"Our greatest attribute is also our greatest flaw," Deepak Chopra tells Sarah Hampson in her article Deepak Chopra's lightness of being in today's Globe and Mail.
"The greatest attribute is creativity. That's both our salvation and our doom. Creativity can be divine and it can be diabolical. That comes from being a species that has free will," he says. "And that's the price we pay."
Dr. Chopra, who's written more than 40 books, including his most recent, Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment, was online earlier today to take your questions on everything from the connection between mind and body, the power to heal ourselves and life after death.
Your questions and Dr. Chopra's answers appear at the bottom of this page.
Deepak Chopra was named one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the 21st Century by Time Magazine.
The preeminent teacher of Eastern philosophy to the Western world, Dr. Chopra is is also a bestselling author, teacher, motivational speaker, and broadcaster.
His books, which include The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire, How to Know God, and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than 35 languages.
The founder of the Chopra Centre, he conducts over 200 public seminars and workshops each year, and has shared stages with many of the world's foremost dignitaries, including Mikhail Gorbachev, Oscar Arias, and Nelson Mandela.
He currently serves as an adjunct professor at the Kellogg School of Management and lives in Southern California with his family.
Editor's Note: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question. Questions may be edited for length, clarity or relevance. HTML is not allowed. We will not publish questions that include personal attacks on participants in these discussions, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions that include vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.
Rasha Mourtada, Globe Life web editor: Good afternoon, Dr. Chopra, and thanks for joining us today. Let's get right to the many questions we have waiting for you.
Mohan Biyani, Ottawa: What is the ultimate purpose of creation?
Deepak Chopra: The ultimate purpose of creation is evolution, as the word creation itself implies. Creativity is the dominant activity of the universe. It is constantly evolving into new forms and phenomena and imagination is its most important attribute.
Dennis Choptiany, Markham, Canada: It can be argued that the most profound creation that humans have made is God. With it came the formation of a vast number of religions and their destructive divisions and conflicts. In your opinion, why do people have an apparent 'need' for religion and why have religions flourished even today when there is more and more evidence of the validity of agnostic and atheist views?
Deepak Chopra: Religions have an appeal because human beings have the fear of mortality. All religions promise eternal life. In the absence of profound knowledge of the workings of the universe, we rely on so-called religious authority to answer the deepest questions of our existence: who am I, where did I come from, what's the meaning and purpose of existence, do I have a soul, what happens to me after I die, does God exist, and if God exists does God care about me personally.
Unfortunately, religious ideology, dogma and belief systems are no longer congruent with what we know about the workings of the universe. They are inconsistent with our insights from modern cosmology, evolution, biology and the sciences. Hence, religious based on primitive belief (and unfortunately, all of them are based on primitive beliefs) have become quarrelsome, divisive and frequently idiotic.
