Tuesday, November 4, 1997
Selling out on spirituality
SPIRITUALITY Growing popularity of Chopra’s healing
business should put people on the defensive
Good afternoon, UCLA!!! At this point in time, what are students
doing? Probably dealing with the stress and frustrations that are
known as midterms. Outside of the disease called procrastination,
each of us is probably blaming ourselves for either going out too
much or just not studying enough. Additionally, some of us
(including myself) are praying (rather begging and pleading) for
any higher power or being to acknowledge our need for salvation and
an A on all our tests.
As for the rest of the country, their cries for help have come
in the form of a 50-year-old Indian man named Deepak Chopra. His
specialty lies in the realm of spirituality. At a time when society
craves an immediate answer to all of its needs, Chopra comes armed
as a guru with a positive outlook and a multitude of
possibilities.
Is there no end to what we would buy or sell? By paying a man to
enlighten our inner spirits and calm all of our sorrows, are we
putting our spirituality up for sale?
Chopra is not your average person. In addition to being a
doctor, he is an author, lecturer and endocrinologist. Or as
Newsweek plainly puts it, "by his own metaphysical lexicon, a
manifestation of our collective consciousness." Very high praise to
lavish upon an individual. He combines the healing sciences with
Eastern philosophy, making him an attractive prospect for the
rising number of people devoted to the New Age perspective. For
those who have become disenfranchised with both mainstream religion
and medicine, he is the solution to everyone’s problems. Since he
is in great demand, why should he not be paid for rendering his
services?
Presently, Chopra seems to be doing very well as an
entrepreneur. At last count, he has sold more than 10 million books
in 30 languages. This is only the beginning. He has a two-album
deal with Tommy Boy records, herbal products, lectures around the
world, seminars and even a movie script. His enterprises bring in
about $15 million a year! His fee for each of the 50 lectures he
gives per year go for the rate of about $25,000 a pop. Ten percent
of this goes toward charity. Also, he has a center in La Jolla,
called the Chopra Center for Well Being, where patients with
various illnesses get massages and aromatherapy, plus food, for up
to $2,750 a week. Not bad for a man instructing others in matters
of the soul.
Through the use of Chopra’s guidance and regular meditation, he
believes that people can live up to age 120, lower their blood
pressure, stabilize their weight and fend off stress-related
illnesses. On the more appealing hand, he writes that "when your
actions are motivated by love," it is possible to create anything
you desire – even unlimited wealth. To top it off, Chopra’s belief
has no definition of right or wrong and has a lack of specific
guidelines or laws.
Unlike mainstream religion, Chopra’s teachings have very few
inconveniences. By taking away the fear of punishment or wrath of
God, Chopra allows people to venture for the goal of spiritual
awareness – without negative results. And with the likes of Donna
Karan, Demi Moore, Mikhail Gorbachev and Prince Charles following
this belief, he has the attention of many. While he does have his
critics and many who have tried to sue him, he fights back and wins
his battles.
For some of us, maybe these well-known gurus are an intriguing
prospect. However, the majority of the population believes this New
Age stuff to be a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.
I myself am a great skeptic, but one unique experience last
November changed all of that. In professional courtesy and out of
respect for this "being," I am unable to give explicit details
about the occasion, but it presented issues that I had to face and
conquer. Consequently, it really got me thinking about the nature
of my entire life and the coming future.
It is not hard to see why a guru would be appealing to the
consumer population. They tell us that we are wonderful human
beings and that we are immortal. Basically, they lead by the gift
of flattery. Oprah Winfrey, herself, said that gurus are here "not
to teach us about their divinity but to teach us about our
own."
Gurus offer people the chance to lead others into the next
century by becoming followers of their respective teachings. To
help push us along, they renounce any desire to lead or be an
authority figure. They get paid, in good faith, to aid us in
reaching the goal of attaining all our hopes and dreams.
Gurus are the symbolic form of a drug. We take a pill to relieve
our pain and hope that it will always make us feel better. When
dealing with such abstract concepts as spirituality, the common man
or woman does not have a sufficient background to question an
expert’s philosophy. It is up to the instructors to be responsible
for their teachings and not abuse them for particular gain.
Unfortunately, this is often the case.
Our skepticism can easily be attributed to fear, defensiveness
and an unbending belief in hard, cold fact over emotions and
feelings.
Spirituality is supposed to be a matter of the heart, not the
head. The path to their way is not hard to obtain and does not
require a lifetime of determination, discipline and education. All
it requires is attendance of their lectures and workshops and the
purchase of their products. (Remember: They want you to think that
they are doing this completely for your benefit.)
When a society no longer believes in the government, the country
or itself, abandoning logic and reasoning for spiritual growth does
not seem like much of a sacrifice. It can be perceived as rather an
inviting alternative. Pop gurus feed off of our own personal
discomfort and fear of facing ourselves.
Our spirituality or inner-self is what makes us who and what we
are. It is part of the reason why we step on to the basketball
court; it contributes to why we strive to succeed and make a name
for ourselves; it is what pushes someone along quietly to go up to
the girl he has been admiring. When you take away these things and
place them in the palms of a guru, you are taking away the driving
force in your life.
Understandably, this article is very, very hard to swallow and
is confusing. Personally, abstract concepts like spirituality
cannot be defined or understood solely from a lone article. This is
something that is still not accepted by society, or myself (more or
less), because we are too busy trying to make sense out of the
chaos that is our world. Surviving just to reach the next level of
education or business is our main concern.
It is a difficult task to give ourselves, each day, a reason to
wake up in the morning and to face every trial and challenge.
(Otherwise, we would always go to class. Not in this lifetime,
though!) I by no means am trying to pass judgment on matters of the
heart, because I do not have enough experience with such matters.
All I am trying to do is to remind people to not put their faith,
hopes and dreams in the hands of someone who makes everything
simple.
The old adage, "If it’s too good to be true, then it probably
is," fits in quite neatly with this commentary. In the end, I say,
trust yourself, and do what you know is right. Until then, just
live life.