THE WHITE HOUSE was calling. They wanted Deepak Chopra, the famed alternative-healing entrepreneur and best-selling author, to join President Biden and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi for a state dinner in June. Thanks for the invite, Chopra said, but he already had plans that weekend in England—“launching the Glastonbury Festival with Elton John.”
Talk about an airtight excuse. It's not easy to get on Deepak Chopra's schedule these days, let alone find him. Except during the Covid pandemic, he's been in nearly constant motion for three decades. After Glastonbury, his itinerary would take him to Davos, Riyadh, Mallorca, and Ladakh, a Buddhist center in the mountains of northern India. “The only way to catch my dad,” his son, Gotham Chopra, has said, “is to catch up with him.”
So I did, circling the globe from Australia to New York in the process. In August, Chopra was in Melbourne for a strategy session with executives from Nike, who were there for the Women's World Cup. After two days holed up in a nearby vineyard resort with Nike, he was scheduled to give a public talk in the city. Then he would hit the road again: to upstate New York, to help with a ketamine-assisted group therapy session, then to Austin for a silent retreat, back over to England for charity events with Stella McCartney and Kate Moss, a stop in Ireland to collect an award, then to Sweden for a talk, and finally to Greece for a retreat co-hosted with his co-author on his 93rd book, Living in the Light, a yoga guide published in January.
But now here he is, in the executive lounge of his Melbourne hotel, in a comfortable armchair overlooking the Yarra River, wearing a corduroy vest, matching baggy trousers, and sparkle-rimmed Tom Ford glasses. He looks a good decade younger than his 77 years—he sleeps eight hours a night, he says, followed by two hours of yoga every morning and a long walk of about 10,000 steps every day. His workday begins at 11 and ends promptly at 5. The brand of his trademark red sneakers must remain off the record, he notes, because of his relationship with Nike—but “tonight, I'll be wearing Nikes onstage.”
It's been 30 years since a single appearance on Show catapulted Chopra from little-known holistic Indian doctor to international wellness superstar, and in that time his own brand has never stopped growing and evolving. In addition to his battery of best-selling books, in 1996 he founded a company to sell consumer products based on his wellness principles. Now called Chopra Global, the company has offered everything from Ayurvedic supplements to holistic health retreats (starting at around $6,800 for five days) to a $350 pair of Dream Master meditation glasses that came equipped with
