What is the truth about life you wish more people understood? Stop looking for validation and you'll be happy. You're drinking, smoking, stressed in the hospital. That's very similar to how a lot of people live right now. I was no longer that drinking buddy. And so I lost a lot of friends. You can have everything you want. Money, health, good relationships, but if you don't have joy, you waste in your life. Oh my god. In this video, I'm speaking with Deepac Chopra, one of the world's most influential spiritual leaders. After suffering from long and brutal hospital days that often ended in smoking and drinking in his 30s, Deepak began meditating and focusing on a more holistic approach to stress. And since then, he's taken off, writing more than 95 books, selling millions of copies worldwide, and making over a thousand appearances on talk shows. Now, in this conversation, you are going to learn from a man with more than 50 years of mindfulness practice and experience about how to be less stressed, live a lighter life, and generally be happier. Things I think all of us need a little bit more of today. How old are you? What do you mean? Biologically, psychologically, spiritually, or chronologically? Uh, which one? Biologically? Biologically, I think I'm 35. Chronologically, I'm 78 plus. What does it feel like to be 78? Feels like I'm approaching middle age. I see a lot of middle-aged people having a second rejuvenation. So, when they're at 50, they reinvent themselves. I'm finding myself at that stage right now in the sense that I'm getting rid of the notion that I'm a human being. And who are you now or what are you becoming? I'm the awareness in which a human being is a process, a verb. So I'm not a verb. I'm the awareness in which that verb is being experienced. Where do you think most people go wrong in the process of getting older and living a great life? Cuz I know there's a lot of unhappy people these days. They are bamboozled by the hypnosis of social conditioning. They recycle old stories and those stories have been recycled since medieval times and they're totally irrelevant. They have nothing to do with ultimate reality. What's like the most common story that people are telling themselves or being told you shouldn't be doing this at your age? No, that's a big one. I interviewed a 105year-old a month ago and she said when you're 55 you're so young you have your whole life ahead of you. I agree. Imagine the amount of 55year-olds they think life is over at 55. Yeah. We need to be compassionate to them. For people who I mean this is going to be not that many people but for people who don't know you, they're seeing you for the first time. What do we need to know and understand about your childhood, the way that you grew up in order to understand who you are today? Actually, I don't know who I am either. So if people don't know who I am, I'm still deciding what I'll do when I grow up. But um my training is in medicine, neuroindocrinology, neuroscience, immunology, internal medicine, integrative medicine, health, healing, spirituality. Those are my hobbies. But as far as who I am, I think I'm the infinite having a local experience. We are all the infinite having a finite experience. Were you close with your parents? Very close. What is a piece of advice that your parents gave to you when you were younger that you still remember and still hold close to you today? Make your life a love story. But you didn't always do that. I when I came to the United States, there was a lot of stress and I kind of forgot. Came with $8. An uncle of mine lent me $100. $108 is very mythically auspicious number in Indian mythology. So I went to Paris and I spent it all in one night at the Mular Rouge. So when I came to the United States, I had no money and that was a very good adventure that start from zero. Oh my god. What was that like to build yourself up from zero? In that moment, it was stressful. But as I honed in on my surgical skills, I became like a bloodthirsty viper in the emergency room waiting for the next trauma patient so I could practice my surgical skills. The version of you today is must have been very different from the version of you in the hospital. I mean, I was reading total meditation and the way you describe your life, you're drinking, smoking, stressed in the hospital. That's very similar to how a lot of people live right now. It seems very different from how you live today. Can you walk me through that time? And was there a breaking point when you're like, I think I need to change. This is too much. Yeah, I wanted to fit in. So, you know, those days as residents and doctors, we would advertise cigarettes in medical journals. Mhm. Lucky strike is better than mulro because you get it without a filter. The pivotal moment was when I put a pacemaker in a heart patient and put him on an intubator and put him in the ICU and walked out of the hospital to smoke a cigarette. That was a moment of insight and said threw my cigarette away, gave up alcohol. Wow. In that one moment. In that one moment. Then I got into some meditation, self-reflection, integrative medicine. When you see those versions of yourself around, like I'm sure you walk around New York, you walk around anywhere, you can see all these people are so stressed out. What do you think that they're not understanding about life? If they understood it, maybe it would make them happier, lighter, and feel less stressed. Well, the first thought that comes to me is where you are, I was, and where I am, you could be. People don't think about that, though. Maybe they don't realize how similar you were to them. That's How do you recommend people get started? Not from like a technical standpoint, but let's say I'm lost in life and I'm trying to figure my life out. I 5 minutes of