Prologue

On September 22nd, 2007, over 6-hundred people paid 2-hundred- thousand US dollars to listen to Dr. Deepak Chopra (Indian Healing Guru) in Tokyo. And 3-thousand people, followed by another 2-thousand were waiting for him in Wellington (New Zealand) and Sydney (Australia) on 24th and 25th September. Collectively, they were to pay about 2 million USD—yes US $ 2,000,000! This whirlwind world tour was to end after 3-4 such lectures in European capitals!! Revenue involved was to the tune of about 4 million USD. Interesting!

***

On 19th September, one of my colleague at NHK said to me: “Mr. Singh, have you heard of Dr. Deepak Chopra? “Yes.” said I. “He is in the town for a lecture. Are you interested? “, she said. (I had heard people paying $ 1000 to attend his lectures.) “How much is the ticket?” I said. She said: “35000 yen.” (400 USD or Rs. 18,000). I said (laughingly) “Had it been  500 yen I could have… ” She got back to me the next day, “It is free for Mr. Singh and me.” And, after another half an hour she whispered in my ear (lest others hear): “We have been invited for dinner with him.” As I was curious to know what this man had to say, I agreed to my participation.

***

The man appeared on the stage decorated with huge vase filled with roses and other flowers. He spoke for about 4 hours between 13:00 Hrs. and 17:30 Hrs. with a 15-minutes break. Indian philosophies, Indian religions, Buddhism, Sufism, science, medicine, psychology, myth, literature and common sense (every thing in “Made Easy” style) were the silken threads to the rope of his main argument. One after the other, these threads silently disappeared, paving way for the others. Everything was intelligible to the people with average intelligence. Personally, I was familiar with about 80 percent of the sources that he used. In fact, I was aware of—more or less—most of his sources, except the names of three-four best sellers, a few scientific terms and a very interesting ‘fact’, if it is really true. I would like to elaborate on this ‘fact’ in a little detail: “The air that we inhale (without even noticing that we are inhaling), circulates three times our immediate atmosphere in 15 days. To put it in other words, the same tiny mass of air that I inhaled just now at 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday at my office, will be inhaled by a tree in Africa, a fish in the Atlantic Ocean, a penguin in Australia, a Lama in Tibet and a Siberian frog in hibernation, a Sea gull in Chile–three times before the next to next Wednesday!”

***

The dinner was to begin at 18:30. I, along with my colleague and her friend reached a posh hotel in the heart of Tokyo around 18:00. Sat in a cafeteria near the entrance and ordered tea. I said to my colleague, “How many people—in total—are coming for the dinner?” “What do you mean?, the ladies said in unison. I repeated my question. They said: “No one, but three of us!” I had thought that there must be 40-50 people — the organizers, the Dr.’s entourage, his local friends and so on. The ladies said: “Our worry is what to talk with him! How should we begin the conversation?”

***

At 18:30 Hrs., we reached a special, very private cubicle–at one corner of the hotel. The man with his Japanese secretary entered the cubicle around 18:40 Hrs. Seating arrangement was such that I had to sit facing him. His secretary faced my colleague and her friend. We exchanged pleasantries. I said: “You must be very tired after such a long lecture.” “No, no” said he. I said: “The best I liked about your lecture was that there was no repetition of words or concepts; and on top of that, there was no—not even a single— fumbling during the course of your marathon lecture! Marvellous!!” I continued: “We give voice-overs for TV programs for a few seconds or read news for 10 minutes (read— it is not extempore) for a few minutes, and end up fumbling 3-4 times.” He was humble, simply saying: “No No…”
I praised his charming secretary by saying: “Your simultaneous interpretation was excellent.”—which indeed was.

***

Having a look at my visiting card, he said: “So you are making a TV series on the Buddha!” “Yes. By the way, what about your project on the Buddha movie?” said I. He said: “There was some problem about the rights of my book on the Buddha…” He said: “Who are the people with you?” I said: “A Buddhist foundation has sponsored the research. And a well known film director from Mumbai is with us. If everything goes well, we will have it on some Indian channel.” I said: “I have been working on this project since 2004. When I learnt the same year that Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh (the Trinity of Holy Ghost, the Christ and God) are making the Buddha–I mean Shekhar Kapur (the director of The Elizabeth fame), B.K. Modi, (The Buddhist and Hollywood man, the financier) and Deepak Chopra (the writer) plus Richard Gere (the actor), I had said to myself ‘what will happen to the poor earthling called Gurbakhsh Singh’. But I never stopped my work and I am on it–working towards it.” He said: “I will give you my book on the Buddha, which, originally, was to become the script of the movie ‘Buddha’, and is just released.” I said: “Thank you very much. But I do not read others’ stuff until I am ready with my own–based on the Pali, Sanskrit and Tibetan texts.” He said: “Good that should be the approach. Anyway I will give the book to you.” I said, “Your lecture was good. But, I would recommend you to read ‘The Tractatus’, ‘The Investigations’, ‘ The Interpretations’ and the ‘Principle of Expressibility’ by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Donald Davidson and John Searle. He said: “I know these philosophers, but haven’t read their works.” I promised I would send him these books. I told him I was not happy with his comparison of Physical body, Radiant body and Causal body (as found in the Hindu scriptures) with the Buddhist division of Sambhoga kaya, Nirmana Kaya and Dharma Kaya. He tried to defend. I was not convinced and changed the topic.
I asked if he sees movies. He said: “Very rarely”. I said there is a very good movie, Dharm, about a karmakandi (person who believes in rituals) Brahmin. It is a must watch. See it if you get time. I said, if I get hold of a copy of the movie, will send it to him. He asked many questions about me and Japan. One after the other! When did I come to Japan? What did I study, Om Shinrikyo, state of religion in Japan, and so on.
About myself I told him that I did nothing but study till I was 39. I also said to him: “I had never thought that I would have a chance like this.” Interesting, most of the time we talked in Hindi and Punjabi! Only academic things were talked in English. By now, the other ladies were utterly bored. The ladies who, originally, were at a loss to know what to ask and what to tell! I allowed them to speak and began enjoying my pure vegetarian dinner–the Hotel had specially made for me. After a group photograph that the ladies had asked for, I said: “Chopra Sahib, you must be tired by now. And tomorrow you are to go to New Zealand, please go and take rest.” He agreed and left, saying: “I will send my “Buddha” to you in a few moments.” “With your signature please!”, said I. That he did and his secretary delivered. It was a very good experience—a very good 2-hour interaction.

Epilogue

Deepak Chopra, indeed, is one of the leading Indian spiritualists. A wonderful personality, kind, caring, and different!

The difference are bound to remain if we do not come out of nationalistic mindset.

I will discuss more on this issue in the days to come.

Before Thailand, I have visited 3 other Asian nations, namely, Nepal, South Korea and Bangladesh.

I also plan to visit Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Laos, China in the near future.

Here, I am going to mention one of my ‘questions.’

Mysticism—the methodology to experience God, the Absolute or Reality—is one of the main issues of religious inquiry.

My first question is: What is “it” that experiences?

Next: Shall I be able to ask the question, —’what is ‘it’ that experiences?—if I am not proficient in a language?

Will this ‘it’ be conscious of ‘itself’ when it will “merge”—the religious jargon to describe the soul’s merger with the Absolute—with God?

Don’t you think that the meaning of our ‘questions’ is clear to us and to others only after they (questions) are clothed in language? If so, the question is: Can ‘it’ understand ‘its’ experience of God without language?

More questions will follow in the next posts.