chanting practice where she leads the chant and the viewer can sing along with the music. In this season we will practice repetition of mantra with melody and music with Nina on harmonium, accompanied by Arjun Bruggeman on tabla.

With your EPTV membership through Embodied Philosophy you can begin or continue to deepen your chant practice virtually at home in eight half-hour episodes. In each episode we’ll talk a bit about the chant and spend most of the session in practice together with musical accompaniment. In this episode 1, we discuss and chant the mantra “Sita Ram”.

See this link for full inclusions and details of offerings of the series and the membership:
https://www.embodiedphilosophy.com/eptv/series/kirtan-at-home-with-nina-rao/

Omega | Dropping In Podcast - Bringing Chant to Life with Nina Rao

Nina Rao has her grandfather to thank for setting her on the path to sacred chant. It took many years and several professional pit stops—including commercial banking—before she found her way to kirtan and to becoming the musical assistant and business manager for Krishna Das (KD).

In this bonus episode of Dropping In, Nina walks her students through the ancient verses of her favorite chant, Hanuman Chalisa, during her Heart Practice of Chanting workshop with KD at Omega. The episode also features a performance with Nina, as well as a visit from KD, who muses about his early days in pursuit of enlightenment.

Join longtime public radio journalist Karen Michel for this and other episodes of Dropping In as she sits down with the great thinkers, creative talent, and social visionaries who teach at Omega Institute, to explore the many ways to awaken the best in the human spirit.

Originally published July 27, 2020

Nina Rao – Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast – Ep. 81 – Roots of Chanting w/ Shantala Sriramaiah & Eddie Stern

I am so honored to have had this discussion with my Vedic Sanskrit teacher Shantala Sriramaiah of Veda Studies and Eddie Stern. Please enjoy this podcast on Be Here Now Network at the link below, where Shantala shows how this chanting can be accessible to us ~

Nina Rao Chant invites Veda expert, Shantala Srirmaiah, and NYC yoga legend, Eddie Stern, to share the roots of chanting practice and ritual worship outlined in the Vedas.

Welcoming Sanskrit chanting and Veda expert, Shantala Sriramaiah; as well as NYC yoga legend, Eddie Stern; Nina Rao invites them into a unique and gripping conversation digging into the roots of chanting practice. After a bhav-radiating opening invocation to Hanuman-ji, Nina asks Shantala and Eddie about their teachers, families, and those who helped them along the spiritual path to learn about worship rituals, chanting, and puja.

“My father is someone who devotes himself to ritual and puja. His entire day is a puja. He grows his own flowers for the puja. And the collection of the flowers is itself a ritual. The way he arranges these flowers to be washed before the ceremony, itself is a ritual. It’s so meticulous, specific flowers for specific deities. He derives great joy from this.” – Shantala Sriramaiah

Listen to Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast
Ep. 81 – Roots of Chanting w/ Shantala Sriramaiah, Nina Rao & Eddie Stern

Nina Rao – Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast – Ep. 79 – Windfall of Grace w/ Japna Tulsi and Devadas Labrecque

In this episode of the Be Here Now Guest Podcast, Nina Rao and Devadas Labrecque speak with Japna Tulsi about her film, Windfall of Grace, which details the story of Neem Karoli Baba.

Japna Tulsi is a keen spiritual traveler. She has a background in Rural Development and has worked as a consultant with various NGOs in the field of environment and sustainable livelihoods. Responding to a deep desire to fulfill her higher calling, she embarked on a film project on Neem Karoli Baba in August 2017 as an amateur filmmaker. The result is Windall of Grace.

Devadas Labrecque is a devotee of Mata Amritanandamayi, a kirtaniya, a composer, and an artist hailing from Brooklyn, New York. He leads kirtans throughout the world and has produced a wide variety of recordings, including Nina Rao’s chant album, Antarayaami.

Go to windfallofgrace.com now to stream the film today.

Nina welcomes Japna and asks about deciding to make a film without having any background in filmmaking. Devadas speaks with Japna about her process of making the film and finding many of Neem Karoli Baba’s Indian devotees to interview. Japna talks about how KK Sah influenced the film.

“[KK Sah] would always tell me… ‘Don’t listen to anyone, just do what you think is right.’ And that really was important for me.” – Japna Tulsi

It’s Just Love (19:47)

Nina and Japna dig deeper into the process, discussing how the music and some of the more stylized scenes came together, and also how the film really reinforced their faith. They talk about why Japna wanted to make a film about a lesser-known saint, and how the filmmaking process itself became a spiritual journey for her.

“Suddenly, when I found Maharajji, it was like you don’t have to do anything, it’s just love.” – Japna Tulsi

Raghu Markus, Krishna Das, Daniel Goleman, and Rameshwar Das share stories of Ram Dass, Maharajji, and India on Mindrolling Ep. 392

A Culmination (39:34)

Nina and Japna discuss the Western devotees that she interviewed, and how she missed out on talking with Ram Dass. Devadas asks Japna about her daughter and the role she played during the editing process. Nina wraps things up by asking Japna about how this project has transformed her life.

“This film, I felt, was sort of like a culmination, not just for [Japna] as a filmmaker, but also for us viewers, and brought together many generations of people.” – Nina Rao