THE PATH TO LOVE

A road map to spiritual renewal, with the crossroads marked by a popular guide who seems to have lost his footing. In his earlier nonfiction works Chopra (Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, 1993, etc.), a medical doctor, successfully balanced medical science and intuitive healing. Ayurvedic medicine from his native India was not incompatible with Western medical technology, he proposed, as he wooed many Americans to an exploration of a body/mind connection with good health. Now based at his newly established Chopra Center for Well Being in southern California, the doctor is exploring—and stumbling over—more ephemeral areas like love. That may be because his subject is so chameleon-like, a four-letter word at the service of saints and sinners, of lusting couples, charismatic preachers, suffering artists, and self-sacrificing parents. Chopra limits his exploration to the love of romantic relationships and launches the trek from babyhood, where "I am completely loved./I am completely lovable," to the experiences between man and woman that are labeled "love." Chapters include attraction, infatuation, courtship, intimacy, surrender, passion, and ecstasy, each a stepping stone to connections with god or the cosmic spirit. The image of god is fairly flexible here but gives major weight to Shakti, the wife of Shiva, as the representative of "cosmic passion." Along the way are thoughts about courtship as "shared birth," and introductions of concepts such as Dharma (unity), Karma (cause and effect), and Moksha (liberation, ascension). Included are excerpts from poetry (among them Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, the Indian Rumi and the Upanishads), checklist exercises, and limp case histories. A concluding chapter set in a New Mexican twilight is reminiscent of Carlos Castaneda's desert dialogues. "Know thyself" is the message here. Neither as direct as the Bible nor as engaging as Shakespeare, Chopra's pathway may nevertheless serve as an on-ramp for some bewildered lovers.