silence, do nothing and see what happens. God's language is silence. Everything else is poor translation. And this could be anytime, anywhere. anytime in the bus, in the train, in the airplane, 42nd Street, Broadway, Time Square, those are the best opportunities. Really? So, you do that? You could do that. Yeah. When you started getting into meditation really and when you stopped smoking, you stopped drinking. Did you know that you were going to get to the point that you're at today? No. What was your vision or your intention at that time? Intention always was healing. Healing my patients, healing myself. What were you healing from? The trauma of the world. The trauma of the world because you have seen it so much in the hospital. Yeah, but you see it in the news every day, but you see it on social media. Everything from bullying to war to terrorism to racism to hatred to bigotry. We're recycling trauma since the Middle Ages. Now with modern capacities, we're risking extinction. What do you think people thought about you at that time when you started to meditate? I mean, you're in this hospital full of people working and then you decide, I'm going to make a change. What did your friends think? Your co-workers. So, my co-workers were upset because I was no longer their drinking buddy. So, I lost a lot of friends. But, you know, I didn't care. What was the release of that? Cuz I've spoken, like I said earlier, 1,200 people. And the thing people tend to hold on to the most, this is from all my answers, they tend to hold on too much to what others think of them. and it prevents them from taking action, getting started, doing what they love. What was the release for you there? Well, the release was that people confuse self-esteem with self-worth. Self-esteem has nothing to do with what people think of you. Selfimage is what worries about uh what people think of you. So, when you get to true self-esteem, then you're independent of the good and bad opinions of others. You feel beneath no one and you become fearless and that's a very independent state to be in. Is that all through inner stillness and meditation practices or what would you say were the practices that you did or that you continue to do to get there? It was mostly through reflective inquiry. Who am I? And what do I really want and what is my purpose in life? Some of the most fundamental questions we have is like what you just said. I think if you figure out who you are, what you want, and you know how to get what you want, you're set in life. But I'm still trying to figure it out. It's an everlasting question. But I mean, you've definitely you've definitely evolution is a neverending horizon. When you get to the horizon, there's the next one. Do you think people have the answers? They just maybe are stored in the back of their mind or do you think we have to find the answers somewhere? You don't need the answers. is you just need to live the questions which is what I do and then life moves you to the answers either through a situation circumstance event relationship but when you get there you realize that that's not the final answer the answer is never ending horizon and at that time you also realize that the point of arrival is always now I'm trying to think of the person who's listening or watching this is going ah my life it's not bad it could be it could be better how does that person take the first step enjoy the process and not worry about the outcome. So if you ask yourself, am I enjoying what I'm doing right now? Is it making a difference? It is helping me. It is helping others. That's all that counts. Don't worry about the end point because when you get to the end point, there'll be many other end points. So if you're not enjoying the journey, if you're not enjoying what's happening right now, when you get to where you want to get, you won't enjoy that either. I totally understand that. I think there's focusing on being successful, there's focusing on being happy. I don't think they're the same. You got to put effort in both. Happiness the most natural state of our beat. Don't have to put any effort into it. Stop looking for validation and you'll be happy. What is something that when you were younger, you're 78. What is something that you put a lot of importance on when you were younger and as you got older you realized wasn't worth worrying about? exacting plans, driving ambition, hard work, discipline, which all I believe are the last refuge of failure. You don't believe in that the same way now? Not at all. I trust in the universe unfolding through me. Is it fair to think that way when you're my age? Let's say I'm 26. Is it fair to have that same mentality as well? Or is that something that you acquire or accept once you've achieved the successes that you have? Well, if you're 26, you're doing way better than I was when I was your age. Way better. The fact that you asked these questions, that you're aware of this, I didn't give a I've been journaling for 10 years and that was my breaking out. Yeah. I know. So, you're way ahead. And I think if you don't know who you are and what you want, uh, you'll never break free. Yeah. This congratulations. So, as I said, every generation recycles some of the old but also hopefully improves it. Yeah. Thank you. What is um a truth about life? You think about all the truths and knowledge that you've come across. What is a truth about life you wish more people understood? The truth about life is that joy is the only measure of success. You can have everything you want. money, health, good relationships. But if you don't have joy, you waste in your life. I'm assuming you know a lot of people who have been very successful but are also very unhappy. Most of the people that I know who are very successful are also miserable. Really? Yeah. What