coverSTORY] Beyond

the
spotlight

Living well and healing gently are two sides of the same coin; they are also
spiritual phenomena. By RAJGOPAL Nidamboor and MARY Angela

M
ind-body guru, Deepak Chopra, says that
correct and balanced living, including our
rapport with food, is part of the conscious
Universe.
Chopra also relates to the responsive-
ness you ought to have when you are putting food into
your body. He observes that you need to possess the
soulful qualities of a chef while cooking your food. If you
also add to this the love of the cultivator who is growing
the grain, the idea will not only influence the life energy,
prana, or chi, of the food, but also your entire being.
Picture this: when you know what you eat comes out of
a can, it does not provide you the same feeling of energy.
Why? Because, the can does not celebrate prana!

Deepak Chopra on
Living & Healing
Models: AISHWARYA SINHA & JANMESH RAVAL
• Photographer: KUNAL LAKHANI

16 | CW „ MAY 2007 „ VOL I ISSUE 7

 Chopra connects just as much to the taste of food
— an indicator of what is in the food is in your mind. He
says: “Nature gave us the ability to taste because, in Na-
ture, knowledge about nutrition is obtained through taste.”
He notes that the ayurvedic concept of nutrition is
related to taste and after-taste. Translated, this means that
the effects of food are attuned to your consciousness.
There is also an aside. For instance, the food you eat may
make you feel heavy or light, crammed or keyed-up, or hot
or cold. Chopra observes that these are all subjective ex-
periences — a feeling that comes from “pumping” vitality,
or energy, into your body.
Food, says Chopra, affects us in different ways. You
may eat a great deal, but you don’t put on weight. In
contrast, there are people who tend to bulge at the very
thought of food. There is no perfect “fit” for all — because,
no diet is Universal. The reason is, again, simple: we are
unique beings.
“I think that the most enjoyable thing about food is the
experience of it.” He explains: “All cultures traditionally
have rituals and celebrations around food, and what we
have done is sterilise some of the experience of food in-
take into calories, nutrients etc., So, once we give thought
for food, food becomes a cheerful experience, a very
healthy attitude.”
His advice: use common sense, your own body signs,
or signals. Don’t overdo things; don’t under-do things.
Follow the path of balance, including balance — in every-
thing you do!
Fat debate
What about fat — for instance, the use of ghee [clarified
butter] in ayurveda? He says: “The fear that people have
for high cholesterol is quite far off-the-mark. Because, re-
sults have shown that it is totally unfounded. Why? Dietary
intake of cholesterol doesn’t control cholesterol levels; it’s
your body’s metabolism that controls cholesterol levels.
A lot of it has to do with your constitutional body type and
genetics. We are not sure if cholesterol is damaging. It
may be the [peroxide] toxic by-product of fat.”
The best thing one can do for optimal health or wellbe-
ing, says Chopra, is to follow a suitable programme, or
healthy plan of action, which should ideally include a bal-
anced diet, exercise, and meditation.
The idea of wellbeing, of course, is not just for us — you
and me, or individuals — today. In Chopra’s words: “The
new watchword in the corporate [world] seems to be
“wellbeing,” a term associated with alternative medicine;
not the hard realities of business. Google and Apple,
among other corporations, have won admiration for
providing work environments, full of amenities like on-site
gyms, day-care centres, and other life-enhancing add-ons.
Japanese corporations pioneered this trend decades ago.
But, now a new dimension has been added: the wellbeing
of the public, at large, which includes the wellbeing of the
environment. Business is beginning to take seriously that
their future depends on going green.”
To cull a handful of thoughts from Chopra’s book, Jour-
ney into Healing:
z When the mind is peaceful, inner energies wake up and
work miracles for us
z The use of love is to heal
z Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower and
draws all good things towards you
z Healthy people live in the present
z An intimate relationship allows you to be yourself
z Accept what comes to you totally and completely
z When life is full, it is only love, and when awareness is
full, it brings only love
z Health is not just the absence of disease, it is inner
joyfulness
z Enchantment is our natural state
z Attend to your own inner health and wellbeing
z Allow your love to nourish yourself as well as others.
Timeless spirit
Living well and healing, says Chopra, are spiritual phe-
nomena. He notes that the most important thing to do is
to get in touch with that part of yourself, which is immortal,
unchanged, and timeless. This is a holistic experience
by itself. It’s also an understanding that helps us to get
rid of the trepidation that we may all have, including the
apprehension of mortality. “If you lost the fear of mortal-
ity, it wouldn’t matter if you were going to die. I think this
CW „ MAY 2007 „ VOL I ISSUE 7 | 17
 is important — to lose this fear [of death], and have the
experience of timeless spirit.”
This, avers Chopra, does not mean that emotional and
physical healing are not important. The very word “heal-
ing,” notes Chopra, comes from the word, “holy.” The
word, “holy,” emerges from the expression, “whole.” “My
understanding is in the essentials — the part played by the
spiritual, emotional, physical and environmental factors, in
healing.”
CW writer Mary Angela attended one of Chopra’s
workshops, “Soul of Healing,” a transformative journey into
healing, in New York, US, recently. Here’s her story:

