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Mani Rao

3 works

Mani Rao is the author of three books in translation including Bhagavad Gita: God’s Song (HarperCollins), Saundarya Lahari: Wave of Beauty (HarperCollins), and Kalidasa for the 21 st  Century Reader (Aleph Books); eleven books and chapbooks of poetry including Sing to Me (Recent Works Press) and Echolocation (Math Paper Press), and a book based on research into mantra experience— Living Mantra: Mantra, Deities and Visionary Experience (Cham Springer). She was a visiting fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program, and held writing residencies at Omi Ledig House, New York, and IPSI Canberra. She worked in advertising and television in Mumbai and Hong Kong for two decades, and then returned to studies for an MFA in creative writing and a PhD in Religious Studies. She lives in Bangalore. https://linktr.ee/maniraopoem

August 15, 2025 Excerpts

Excerpt: So That You Know

THIS MARRIAGE It’s not too cold, I know, but I had nowhere else to keep this...
December 17, 2023 Translations

Body and Soul; excerpts from the Bhagavad Gita

Poor soul.Bless her soul.Soul-mates.Chicken-soup for the soul.S.O.S. How easily we say “soul”. It was a soul-stirring...
June 15, 2022 Poetry Collections

THE DOTTED LINE

How many oceans is a question in schools Four, five, or one, depending on your

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