Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra First make sure you are, as an individual, a living example of what you preach, that your living is holistic, clean and wholesome and that you nurture love and compassion in your life. If you can do that you've made a major contribution to the world. The second step is to do it with your family. The third is to have an organization such as Common Ground magazine. The fourth is to have strategic alliances between these organizations.

At the Chopra Centre we strongly believe in strategic alliances with people in the media, the entertainment industry, the information technology information and people in education who are holistically minded. With strategic alliances and networks to exchange information through websites and so forth, the hope is one day we'll reach a critical mass. Calvin Klein knows this with his underwear. Marlborough cigarettes know this. Why can't we do it?

C.G. What is your primary focus right now?

D.C. Leadership. I'm doing work on something called “The Soul of Leadership.” I've started introducing it at business schools, at Harvard, at Kellogg Business School and I'm also offering it to politicians and heads of state from different parts of the world. So far, I have had interest only from the heads of states of small countries, but that's good enough for me.
A leader represents the symbolic soul of a community in which he or she lives. The time has come when leadership has to be based on spirituality. All you have to do is look at the news to see that leadership right now is belligerence vs. belligerence.

C.G. What do you think about bombing for peace?

D.C. I think it's absolutely ridiculous. We'll kill thousands of people and call it collateral damage and give medals to those who do it. Murder on a mass scale is rewarded with medals. It might be risky to say this, but I personally do not believe in nationalism or patriotism. I think nationalism is a sophisticated form of tribalism. Einstein once said that nationalism is an infantile disease, “the measles of humanity.” Erich Fromm said that nationalism is a form of incest and idolatry and that patriotism is its cult.
I believe the time has come when we must think of ourselves as a global humanity and a much grander scheme in the cosmology of the universe. The way we have created religion is also divisive and quarrelsome. It's idiotic.

C.G. John Lennon said to imagine no countries and no religion.

D.C. I think the time is coming when we have to embrace that.

C.G. What can you and I do to stop the bombing of Iraq?

D.C. The only way is to create a critical mass. Actually I have already created a Strategic Alliance for Peace and the Betterment of Humanity. Many Nobel Prize winners in peace have joined it. Heads of state are joining. It's mostly from small countries right now, but my vision is if this kind of thing takes off and if even five to ten percent of people say, “We won't have it, we don't want it,” it won't happen. It takes a critical mass of people who have a certain intention. Our intentions are a part of the universe. They're a part of the total consciousness of which we are a part. There is no other way.

Deepak Chopra’s web site, has an opportunity for visitors to join Namaste, an e-mail community where registrants receive messages from Deepak Chopra. You can also contact the Chopra Center at 760-931-7566.