From Spirituality To Science: Deepak Chopra On Consciousness And Healing

In a riveting, hour-long conversation with Deepak Chopra, an author and alternative medicine advocate, the discussion shed light on the possibility of achieving mindfulness and spiritual growth in today's digital age. This exchange highlighted the potential for individuals to cultivate inner peace and connection amidst the chaos of modern life.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of the Chopra Foundation in the US, Poonacha Machaiah started by highlighting that mental health is becoming a silent epidemic, with a 40 per cent rise in cases in the last ten years. This age of technology does not allow anyone time to “stand and stare”. He introduced to the audience the new portal called digitaldeepak.ai where anyone could raise any question on mental health to Chopra, & out of his immense database of 95 books, articles, speeches, talks, and papers, answers would come through AI.

Today, according to him longevity has become a big business because no one wants to lose the vitality of youth, and everyone is scared of the deathbed. The Chopra Foundation is working with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to look at and research the genome, for wellbeing. The correlation between food, the gut, and the environment is relevant in this context. Redefining leadership through an interesting introduction to the concept of a Soulprofile is of much greater importance than the LinkedIn profile.

Chopra was a student of St. Columba’s School and then studied medicine at AIIMS. He outlined the contribution of Nehru, to create AIIMS and his focus on India’s development through the construction of factories, the introduction of technology and the creation of leading institutions of modern medicine. He had a 100-year grand vision of India leading the world.

Chopra was very emphatic about the contribution of Indians in the USA, where some of the biggest innovators in Silicon Valley are of Indian origin, and some of the best doctors in leading medical schools are Indians. His own father was Nehru’s physician in Jabalpur, when he came to inaugurate the Tata Mercedes Benz factory there, and the whole town came to welcome him.

Talking about his book Digital Dharma, why he wrote it and the connection between the two, Chopra informed that there are 125 open questions in science. While the universe is known to be made up of gravity, force fields, electromagnetism, atoms, molecules etc., it is clear to the top scientists that “70 per cent of the universe is unknowable”.

Elaborating on the constitution of the universe, Chopra outlined that 70 per cent of the universe is not atomic, 27 per cent is dark matter or a cosmological constant and hence not atomic and beyond space and time. Hence only 3 per cent of the universe is atomic, of which 99.99 per cent is planet Earth and we are a speck of dust on it. 

Expounding further on this, he said there are 2 trillion galaxies, 700 trillion stars, and 60 billion habitable planets and therefore, planet Earth which we are so proud of, is like “one gram of sand in all the deserts”.

Since the atomic universe is so minuscule, one can safely say that the universe is made of nothing. The source of the universe is infinite, and if you ask about its shape, it is full of consciousness. This can also be explained through Indian ancient texts where the source of the universe is described as Brahman, which is a superposition of infinite possibilities of experiences. “Universe is a combination of 0 and 1, and hence it is a digital workshop, infinite and outside space and time." According to Chopra, therefore, e=mc^2 should be redefined as infinity=0=1.

Digital dharma has been used as the title of the book because only digital technology can help decipher the universe. The normal language of money, economics, physics, maths or spirituality cannot explain the universe. Either it is Maa Saraswati, Goddess of Knowledge, or the large language models (LLMs) which combine every problem of language, in the last 40,000 years.

Different Revolutions
Explaining the different revolutions, Chopra stated that human civilisation has undergone four significant transformations. The first, agriculture, emerged around 12,000 years ago, followed by the scientific revolution approximately 500 years ago. The technological revolution began roughly 100 years ago, and the digital age dawned about 30 years ago.

The brain evolved 15 to 20,000 years ago,  the womb is a creation of human construct, and “Maya is the matrix of the world”. Talking about the ego, Chopra defined it as a fictional character. “All conflicts are stories of imagination”. To be separate is differentiation, and differentiation creates different cultures. The greater the diversity in education, gender, race, technology etc., the greater the number of storytellers, trying to differentiate their stories. In a telling comment, he summed up by saying “To be human is a story”.

Connecting digital to dharma, he noted that “karma is an algorithm of zero and one”. If the universe is based on mathematics, then it has befuddled the West completely. Einstein who was a realist, discussed the universe with Tagore, who convinced him that there is no your universe or my universe, but “universe is consciousness”.

From Spirituality, Geopolitics And AI
Shifting from spirituality to geopolitics, a poignant question was posed to Chopra- is there hope for the Middle East and the world amidst wars, climate change, economic disparities, and diseases? He responded with a dash of humour, pointing out the irony that despite devastating hurricanes in the US, Donald Trump has denied the existence of climate change - a stark contrast to his previous acknowledgements, suggesting a possible “cognitive decline”.

Chopra discussed the significance of human touch, which triggers chemical responses and emotions. He framed the universe as a "technical workshop" where artificial intelligence (AI) is just the beginning. According to Chopra, AI will evolve into ambient AI, augmented reality, and virtual reality – all of which are extensions of "Maya" (illusion).

On being asked about the role of AI prompts and how the right prompts can be given, Chopra explained that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was limited to five, ending at self-actualisation, but towards his end, Maslow realised the sixth need of self-transcendence. This corresponds exactly to the seven chakras that Indian shastras talk about. Hence, dharma is your best bet in life as it leads you to transcendence, and enables you to give the right prompt. The ultimate conclusion is the concept of the Indian Trinity- creator, sustainer, and destroyer of the Universe.