do you tell them? Well, you have to redefine success as joy, as uh the progressive realization of worthy goals, as the ability to love and have compassion and be connected with your soul, which is the creative center of everything that happens. That sounds amazing. And I I think being happy means being successful. But what about when you've got a battle, making money, maybe starting a family, maybe the evolution? How do I define success as joy while also growing my life? Well, first of all, look at every adversity as an opportunity for some greater benefit. Reframe your adversities as challenges. Reframe your challenges as opportunities. Secondly, don't be obsessed with money. The money will come if you pursue what is true to yourself. Money is a byproduct. It's not an end goal in itself. have meaning and purpose in their life and try and make other people happy. That's the key. Having said that, for entrepreneurs who want to start a business or make a lot of money, I say, are you a copycat or do you have something original? If you're doing it just because you think it's a good idea and you make a lot of money, forget it. Where do you harness your creative ideas from? If I wanted to be different, how would you recommend someone thinks about that or where do they get that creativity from? Ask yourself, what am I good at? What if I had all the money in the world and all the time in the world? How would I sing my song, not worrying who listens or what they think and how would it help the world? I have a group practice. I do use AI to help people. I have my own AI which acts as a health coach. It's called Deepak Chopra.ai. Mhm. You can ask Well, you could have done this interview with my AI. I tried before. Yeah, I don't think I need you anymore. Why the AI tool? What was the thought process behind creating yourself as an AI? Through AI, you have access to all the knowledge and the wisdom of all the luminaries that have existed on our planet. So right now I have a conversation going on with AI, conversation between me and the Buddha across space and time. And so you know we can use AI in very brief moments to give people access to spiritual intelligence. What was the big failure that defined your life at the time? Defending myself and my point of view. Always wanted to be right. I was debating all these militant atheists and scientists who thought I was crazy and I thought they were crazy and it was all crazy anyway. Nobody knows what is the ultimate truth. We all have opinions. So it took me a while to learn that I don't regret anything that I did as a younger self. Every experience, good or bad, is an opportunity for self-growth and self-realization. So you appreciate the failures, I'm assuming. I enjoyed them. In retrospect, if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't be where I am. So you're married? Yeah, I'm married. How long have you been married for? We got married in 1970, so 55 years. What makes your relation I mean so many marriages fail and most don't last 55 years. Only one secret. I've given up being right. I was wondering if even you would say that. Yeah. Okay. That now it's a universal fact. No matter how successful you were, she's always right. She's always right. But you guys have been together. So you're 78. You've been together since 23. Can you define the word love? Love is the ultimate truth of the art of creation. And it's unity consciousness. It's not uh a sentiment or an emotion. Although it can express itself that ultimately love is knowing the other as yourself. When you think about your wife, you've been with her 55 years. What is it about her that you love? She minds her own business. Do you make your wife talk to your AI? No, I I don't I don't make her do anything. thing is about love is what the other person thinks of you is none of your business. So what you think about me is not my business, your business. And if I can relate to that, then I will love life. I know it's a complicated question. It's loaded. But if you had to simplify it to a simple science, what do you think makes a great life? Take it easy. Think people take it too seriously? They never take it easy. Think of the big picture. You're 26. I'm 78. In cosmic time, that's not even a flicker of an instant. You'll be dead. In a few years, I'll probably be dead before you. So, in the context of death, nothing is important except love, compassion, joy, empathy. Think of death as an opportunity to reinvent yourself. And when you think of death happening every moment, then you reinvent yourself automatically every moment. So Deepak yesterday is dead. Deepak this morning is dead. Deepak 5 minutes ago doesn't exist. Everything you experience doesn't exist. But because by the time you perceive it, it's over. So when you realize that that's what the true meaning of death is, then death makes life possible. Without death, there's no life. So you must be the happiest person on the planet. I'm joyful, but not in a dramatic way. Not, you know, like I've had some ecstasy or something. I was you in another world. That's me in another world. This is our journal. It's a a daily journal. In the daily entry, one of them is one piece of life advice you would give to yourself for today. What would you give to yourself? If you could talk to him right now, assuming he's not dead, be peaceful and carry your peace wherever you go. I love that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Was it appreciate Yeah. Thank you so much for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, guess what? We actually released the fulllength interview, every single second of advice on our podcast channel, Seas of Success. You can check out the full interview by clicking the link right over here and subscribing. Thanks again and see you next