Meet Dada

Dada Nabhaniilananda, aka The Monk Dude, is a yoga monk, a meditation teacher, a musician and an author.

Growing up in New Zealand, Dada developed a deep love for nature. He was always interested in creative writing and began playing music at the age of five.

When studying music and English literature at University Dada became interested in mysticism. At the age of 19 he underwent a profound spiritual transformation and abruptly changed his lifestyle, giving up intoxicants, becoming vegetarian, and dedicating himself to the disciplines of meditation and yoga. He travelled to India where he studied the ancient intuitional science of yoga and meditation under the great Tantric Master, Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. Dada was ordained as a yoga monk and ‘Acarya’ (spiritual teacher) in 1979.

Since then he has published a popular book on meditation, now available in 9 languages, released numerous musical recordings and clocked up more than 30,000 hours of meditation. Dada has performed or spoken in more than 40 countries, including Brazil in 1992 where he performed for more than 10,000 people and appeared on stage with the Dalai Lama.

In 2008 Dada came to live in Los Altos Hills, California where he speaks regularly for Silicon Valley companies, teaches a course at UC Berkeley has just published a comical science fiction novel, Real Dragons Don’t Cry.