Chopra clarified this issue by saying, that entropy is one end, creation is the other, and maybe we are at the transition point. 

The renowned expert discussed gene transfer and disease inheritance, citing Sumant Kulkarni's research on replacing defective genes using genetic barcodes. He emphasized that 95 per cent of genes are epigenetic, with consciousness influencing expression. Notably, only 1 per cent of genes are human, while two million bacterial genes reside within us, impacting daily activities. He praised Ayurveda's holistic approach to wellness, integrating ancient wisdom with modern genetics.

Hence, longevity retreats are becoming a craze as the billionaires want to live longer and are living longer but are gripped with diseases like Alzheimer's and Dementia. There are cases of human beings living up to 120 years. Indian shastras also talk about Iccha Shakti or deciding when you want to leave your body, by going into Mahasamadhi. In a crux, Chopra highlighted that human lifestyle can edit genes, and hence, the “future of wellbeing is predictable and personalised”.

Chopra discussed stress, social media, and anxiety's impact on quality of life. Stress, he said, is a neutral perception of threats. Resistance to existence fuels it. Chopra emphasised living in every moment, not just the present. He warned of "time sickness" – accelerated internal dialogue causing physiological responses. Pausing before responding allows one to tap into universal silence and consciousness. Life, he noted, transcends mere breaths and heartbeats.

Social Media In the Present World
Chopra shared his insights on social media toxicity, particularly on Instagram. When asked about the platform's artificial nature, he candidly replied, "We're all fakes." Humans seek instant stress cures, but he suggested reevaluating seriousness. "The world is Leela, a play," he said. "Why take anything seriously and cause stress?"

Citing the serene example of infants and children playing stress-free on the seashore, Chopra emphasized the importance of play. "We've stopped playing," he noted. "Play is creative joy, and it's the solution." He advocated for a "pandemic of joy," highlighting the need for lightheartedness.

He continued, "Creativity is fundamental; seriousness is not." He described incubation as "creative play," where new stories, contexts, and meanings emerge. "The greater the diversity, the greater the shared vision of humanity." Earlier, Chopra discussed achieving wholeness as the ultimate healing. His advice? Embrace "reductionism" – let go of distractions and create anew (Avidhya).
 

Reflecting on his aspirations, Chopra expressed his desire to transcend the limitations of current science. He believes it falls short in merging "the Knower, the Knowing, and the Known." His goal is to integrate consciousness into modern capacity, bridging the gap between medieval knowledge and contemporary understanding. This, he hopes, will lay the groundwork for a complete science.

When questioned about a modern mantra for wellbeing, Chopra offered a simple yet profound answer: make a "Sankalp" (resolute intention) to integrate body, heart, mind and soul.

Money, Religion And Conflict
When asked if there exists a guiding philosophy beyond Shiva and the Bhagavad Gita, Chopra affirmed that the Gita serves as a comprehensive "manual of life." He also talked about ongoing wars worldwide, specifically, in Palestine, the devastating destruction of Gaza and Lebanon has yet to resolve the crisis, with 250 hostages still held. He attributed this stalemate to the entrenched karmic beliefs of the parties involved, rendering them impervious to logical reasoning and the devastating consequences.

Money is a human construct, with a latitude and a longitude, nothing else. On the Divinity of the soul, his counter question was “if each one is divine, what is changing”. Explaining it further, he said that the “soul is consciousness and is not in space or time”. The soul is infinite and is not affected by any manifestations. On how to survive the digital isolation, he countered, that if quality of awareness is intense, there is no stress, no need to be socially engaged, and hence no digital isolation.

Chopra advised cancer patients to harness Sanskrit's four stages: Para (eternal), Pashyanti (deep consciousness), Madhyama (intellectual translation), and Vaikhari (daily mantra). Right speech, as taught by Buddha, aids enlightenment. Cancer cells multiply by forgetting wholeness, whereas healthy cells (stomach, immune, bone, memory) regenerate while retaining functional memory. Disrupting this natural recycling process can worsen cancer.

Detailing this further, he said that a time will come when people will communicate with each other in dreams called “quantum entanglement”. Advanced yogis have been experimented with modern science to ascertain the veracity of this phenomenon. On a mundane question as to how the law of attraction operates, he gave a simple answer saying that before you sleep ask yourself what you want. When you get up see what you have got. If you sleep well, your desires will be fulfilled, citing the example of a good student sleeping well, and then performing well in the exam hall.

Chopra offered profound insights into the human experience, tackling complex questions with elegance. When asked why desires often go unfulfilled, he explained that "nature knows best" and warned that ego-centric desires can lead to distress. This wisdom highlights the importance of aligning personal aspirations with the natural order.

He also shared his daily routine for personal growth, which includes three to four hours of yoga and meditation, followed by focused work from 11 am to 5 pm. He prioritizes personal time in the evenings and observes weekend breaks, emphasizing self-valuation. This balanced approach allows him to recharge and cultivate creativity.

Regarding his success, Chopra attributed it to embracing "effortless spontaneity" and maintaining a lighthearted approach to life. He credited his spiritual growth to influential mentors, particularly Krishnamurti, who inspired him to value wisdom from all learned individuals.

To foster collective creativity and knowledge sharing, Chopra organises annual "Sages and Scientists" conferences, bringing together global thought leaders. The next conference is scheduled at AIIMS in February 2026, promising to harness innovative ideas and inspire meaningful connections.