Mani Rao

Mani Rao is the author of 13 poetry books, including So That You Know (2025). Her translations from Sanskrit include Kalidasa: Selected Poetry and Drama (2025), Bhagavad Gita (2023), and Saundarya Lahari (2022), and from Hindi of Anamika's poetry Slow Down, River (2025). Living Mantra: Mantra, Deities and Visionary Experience Today (2018) is her research into mantras. She worked as an advertising and television professional for two decades in Mumbai, New Zealand, and Hong Kong, did an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA, and a PhD in Religious Studies from Duke University, USA. Since 2017, she has been living in Puttaparthi and Bangalore. Speaker @ HLF 2023