Cosmic Contact Sometimes book launches
are just inane gabfests, at other times an occasion to sip wine and look learned. The
concept turned turtle when New Age guru Deepak Chopra came home from San Diego to launch
the Hindi translation of his best-selling book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. More
than 400 packed the lawns for an hour at the India International Centre -- chilly
afternoon, no wine, no-nonsense -- for the kick-off to Safalta ke Saat Adhyathmik
Niyam (Full Circle, Rs 75). It's normally a pleasure to hear Chopra talk: smooth,
uninterrupted, full of energy that he seems to impart at will. Here, too, there was some
glimmer of that as he talked about how our experiences are "a combination of our
karma, sanskara and vaasna" and a gem about how when there is an "acceleration
of a conspiracy of improbabilities" you get a miracle.
But unexpectedly, Chopra appeared to be a little off-colour. He works best around
structured topics. Full Circle's Shekhar Malhotra asked him to just talk -- no themes.
What jarred was a Q&A session. It was a glimpse of a man who can trip like anyone else
when caught off-guard. "If my friend's karma is floating in bits and pieces in the
cosmos, and we are independent of each other, can I use her karma to influence her
life?" asked an earnest young lady. "But of course," replied Chopra.
"It has happened before. Hitler did it." People looked on politely. Chopra
recovered, and similar slips didn't seem to matter. He was mobbed for autographs and
photographs. But there was a lesson which Chopra, in his wisdom, may want to acknowledge
as irony. His father Krishan told the audience that "The language of God is
silence." Especially if one runs out of things to say.
Sometimes book launches
are just inane gabfests, at other times an occasion to sip wine and look learned. The
concept turned turtle when New Age guru Deepak Chopra came home from San Diego to launch
the Hindi translation of his best-selling book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. More
than 400 packed the lawns for an hour at the India International Centre -- chilly
afternoon, no wine, no-nonsense -- for the kick-off to Safalta ke Saat Adhyathmik
Niyam (Full Circle, Rs 75). It's normally a pleasure to hear Chopra talk: smooth,
uninterrupted, full of energy that he seems to impart at will. Here, too, there was some
glimmer of that as he talked about how our experiences are "a combination of our
karma, sanskara and vaasna" and a gem about how when there is an "acceleration
of a conspiracy of improbabilities" you get a miracle.