“Soul of Healing”
The 5-Day “Soul of Healing” is filled with balance, healing,
discovery and awakening. It helps you clear your mind,
lessen anxiety, detoxify your body, empower your nutri-
tion, manage stress, re-centre yourself, and bring peace,
health and wellness into your life. In addition to mind-body
consultation, participants learn techniques, personal solu-
tions, and daily routines to help them move beyond career,
relationships, and personal challenges, that may trap us in
our current patterns.
Each day, participants learn and practice the ancient
art of Primordial Sound Meditation, Seven Spiritual Laws
of Yoga, and connect at the level of the soul with Deepak

Emotional Freedom & Wellbeing

W hen Deepak Chopra dis-
cussed “Emotional Intel-
ligence and Emotional Freedom,”
at the “Soul of Healing” Workshop,
he explained how we all experi-
ence emotions through our limbic
brain — and, how we experience
not only our own, but also others’
emotions through limbic reso-
nance and bonding.
I kept thinking, that, since we are
all one, it would probably be useful
to get a “grip” of our emotions from
all perspectives. I was impressed
by the simplicity of the suggested
process, and realised that it might
be a helpful tool for anyone trying
to “detoxify” themselves from emo-
tional memories that have caused
them pain in the past.
Along with the use of medita-
tion, which can help in dislodging
memories from the unconscious,
the steps Chopra suggested
provide us the ability to completely
“metabolise” a past experience, so
that transformation takes place within
us — emotionally, physically and spir-
itually. In so doing, you will be able to
release your “locked” energy.
We must take responsibility for our
emotions. Take a moment to think of
an interaction — recent, or something
in the past — that you still remember
as stressful, or painful. Separate the
emotion you are experiencing from
the other person’s behaviour.
z Anger is pain from the past that
was not processed
z Fear is anticipation of pain
z Guilt is directing the pain back to
ourselves
z Depression comes from all of the
above and results in depletion of
energy.
Try to encapsulate the emotion you
feel now in one word — e.g., anger,
fear, guilt etc., Try to be aware not to
frame the emotion through words of
victimisation.
Witness the pain. Try to identify
where you are experiencing the emo-
tion in your body. Generally, pain, at
the outset, is registered in one of the
chakra areas; if it is not addressed,
the pain radiates to other areas of the
body. Having identified the emotion
and where the pain is located, take
time to quietly observe, take responsi-
bility, and define it. For example: “I am
experiencing anger, and it feels like a
choking sensation in my throat.”
Express it.
„ First, write down what happened
from your point-of-view
„ Second, write down what happened
from the other person’s point-of-view
„ Finally, imagine that you are
writing an article for your local news-
paper, and record the incident from a

