BOB ABERNETHY: This week we profile this country's most successful New Age writer and teacher, Deepak Chopra. Deepak Chopra studied medicine in his native India, then emigrated to the U.S., where he specialized in endocrinology and became chief of staff at a Massachusetts hospital. But he burned out and returned to India to rest. There he discovered transcendental meditation and rediscovered ancient Hindu teachings called Ayurveda, about holistic health. Back in the U.S., Dr. Chopra began writing and lecturing about his combination of western science and eastern philosophy. He's now written 20 books and sold 10 million copies worldwide in 30 languages. His book, AGELESS BODY, TIMELESS MIND, sold 130,000 copies in one day. Dr. Chopra has appeared on popular programs for PBS, and in La Jolla, California, he's established the Chopra Center for Well-Being, specializing in meditation, yoga, nutrition, and therapeutic massage. When he was back East recently, I asked Dr. Chopra what it is about modern America that has been so receptive to his teachings.
Dr. DEEPAK CHOPRA: I think as we are moving into the new century, there is a underlying anxiety, a crisis of meaning and purpose in a very sophisticated population. No longer are people satisfied with traditional answers to the questions we've always had as human beings. Ever since we've surfaced on this planet, we've asked ourselves, "Where did I come from? What's the meaning of my life? Is there a God? If God exists, does she care about me? And what happens to me when I die?" We asked ourselves, "Are we accidents in nature? Or, are human beings accidents in nature? Is our planet a capricious anomaly in the sea in space? Just a speck of dust in a mindless void? Or is there a creator? Is there a soul? Is there a spirit?"ABERNETHY: You wrote in this "Seven Spiritual Laws for Parent," that we live in what you called a "recreational universe" that exists for -- I'm quoting, "divine play." I read that and I thought of disease and suffering and death and atrocities such as the Holocaust and I asked myself, how can this man call reality recreational or playful?
Dr. CHOPRA: That is the psychotic element that surfaces when we don't get in touch with the playful nature of God. This is a "recreational universe." You just have to look at children playing, or dolphins cavorting on the ocean, or birds singing or trees reaching out to the sun or stars glittering at night. When God decided to create the universe, he had the idea, "I'm going to make it joyful and creative and full of expression and beauty."
ABERNETHY: Certainly all those things are there, but also, there are the things I talked about. Pain.
Dr. CHOPRA: Those are the aberrations of our own psyche when we lose touch with the creative source, then that happens. Hitler is not created accidentally. No, Hitler is created as a result of the collective psychosis of a community that tolerates that, promotes that.
ABERNETHY: But surely it's both. It's both the suffering and the joy.
Dr. CHOPRA: The ultimate reality is both, beyond suffering and play. The ultimate reality is the source of both, actually, because all experience is through contrast. If you did not have suffering you would not know the meaning of joy. If you did not have pain, you would not know the meaning of pleasure. Without cold you would not know the meaning of hot. If you did not have the sacred, you would not know the meaning of the profane. But the ultimate source of creation, which is your consciousness, or awareness or spirit, is beyond these opposites.
ABERNETHY: You write with confidence about how all of us can live better and be healed better. As you try to practice your teachings, what's most difficult for you?
