Mani Rao is the author of thirteen poetry books including So That You Know (HarperCollins 2025), and four books in translation including Bhagavad Gita and Saundarya Lahari. Researching mantra experience in tantric communities, she discovered continuing revelations and new mantras in circulation on-ground for Living Mantra: Mantra, Deities and Visionary Experience Today.

After studying literature in the early 80’s Madras, she worked as an advertising and television professional for two decades in Mumbai, New Zealand and Hong Kong. A resetting of life-goals led her back to the world of learning– she then did an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA, and a PhD in Religious Studies from Duke University, USA. Returning to India by 2017, she began to live in Puttaparthi and Bangalore.

”My Life.” Interview by Mark Footer.
(Sunday Morning Post, 30 May 2010) → 

“Ancient Wisdom in Modern Times.” PTI, 24 Feb 2019 → 

Kitaab interview by Zafar Anjum →