18 | CW „ MAY 2007 „ VOL I ISSUE 7

Chopra, MD, Chairman and Co-
Founder of the Chopra Center for
Wellbeing, and David Simon, MD,
CEO, Medical Director, and Co-
Founder of the Chopra Center for
Wellbeing, in an intimate environment.
“Soul of Healing” also includes a
rejuvenating ayurvedic therapy [pan-
chakarma]. The Workshop is limited
to 35 attendees — to ensure a close
and personal experience.
Infinite possibilities
Wellbeing means accepting that
everything is as it is meant to be, right
now, and that each infinitesimal flicker
of time is pregnant with infinite pos-
sibilities that exist beyond time and
space.
In other words, wellbeing means
accepting ourselves as we are, and
what we are, right now — and, that,
we all possess what it takes to lead
meaningful and fulfilling lives. Put
simply, wellbeing includes the whole
of the Universe — manifest, and not
neutral point-of-view.
Share the emotion with someone
you love and/or trust — without any
problem solving. If you decide to
share the emotion with the person in-
volved in this memory, be sure to say
that you are not blaming the person.
Release. Take a piece of paper;
it can be the paper you have writ-
ten everything on. Create a ritual of
release. Rituals are important in this
process, because they are ways of
trapping emotion and, thereafter, re-
leasing it. Some people may tear the
paper into tiny pieces, and let them
fly away in the wind; others may burn
it, or some may simply “flush” it out
— so, apply whatever works for you.
Celebrate. The final step is very
important. Celebrate the release in
whatever way you feel will make you
happy.
— MARY Angela
Buddha, the Awakened One
I
n his latest novel, Buddha [HarperSanFrancisco; May
1], Deepak Chopra is in his familiar territory. He draws
insights from ancient Indian culture — one that shaped
the remarkable persona of the Buddha, and the powers of
the mind, a power that is enhanced by meditation.
Buddha portrays the natural internal conflict experi-
enced by any human seeking spiritual wisdom and trans-
formation. What makes the novel different is its narrative:
the low-key nature of the Buddha’s enlightenment. The
best part: it teaches without being “instructive.”
“Why I Wrote this Book”
By DEEPAK Chopra
Buddha is the most important man who ever
achieved enlightenment. Although we see him
as a calm, benevolent figure, the actual life
story of Buddha was tumultuous and dramatic.
I wanted to bring this mysterious figure, who
died 2,500 years ago, into the present in all his
psychological complexity. What better way to
grip the reader than to tell Buddha’s story from
PHOTOGRAPH: Jeremiah Sullivan
the inside. No other human being has lived
such a life.
The tale unfolds in three parts:
X Buddha began life as Prince Siddhartha,
who was sheltered from the world and raised
by his father to become a warrior king. The
great fear surrounding Siddhartha was that he
would discover that he had a second destiny, foretold by the court astrologers. If he
renounced being king, he would become the greatest spiritual leader in the world.
Y After 20 years of inner struggle, Siddhartha threw over everything — wife, child,
privilege, a throne — to become a wandering monk known as Gautama. Convinced that
he could achieve enlightenment only by the most extreme ascetic practices, Gautama
starved himself to the verge of dying. This section of his life confronted Buddha with
temptations and a close encounter with Mara, king of the demons.
Z Just days before what appeared to be the end of his life, Gautama was aban-
doned and alone. Suddenly, he saw the error of trying to defeat his body and mind by
force. Sitting under a huge fig tree, he achieved enlightenment in one night — a feat
unmatched in history. By sunrise he had become Buddha, the Awakened One. He was
thirty-five-years-old and ready to cause an earthquake in the spiritual life of India. The
after-shocks completely altered the course of civilisation throughout Asia.
My novel carries the reader from Buddha’s birth to the time of enlightenment. No
other book, to my knowledge, shows what it must have felt like to experience such
depths of despair and heights of ecstasy, to renounce love in favour of spiritual perfec-
