Deepak Chopra Biography | Life | Career
BIOGRAPHY:-
Chopra was born on October 22, 1947 in New Delhi, India. The son of an eminent cardiologist, Krishnan Chopra, Deepak at first decided against following his father's career path, wanting instead to pursue a career as a journalist. Eventually, however, he became enthralled with the subject of medicine and enrolled at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in his native city.
Chopra envisioned a career in Western medicine, and in 1970 moved to the United States, leaving his home country with just $25 in his pocket and the promise of a residency at a hospital in New Jersey. Following the residency, Chopra landed in Boston, where he quickly rose to chief of medicine at New England Memorial Hospital.
Despite his rising career, Chopra became disenchanted with Western medicine and its reliance on prescription drugs. The work began to wear on the promising doctor, who would later claim that he smoked up to a pack of cigarettes a day and drank consistently. "Very unhappy people, physicians," he has said. "The relatives of patients with whom they deal are demanding, litigious, intimidating. That's the environment of medicine. Most of my fellow colleagues were very stressed; a lot of them were addicts. I used to experience the most extraordinary frustration and tightness. My great fear was getting into trouble. Malpractice suits are a big deal in the United States."
It's during this time that Chopra read a book on transcendental medicine that changed his life, and eventually his career path. As his interest in alternative medicine deepened, so did his view on the limits of Western medicine.
After a meeting with transcendental mediation guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Chopra quit his job at New England Memorial Hospital and started the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Products International, a company that specialized in alternative products, like herbal teas and oils. Co-founded with the Maharishi, the company successfully launched Chopra into the world of alternative medicine. Chopra helped oversee the creation of several affiliated clinics and, he became well-known among celebrities including Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and fashion designer Donna Karan.
Childhood & Early Life:-
Deepak Chopra was born on October 22, 1946, in New Delhi, India, to Krishan Lal Chopra and Pushpa Chopra. His paternal grandfather was a sergeant in the British Indian Army, and his father was a prominent cardiologist, who has also served the British army as an army doctor, and was a medical adviser to Lord Mountbatten, viceroy of India. Chopra's younger brother, Sanjiv Chopra, is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
He received his primary education at New Delhi’s St. Columba's School. In 1969, he graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. He wanted to study endocrinology, as he desired to understand neuroendocrinology, and find a biological foundation for the influence of thoughts and emotions on physical health.
In 1970, he immigrated to the US where he completed residencies in internal medicine and endocrinology. As the Indian government had banned its doctors from sitting for the American Medical Association exam, he went to Sri Lanka to take it. After passing the exam, he travelled to the US to take up a clinical internship at Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey.
From 1971 to 1977, he completed residencies in internal medicine at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington in Massachusetts, VA Medical Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and St Elizabeth's Medical Center.
Further Reading on Deepak Chopra:-
Chopra, Deepak, Return of the Rishi, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988.
Austin American-Statesman, May 21, 1999.
Business Daily, December 2, 1998.
Chicago Tribune, September 13, 1995.
Deseret News, February 15, 1996.
Esquire, October 1, 1995.
India Today Plus, March 1, 1996.
Los Angeles Times, September 7, 1997; November 1, 1998.
Newsweek, October 20, 1997.
Palm Beach Post, April 7, 1998.
San Diego Business Journal, October 20, 1997.
Time, June 24, 1996.
Times of London, August 11, 1999.
Toastmaster, March, 1997.
Practiced Medicine in the United States:-
Chopra spent his first six months after completing medical school treating rural villagers in India. In 1970, at the age of 23, he came to the United States with his new wife, Rita. Chopra served as an intern for $200 a month at a 400-bed hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey. The hospital needed replacements for staff members who had been sent to Vietnam. His first duty as a doctor in the U.S. was to declare a patient dead. As he shared in Return of the Rishi, he soon learned that being a doctor had "little to do with healing and making people happy.
Three years later, Chopra was board-certified in internal medicine and endocrinology, serving as a teaching and research fellow in endocrinology at a hospital affiliated with Tufts University. He worked in Boston-area hospitals, later spending a year in Everett, Massachusetts. In 1980, Chopra went to New England Memorial Hospital, where he was named chief-of-staff by the age of 3
Smoking too many cigarettes and drinking too much coffee and alcohol in an effort to relieve the stress of his busy life, Chopra decided that he had to make a change. He turned to his philosophical interests, reading a book on transcendental meditation (TM). The practice of TM helped him quit drinking, quit smoking, and unwin
Two Life-Changing Meetin:-
In 1981, while on a trip to New Delhi, a friend took him to see a master Ayurvedic physician, Brihaspati Dev Triguna. Ayurveda is a Sanskrit word meaning "science of life," and focuses on balancing the flow of energy in the body. Triguna advised him to spend more time with his family and to take more time to sit quietly, among other things. The ancient wisdom of the Indian sages, or rishis, provided the basis for Chopra's new path. His visit to Triguna and its benefits to his own life, sparked his interest in pursuing an Ayurvedic approach to medicine
In 1985, Chopra met the founder of the TM movement, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in Washington, D.C. The Maharishi, once a regular guest on the Tonight Show and spiritual advisor to the Beatles, had been promoting Ayurvedic medicine and marketing products for it. Chopra and his wife were invited by a colleague at Harvard to attend a lecture given by the Maharish
After listening for several hours, the Chopras discreetly got up and walked into the lobby. Moments later, the Maharishi approached them, handing each a flower. He asked them to come up to his room. The two hesitated, knowing they would miss the last flight to Boston that night, but went anyway. They talked for two hours. "Maharishi did not lay out the details of Ayurveda for us that night, but he made the theme vividly clear. Health and disease are connected like variations on one melody. But disease is a wrong variation, a distortion of the theme," Chopra recalled in Return of the Rish.
Opportunities in California:-
In 1993, Chopra decided to go into business for himself, leaving the Maharishi's company. Of his break with the Maharishi, he told Brown in 1995, "Maharishi more or less told me I should stop writing books and doing workshops. I should either stay with him and join him in proselytizing, or leave." Chopra decided the time was right for a change. He and his wife and children, daughter Mallika, and son Gautama, left for La Jolla, California.
Chopra went to work for Sharp Health Care in San Diego County. The Sharp Institute for Human Potential and Mind-Body Medicine was opened, with Chopra as its executive director. A $30,000 grant from the Office of Alternative Medicine in the National Institutes of Health helped fund a study of the impact of Ayurvedic methods in controlling blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, and stress. Chopra's plan for a book proving the efficacy of Ayurvedic methods was postponed, however. Having undergone a change in ownership in 1996, Sharp ended its association with Chopra and the Institute. Not long after, Chopra opened the Chopra Center of Well Being, a 14,000-square-foot facility on Fay Avenue in downtown La Jolla.
Chopra never applied for a California medical license. He wanted to be free to teach and write, among other things, so he quit using "M.D." at the end of his name and started writing fiction. Chopra explored Celtic folklore in The Return of Merlin. He set up companies that would manage his seminars, media, and television appearances, as well as produce and sell Ayurvedic products. Chopra also set up a cable television station, the Global Healing Channel. He now has a multimedia company with six subsidiaries and over 100 employees called Infinite Possibilities International.
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