Do nothing, accomplish more: Deepak Chopra - The Times of India
JAIPUR: "Did you know - 65 percent of our DNA is the same as a banana's," remarked Deepak Chopra, once a medical doctor, now the most famous spiritualist of our times.
Addressing a massive crowd of students, seekers and socialites assembled at 'The Return of the Rishi', a Jaipur Literature Festival event sponsored by the Times of India, Chopra first cut his audience down to size - and then linked it to a much larger picture.
"The universe is composed of billions of galaxies, trillions of planetary systems of which planet earth is just point one percent," he said. "Our physical bodies are made of recycled carbon and hydrogen from super-nebula, giant red stars, dying stars. Our bodies keep changing - the last time I came to India, I had the same suitcase but a different body!" Chopra added, "Only our core consciousness remains singular - this is brahman or atma."
Sporting natty jeans and wrap-around dark glasses, the modern sage kept his audience enthralled, quoting Descartes, the Bhagavad Gita, Stephen Hawking, Jawaharlal Nehru - and Nisarga Dutt Maharaj who is, as he informed listeners, "the most enlightened paan-wala in Mumbai." Each had confirmed Chopra's view. "Do as nature does - less. That way, you accomplish more. If you do nothing, you accomplish everything," he stated. "Trying hard, as Oscar Wilde said, is the last refuge of the failure."
Instead, focus on the four levels of experience - being, feeling, thinking, doing. "To experience being, let's be silent for a moment," said the guru - and a thousand people sat in a hush. "When you become aware of that silence, that's being," Chopra explained. "Feeling is love, equanimity and joy. Thinking is creative action. And doing is raj-yoga, karma-yoga, gyan-yoga."
That's all fine but what about daily stress, he was asked. "Stress happens when you look to others for your identity," Chopra answered. "My message is, just take it easy! Understand who the heck you are - how magnificent you are! Rumi said, we are the beings who came spinning out of nothing-ness, sprinkling stars like dust! We are the ones we have been looking for. When you go beyond the banality of everyday experience and see the huge, magnificent backdrop to life, you will never be stressed." And the socialites nodded, their bouffants bouncing, while the students confirmed approval through resounding applause.
