Nicholas D’Angelo was born on May 20, 1950 and was raised a strict Roman Catholic. He went to Catholic school for 13 years, but did not even finish one semester of college at St. Johns University in New York City. Instead, the dormant lusty desires in his heart manifested and he became a “hippy” in 1968.
Pursuing the path of “sex, drugs and rock n roll”, he tried to become famous and successful as a singer. But by 1972 the reactions of four years of intense sinful life began to weigh him down mightily. Fortunately, he came in contact with first the books, then the devotees and then Shreela Prabhupada himself. In July of 1973 Nicholas surrendered to Krishna via ISKCON. Shreela Prabhupada gave him his spiritual name, Nirantara dasa, in April of 1974.
Next year, he got his 2nd birth. From 1973 until 1980 he served the mission as a brahmacari in the capacity of book distribution, either directly or as a back-up helper. From 1980 until the present, he has tried to serve the will of Shreela Prabhupada by preaching through lectures and music concerts. His preaching began in Canada (Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver), where he met his wife, Varuni devi dasi, also an initiated disciple of Shreela Prabhupada, and co-author of one third of his song-repertoire. From there he returned to the United States (1982), spending time preaching in San Francisco (teaching at the ISKCON school), then in 1983 until present he made his preaching headquarters in the Los Angeles area.
Since 1999-2013 he has made yearly preaching visits to Panama; since 2005 yearly visits to Santiago; and throughout his life he has preached in Durban, Bangalore, Philadelphia, Towaco, Seattle, Portland, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Tucson, Sedona, Phoenix, Toronto, Vancouver, Guadalajara, Alachua, Thunder Bay, and throughout all of Southern California, including San Diego, Los Angeles and Laguna Beach. Primarily his preaching is with the Indian community, but his music concerts widen his audience to include others.
From 1995 until 2001 he was Vice President of ISKCON Los Angeles (New Dvaraka) and from 1995 until 2007 he was also the Life Membership Director. In February 2007 he became an independent preacher for Shreela Prabhuapda with no set affiliation with any particular temple. This has allowed him to do more extensive preaching world-wide. In 2005 he produced a Bhagavad-geeta DVD wherein the entire text is explained in simple and concise language for anyone to understand the deep mysteries of its science. In 2014 two more DVDs were also produced.
In his spare time (when not going out for preaching) he composes and records original recordings of Shreela Prabhupada’s teachings of what he calls “Bhaktivedanta-yoga” in western musical format using guitar, keyboard, and bass. His only desire is to live to be 108 following in the footsteps of Narada Muni, traveling all over the world preaching and singing.
In 2005 he was awarded the prestigious “Global Excellence Award” and in 2011 the “Gadädhara Pandit Award” for congregational preaching services from ISKCON.
