KEY POINTS:
In my life nothing goes wrong. When things seem to not meet my expectations, I let go of how I think things should be. It's a matter of not having any attachment to any fixed outcome.
Happiness is a function of fulfilment. When people are able to express their creativity, when they have meaning and purpose in life, when they have meaningful relationships and are able to make other people happy, in general they are happy then.
If you win the lottery you'll be very happy, but in a year you'll be as happy or unhappy as you were before.
Why am I so popular? My Indian accent.
Some people are attracted to my celebrity connections, but it is off-putting for others. I have never consciously given attention to celebrities. But if they show up I don't refuse them.
Demi Moore and Michael Jackson are good friends. I keep in touch with Michael still, I speak to him once a week. He's a very close friend, a very sweet man.
It's immoral to suppress a natural desire, whatever it is, because why would God give it to you otherwise? If God gives you a pleasurable experience and then says it's wrong, then he or she or whoever it is, is a totally dysfunctional person.
Taking LSD was fantastic. If I had not had that experience, I would not be where I am today.
I arrived in the United States from India aged 22, with $8. I'm 61 now and, obviously, I've achieved a lot. But people overestimate my so-called wealth. I've never accumulated it in the traditional sense. But I consider myself extremely wealthy because it is a state of consciousness; the confidence that you can create abundance whenever you need to. If you have billions of dollars but you're always thinking about money, then you're not a wealthy man.
In America one never apologises for being successful.
I maintain an inner serenity always. I never get involved with what my body and mind are doing. That's just my body and mind doing what they need to do, I am just a witness to that.
I don't believe in love at first sight. Infatuation at first sight is another matter. Those who we are attracted by, those who we are repelled by, are both mirrors of ourselves. And the secret of a long-term relationship? Allowing your partner to be who he or she is.
We would be doomed to eternal senility in the absence of death. What's real? Anything that dies. A plastic flower is not real because it does not die.
I have experienced levitation. It's totally effortless; you're surprised. But after a while the surprise wears off and then it is not so interesting any more.
Paradigms change - one funeral at a time.
I wake up to meditate every half-hour during the night. I started doing it 10 years ago and found that I was more rested in the morning. I get up early, about five o'clock. I meditate for about an hour and a half and then go to the gym. The rest of the day I do what I am told to do.
The way people - including me - take themselves too seriously makes me laugh.
This is a prayer I taught to my children: "God, make today more uncertain than yesterday." Then life is an adventure.
I am like a person who is singing in the bathroom. I am enjoying myself and some people are hearing the song and they like it.
* Why is God Laughing? by Deepak Chopra (Rider Books $34.99)
- Observer
