Nidhi Agarwal feels reciting Veda with a community truly transformed her practise and made mantras more accessible.
By Sophia Ann French
Nidhi Agarwal has been listening to Sanskrit chants from a very young age. She was born in Kolkata and grew up in a joint family. She says that her “grandmother and great-grandmother gave me a rich spiritual heritage and inspired me to undertake certain sādhanās. When I was very young, I did them as a chore because I was told to. But when I was around 8 or 9, I remember my father listening to the Śiva Tāṇḍava Stotra, and I overheard him telling someone how powerful that prayer is. That stayed with me, and I kept listening to the stotra repeatedly. I got a book with the text and learned how to chant it. I didn’t know the meaning back then. I did it for my father and because he loved the sound of it.”
Nidhi’s family planted the seeds of chanting in her mind as a child, but the journey that began in childhood was put on hold as she stepped into married life and responsibilities. For decades, she lost touch with her chanting roots. As fate would have it, around six years ago, another woman in her family drew her back to chanting — this time, her mother. “I had wanted to study the Bhagavad Gīta for the longest time, and when my mother suffered a horrible bout of COVID, I decided to turn to the Gīta, found a teacher and started learning. The chanting I did as a child stayed with me, and I took to chanting the Gīta easily. My teacher encouraged me to teach my peers, and during one of our conversations, she said Veda chanting was completely different from what we did. She planted the seed of Veda chanting in my mind, so I looked up Veda teachers and found Veda studies.”
The Transformational Power of Community
Despite having grown up around chanting and tradition, Nidhi shares that Veda was completely foreign to her. “I knew there were four Vedas, but being from the Eastern part of India, I wasn’t as exposed to Veda as perhaps someone from South India. So, to me, Veda seemed far-fetched.” When she found Veda Studies online, she signed up for the Foundation Course, but transitioning from a classical chanting background to the way we learn at Veda Studies took time and effort. “I had no impression of the Vedas before studying with Shantala. It was something that just existed. I thought it was something that only pundits do. I thought it was meant for scholars, gurus and swamis, etc. There has never been anything like this for house holders before, so I am grateful that we now have access to these studies.”
While her beginnings may have been slow, Nidhi felt a real transformation in her learning and practise when she attended the Veda Studies Retreat in Italy, held in 2024. “It was the group experience of chanting that changed everything for me. It suddenly felt accessible and easy. After that, I just deep-dived into it. The community is very inspiring. I witnessed how committed the community is to Veda recitation, and they make me feel like all the effort we put in is worth it. Even if I have studied a text before, it is my pleasure to relearn it at Veda Studies because we are so respectful of following tradition and the rules. The community is so helpful and willing to study together and help each other. It just makes learning more interesting and less one-dimensional.”
First, the women in her family and then the Veda Studies community — Nidhi has found inspiration to recite Veda throughout her life. As a happy bonus, she has now become an inspiration to her 24-year-old daughter, who is studying in the US. Nidhi is delighted about this and hopes the younger generation can access these teachings to enhance their life. “I’m visiting my daughter at university, and I listen to a lot of chanting. When she comes home from university, I ask her if I should use headphones, and she actually asks me to let the chanting play while she does her research and studies. She has even picked up a few notes and started doing small mantras with me. I feel it is important for this generation to feel grounded and safe within the practice of Veda,” says Nidhi.
Learn Before You Teach
Nidhi is currently attending the Indica Veda Studies Teacher Training Programme, but says that she is not in a hurry to go out there and teach. Before that, she wants to “study a lot more. I love studying. The Teacher Training Course is a wonderful programme and involves a very deep learning of the mantras. We get into the details of every syllable and svara. At some point in the future, I will teach, but for now, I just love working within the community. Shantala encourages us to form study groups, and I love being a part of that.” In addition to discovering mantras, Nidhi loves how the theoretical aspects of the teachings and tradition have expanded her understanding of Veda and Hindu deities. “I grew up listening to stories from the Itihāsas and Purāṇāns, and that shaped my understanding of the deities. When I started studying Veda, I realised how different the essence of these deities is and how different they are from what is projected in folklore.”
Nidhi advises people who want to study Veda and teach to ensure they connect to a lineage, “because that eliminates all scope of doubt when you have a lineage to go back to. It answers your questions and eliminates doubts. The most important quality to develop to study Veda is, of course, commitment to your practise. I travel a lot, but practising every day, in whatever capacity I can, is non-negotiable. Even though I travel a lot, when I practise Veda, I feel I am home wherever I am. Make sure you create time for regular practise, especially if you want to teach. If you are studying to become a teacher, you must have a regular practise to be able to inspire your students,” advises Nidhi.
To get in touch with Nidhi, email her at [email protected]