tion, to contain in one body enough wisdom to change the world.
To me, that’s the essence of Buddha, and I hope an avid readership will greet his
story with the same wonder and hunger for spiritual inspiration.
Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment
Deepak Chopra
HarperSanFrancisco, US
Pp 288
Price: $24.95
CW „ MAY 2007 „ VOL I ISSUE 7 | 19
 manifest. Put simply, it encompasses all aspects of life.
Though physics confirms that the Universe is actually
in a constant state of evolution and, in a sense, intangible,
we are all endowed with the gift to experience this amaz-
ing “chimera” called life — in all its varied hues. This only
means that we are all bound together, as ever-changing
clouds of atoms, by what is called as empathy — or, what
some of us would simply call, love.
Thomas Berry, a historian of cultures, speaks of the
Universe as a communion and community, and that “we
ourselves are that communion [that] becomes conscious
of itself.”
This means, that, if we experience joy seeing the first
blossoms of Spring, the Universe also experiences this
delight with us. If we experience sorrow, the Universe also
will — because, we are all one. On the other hand, no mat-
ter how wrenching our distress may be, or how great our
exaltation — life keeps evolving. Reason: our experience is
part of a living continuum.
Great teachers like the Buddha, or Jesus, try to remind
us of the essence of our being that exists beyond pain, or
suffering, time, space, and differentiation. Though this may
not ease our occasional pain — it can help place things
in perspective. We can witness what we are experiencing
from the security of the quiet centre of our being, without
be consumed by the flux of life. When we are in Nature, or
practicing meditation, to cull a major example, we experi-
ence this healing quiet centre within us — the source of
our life. [See box, “Emotional Freedom & Wellbeing”]
Spirit activated
“Soul of Healing” is designed to equip participants with —
„ Tools for greater health
20 | CW „ MAY 2007 „ VOL I ISSUE 7
„ Awareness
„ Happiness
„ Vitality
„ Love, and a sense of purpose.
Drawing on the best principles and practices of mind-
body-spirit medicine from around the world, the Workshop
focuses its compass, in particular, on ayurveda — the
5,000-year-old healing system from India. Ayurveda means
“the wisdom of life.” It embraces the connection between
the body, mind, and spirit. In so doing, it views human be-
ings as “fields of intelligence in dynamic exchange with the
energy and information of the environment.”
The Workshop includes six major areas of focus:
1 A discussion on the multi-dimensional nature of life in
which “the body, mind, and soul are seen as inter-con-
nected aspects of one underlying field of intelligence.” It
also includes instruction in meditation with each participant
receiving their own “primordial sound” mantra to be used
during meditation
2
A discussion of the five elements that are the building
blocks of Nature: space [akasha], air [vayu], fire [tejas],
water [jala] and earth [prithvi]. This leads to the exposi-
tion of the three doshas derived from the elements: vata
[the Wind principle], pitta [the Fire principle], and kapha
[the Earth principle]. Participants were asked to fill ques-
tionnaires to determine their personal doshas, and each
received private consultation to discuss diet, exercise, and
how to balance their doshas — to develop a lifestyle that
would optimise their mental and physical wellbeing
3 “Conscious Communication.” Emotional Freedom
was an aspect of this segment — the need to become
aware of our feelings and reactions, taking responsibil-
ity for them without blaming ourselves, or others, and
processing them so that they are completely
“metabolised.” Result: there’s no accumulated
emotional toxicity which can surface as fatigue,
irritability, lack of enthusiasm, depression, emo-
tional reactivity, and cynicism
4 “Activating our own capacity to heal, and be a
source of healing by metabolising sensory experi-
ences through the five senses.” This session included
learning how to nourish the body daily with self-abhyanga
[therapy], with each participant receiving special detoxify-
ing “rubs” and facial treatments. Healing through sound,
