Indian born Deepak Chopra has earned fame as a great physician in
the field of alternative m

edicine
in the US. Dr. Chopra serves as the Director of Education at the Chopra Center,
which offers training programs in mind body medicine. He has established a new
life giving pattern which has a crucial connection between mind, body,
spirit and healing. Chopra is also known as the prolific author of more
than 35 books, 100 audio, video and CD-ROM titles, which have been translated
into 35 languages with over 20 million copies sold worldwide.
Born in Delhi, India in the year 1947, Chopra was raised in
a family infused with both Western Medicine and Traditional Hindu beliefs and
practices. His father, Krishnan Chopra was a prominent cardiologist who served
as the dean of a local hospital and a lieutenant in the British army and his
grandfather was an Ayurveda
( Indian Medicine) practitioner.
Following his father's career in medicine, Chopra graduated from
the All India Institute of Medical Science in 1968. He went to United States
in 1970 to serve an internship at a hospital in New Jersey. He got further training
at the Lahey Clinic and University of Virginia Hospital. In the early
1980s, he became the Chief of staff at New England Memorial Hospital and later
the Chief at Boston Regional Medical Center and he also taught at Tufts University
and Boston University Schools of Medicine. Meanwhile Dr. Chopra built
a successful endocrinology practice in Boston.
In 1981, a turning point occurred in Chopra's life when he met
Dr. Brihaspati Dev Triguna, a famous Ayurvedic physician at New Delhi, who advised
him to meditate. At first, he didn't give it much thought but eventually he
was impressed by the sizable amount of research that proves that Transcendental
Meditation (TM) reduces stress. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chopra
became a dedicated champion of TM thought and practice. In 1985 he met Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi, who invited Chopra to study Ayurveda. That year Chopra became the
president of the American Association for Ayurvedic Medicine. He was later named
medical director of the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center for Stress Management
and Behavioral Medicine.
In 1991, the Journal of the American Medical Association published
an article by Chopra, Triguna and Hari Sharma, "Letter From New Delhi:
Maharishi Ayur-Veda: Modern Insights Into Ancient Medicine." which
faced a lot of criticism regarding the Hindu belief in yogic flying, and the
basis of Chopra's Ayurveda in Transcendental Meditation.
In 1992, he served on the National Institutes of Health Ad Hoc
Panel on Alternative Medicine. He Published his famous work, 'Ageless Body,
Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old' in 1993, which
sold 130,000 copies in one day. In the same year, Chopra and family moved to
La Jolla, Canada. He soon became the executive director of the Sharp Institute
for Human Potential and Mind–Body Medicine with a $30,000 grant from the Office
of Alternative Medicine in the National Institutes to study Ayurvedic medicine.
His vision to establish a medical system based upon the premise
that health is a lively state of balance and integration of body, mind, and
spirit led him to open the Chopra Centre for well being in California in 1995.
Through this Center, Chopra is trying to expand his healing approach using the
integration of the best of western medicine with natural healing traditions.
The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has granted continuing
medical education credits for this program, which satisfies requirements for
the American Medical Association Physician’s Recognition Award. With charismatic
presentation and astute marketing, Chopra has made the ancient sciences of Ayurveda,
yoga and meditation user-friendly to the American mainstream.
Deepak Chopra's popularity as an international presenter and keynote
speaker is exemplified in an impressive list of honorariums. Esquire Magazine
designated him as one of the top ten motivational speakers in the country; and
in 1995, he received the Toastmasters International Top Five Outstanding
Speakers award, earlier received by President Nelson Mandela, Congresswoman
Barbara Jordan, Tom Peters and Garrison Keillor . He is the recipient
of the Einstein Award through Albert Einstein College of Medicine in collaboration
with the American Journal of Psychotherapy.
Chopra married wife Rita more than thirty years ago when he
was just finishing medical school. Rita is now supervising the staff
at the Chopra center for Well Being in La Jolla. They live in San Diego and
have two kids, Gautam and Mallika . Mallika and son - in- law Sumant are both
students in business school at Kellogg while son Gautam host Talk shows in
Channel 1 TV.
Contact address
The Chopra Center at La Costa Resort & Spa
2013 Costa del Mar Rd.
Carlsbad, CA 92009
Phone 760.494.1600| Toll Free 888.424.6772|
Fax 760.494.1608