Who: India-born, California-based Deepak Chopra is a surgeon-turnedmind and body healing pioneer.
You know him as: The author of over 64 books on spirituality, consciousness and emotional wellness. For over two decades, Chopra has worked on "bridging the technological miracles of the West with the wisdom of the East". He's famous for playing spiritual guide to US chat show host Oprah Winfrey and the late 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson.
When someone says, 'God', what does that mean to you?
The source and essence of all things. The cosmic mind that oversees our life. The love that passes understanding.
Where can we find God?
In the same place as 2,000 years ago - within us.
What's the evidence that God exists?
The evidence lies in the fact that we are aware of reality. This awareness must come from somewhere. We only need to deepen it, and then awareness reveals God. Any appreciation of love, beauty, or truth is like a thread leading back to the source.
What would you say to atheists?
Disbelief doesn't harm God or change reality. So, atheism is like a way station for anyone discouraged, grieving, exhausted, angry or disillusioned. Beyond the way station, the path of self-awareness continues to unfold.
In India, religion and spirituality are synonymous. Is it possible to be spiritual without being religious?
I just watched an American TV thriller set in a prison where a convict tells the warden that he is spiritual but not religious. The warden asks him to explain, and says, "You can speak your mind." The convict replies, "Spirituality is for those seeking understanding. Religion is for those seeking reward."
Have there been moments when you have felt touched by God?
I look for moments when I feel I've gone beyond myself. I might be in a plane looking out of the window at the clouds, and suddenly my awareness feels expanded, as if I am myself and yet more than myself. Such moments, which belong to everyone's life, touch the essence of God. But it's also part of the divine to remain elusive, showing itself and just as quickly returning inside itself.
Have you ever had a guru?
Like many Indians of my generation, I had mixed feelings about gurus. They seemed at once holy and self-serving, selfless and selfish, aloof and intrusive. After some years, I realised that a guru isn't like a faucet you can turn on when you want a sip of God. Gurus are like mirrors in which to view your deeper self. The world constantly throws back at us an image of who we really are. Therefore, I am a devotee of upaguru - the teacher who is close to you. Any experience, any voice, any passing incident that lifts a bit of darkness serves as upaguru.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life--style/spirituality/god--i/Spiritual-lesson-from-a-convict/articleshow/12401559.cms?intenttarget=no
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