sight [yantra meditations], and smell [aromatherapy] was
also used
5 “Conscious Diet.” This covered the typical ayurvedic
diet with emphasis on the six tastes [sweet, sour,
salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent], and how food
should be chosen and combined for each
dosha type
 Q 13 Questions:
Deepak Chopra
1 Name the four people — living or dead — you
would like most to invite to a dinner party at your
house. What would you cook?
I would invite: Buddha, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson
Mandela, Mother Teresa, George W Bush and cook
Goa fish curry for all, except for George Bush, I would
prepare a medium rare steak from Texas.
2 What do you dream about?
I dream about expanding beyond space time and cau-
sality.
3 Of the seven deadly sins [pride, envy, gluttony,
lust, anger, greed, and sloth] which one is the hard-
est for you to resist?
My personal mantra is no resistance. The easiest way to
resist a temptation is to give in to it.
4 What are you reading right now?
This questionnaire [it is very inspirational].
5 What is your favourite book of all time?
Can’t answer, it changes all the time. I most often return
to I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj.
6 Coffee or tea?
Double hazelnut latte.
6 Last, but not the least — the Workshop covered yoga-
centred restful awareness and Seven Spiritual Laws of
Yoga developed by Chopra.
Towards the conclusion of the programme, there was a
ceremony conducted by David Greenspan, a teacher. The
“seventh” point Greenspan made, in his address, was, to
me, the most meaningful. Gentleness. Because, no matter
where we are in life, whether we are beginners, teachers,
seekers, or totally unaware, we all need gentleness to nur-
ture each other — as we evolve together in this wonderful
mystery called life.
References:
1. Ageless Body, Timeless Mind. Deepak Chopra, Harmony Books,
1994.
2. Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives. Deepak Chopra & David
Simon, Three Rivers Press, 2005.
3. Journey into Healing. Deepak Chopra, Crown, 1995.
4. www.chopra.com/www.intentblog.com
5. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga. Deepak Chopra & David Simon,
Wiley [New Edition], 2005.
7 What do you consider to be your first piece of
writing?
An essay on “Time” for my junior high school magazine.
8 What were some of the challenges, or surprises,
in writing this [Buddha] book?
The biggest challenge was to take a leap from the bare
facts of Buddha’s life to a flesh-and-blood character.
The biggest surprise was how close I felt to him by the
end.
9 Do you write your first draft on the computer, or
by hand?
Combination of both. A lot of mental work precedes any
[other] work.
10 What is your favourite memory?
The birth of my two children, Gotham and Mallika.
11 If you could live in another time and place, when
and where would that be?
The best moment is always now. But, if it takes time
travel to meet one of the great Vedic sages, I’d do it.
12 Who is your oldest friend?
My late father, a quiet, loving man, and an inspiring
doctor.
13 What do you feel is the most important quality in
a person?
Lack of self-importance; a natural sense of wellbeing.
6. Focusing. E T Gendlin. Second Edition, Bantam Books, 1982.
7. At a Journal Workshop: The Basic Text and Guide for Using the
Intensive Journal Process. I Progoff, Dialogue House, 1975.
8. The Dream of the Earth. T Berry, Sierra Club Books, 1988;
Reprint, 2006.
9. The Great Work: Our Way into the Future. T Berry,
Random House, 1999.
10. Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community.
T Berry, Sierra Club Books and University of California Press,
2006.
11. Positive Health. Positive Health Publications.
12. The Universe Story. T Berry with B Swimme, HarperSanFrancisco,
1992.
13. Power, Freedom and Grace: Living from the Source of Lasting
Happiness. Deepak Chopra. Amber-Allen Publishing, Inc., 2006.
For more information on Chopra’s seminars/workshops: www.
Chopra.com
Stay Well
Rajgopal Nidamboor is Executive Editor, CW. Mary Angela lives in New York
City, US. She is currently working on a book for children about her
little bunny, Rosalinda Angelface, whose story appeared in
Complete Wellbeing [February 2007],
CW „ MAY 2007 „ VOL I ISSUE 7 | 21