Biography

Dada Veda's Story

Dada Veda is an unusual singer-songwriter, as he is also an orange-robed meditation-yoga teacher and a social worker as well.

Dada was born in New York City in 1946.He graduated from Colgate University in 1968 with high honors. It was during his college years that he began to play the guitar. Shortly after graduating, Dada hitch-hiked to California attracted by the allure of the “counter-culture” and the then-flourishing hippie movement.

In California Dada met an Indian monk who taught him meditation and Dada became an avid practitioner of yoga and meditation. After only six months of yoga practice, Dada left his job as library assistant at Stanford University and became a full-time volunteer for the Ananda Marga yoga society.

Dada worked for the society in Los Angeles, Wichita, Kansas and in Washington, DC. During his time as a yoga volunteer, Dada immersed himself in the devotional songs (“bhajans”) and mantra chanting (“kirtan”) that play an important role in his meditation-yoga practice. Dada often led chanting sessions, playing his guitar and singing.

Dada is also a skilled writer and editor and published a monthly newspaper for the yoga society from 1972-1976. In 1976 Dada went to Sweden and entered training to become a full-time yoga monk. Dada graduated from the training in 1977.

Upon graduation, Dada became an orange-robed monk of Ananda Marga. His name “Dada Veda” is a shortened form of his full monastic name Acarya Vedaprajinananda Avadhuta. “Dada” means respected elder brother.

Dada’s first assignment as a yoga-meditation teacher was in France, where he spent five years. In subsequent years Dada worked in the Far East (Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong), then several countries in Western and Eastern Europe. Dada is now back in the U.S.A. after a nine year stay in Albania where he established a kindergarten and other educational programs in a needy neighborhood.

Although Dada has been playing the guitar and singing for the past 40 years, it was only in the past six years that he tried his hand at composing his own songs. In 2003 he recorded a CD, Brighter Than The Sun, and has performed his songs in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America.

The songs on Brighter Than the Sun are acoustic based folk music whose lyrics weave together spiritual, ecological and social justice themes. There is also a touch of country in the songs, and one listener dubbed the blend as "Country and Eastern Music."

Dada's second and current CD was released on July 1, 2009.  It is called Love is the Best. On this CD Dada has teamed up with a gifted arranger and producer and his folk songs have been given a new dimension with rock, pop and gospel influences.

While Dada's lyrics deal with serious themes, Dada's lighthearted style and humorous delivery have won him fans ranging in age from toddlers to senior citizens.

 

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