A
New Age mystic guy, very popular with
yuppies and
hollywood folk.
Originally, Chopra had migrated to the US of A from a rich Indian family to become a medical doctor. During that time, Chopra fell in with the "in crowd", and, as he has said himself, he was: "Sinning just like the rest of us."
Chopra says eventually he was nagged so much by his conscience for being a heavy drinker and smoker while telling his patients the opposite that he vowed it all off and began searching for something more spiritual.
Chopra wandered aimlessly for awhile until he found Ayurvedic medicine, at which point he began soaking in all kinds of mystical stuff. He began to practice meditation and eventually started carving out his own pseudo-religion.
Chopra's religion is primarily more of the same New Age stuff, mixing Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and "New Age Science" influences into one. His followers practice meditation, silence, dervishing, poetry reading and spiritual/scientific discussions.
Chopra's main innovation (besides a slick presentation) is the idea of "synchrodestiny", which is, AFAIK, that God can be seen in the moments where all kinds of differing influences suddenly meet to do something, something which may seem small at the time, but ultimately may unravel to be of enormous importance to one person.
Despite the large New Age aura surrounding his religion, Chopra has yet to actually begin marketing it all to make large sums of moola. Time will tell, I guess.