About Guru Narayan Prasad Dhakal

Yoga Guru Narayan Dhakal during a Spiritual Hike near Pokhara, Nepal

By Nepali standards, Narayan Prasad Dhakal used to be a rich man. In the late 90’s he owned a successful restaurant on the main street of Lakeside, the popular tourist district in Pokhara, Nepal.

“I was wealthy, but not happy,” he admits. “I was eating too much meat, drinking too much alcohol, becoming fat and unhealthy.”

Then one night he awoke at 4 a.m. from a vivid dream that he will never forget.

“A baba (holy Hindu man) in long red robes appeared to me and told me to change my life. He said ‘sell the restaurant; this is not good for you.’”

Upon arising the next morning, the dream was still fresh in his mind.

“It seemed so real,” he says.

He thought about the baba’s message all that next day but by evening dismissed it as just a dream. That night, the very same baba appeared again in his dreams and repeated the exact same warning. For three successive nights, the dream was repeated and the baba insisted he must give up his present life.

“By the end of the fourth night, I knew the message was true, so I sold the restaurant and went to India for two years to study Hatha Yoga.”

He studied at Gurukul Kangari University in Haridwar, earning his certification as a teacher of Yoga.

Upon returning to Pokhara, Guru Dhakal opened a Yoga Studio in Lakeside.

“I came back a different man – poor but happy – and I knew I had to help others in the same situation.”

As his business grew he began conducting seminars and workshops around the country on subjects such as meditation, nutrition, and ayurvedic health practices.

“These teachings must spread person to person; change takes time,” he insists. “If 100 people come to a Yogic workshop and only one person hears my message and changes because of it, I am very happy. When I had the restaurant I was selling meat and alcohol and earning a lot of money; now I am selling health. I don’t earn nearly as much money as before, but my family and I are happy, physically and mentally, and I help others every day of my life.”