Rise Up: Day 5 & 6 - Dayanidhi Rao
By: Geo (September 20th, 2011)
Music, they say, can bind you or liberate you. Which (if true) lays so much onus on the one who delivers such a music. What’s more, it gets tempting if the music world beckons you with the so-called “commercial success”.
For Dayanidhi Rao as well, the choice was tough. Several times, did this world beckon (read: lure) him too. “There were times when I wanted to quit, and accept offers to join big bands that offered me lots of fame and money. Then there were internal hurts, and criticism too that I had to battle. But the still small voice within kept telling me….hang in there!” says Rao, who is better known as Daya.
The only reason why Daya could ‘hang in there’ was because of his upbringing. Originally from South India but born and raised in Calcutta, since early childhood days Daya came under the ministries of The Assembly of God Church that he attended there. Growing up under the guidance and leadership of godly men and women made sure he was nurtured in his spiritual walk.
Soon one day he discovered that God had trusted him with the gift of music, a high tenor voice. By the age of seventeen, Daya sang his first solo at the church (initially reluctant but then there was no way he could refuse his youth pastor and his music minister); and thus began his music ministerial journey.
Needless to say, he never looked back ever since. But as mentioned earlier, the road was never smooth, with Daya feeling the tug of the music world. But God had other plans. Which is why, moving from accompanying his senior pastor to sing on invitations, the Lord led Daya to record songs in Hindi. In fact, he didn’t have funds, yet the Lord provided funds and strength miraculously and his first solo eight track prophetic music album ‘Choolein’ was born.
His other album ‘Lamhey’ was also born when Daya was battling through the most difficult times of his life. It was God’s intervention in those testing times that Daya began spending quiet moments with Him.
Today, Daya not only travels extensively across the country and to foreign lands singing and testifying about the love of God, but also speaks and conducts workshops for young people in India through an organisaton called Christ’s Love For All (CLFA).
Tags: Choolein, Dayanidhi Rao, Rise Up