Skip to content 
Search

Latest Stories

Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati speaks on her journey with Deepak Chopra

Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati speaks on her journey with Deepak Chopra

LEADING spiritual leader Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati and Indian American wellness guru Deepak Chopra discussed the “power of spirituality to heal and transform us” at an event in New York on Thursday (16).

Sadhvi Bhagawati is in the US promoting her memoir, Hollywood to the Himalayas: A Journey of Healing and Transformation.


She describes how she travelled to India 25 years ago and had a life-changing experience on the banks of the River Ganges.

In a conversation with Chopra, Sadhvi Bhagawati, who is now the secretary-general of the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance, explained her path to enlightenment when she visited India as a young married woman.

Untitled design 55 Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati in conversation with Dr Deepak Chopra (Picture Credit: Parmarth Niketan)

Chopra, who is also a yoga practitioner, asked Sadhvi Bhagawati about the role of yoga and meditation in her healing and transformation.

“Yoga is my whole life,” Sadhvi Bhagawati said. “Not the on-the-mat part, but the yoga of love, the yoga of wisdom and the yoga of action. I try to live every minute and moment in yoga – in union.”

On Indian spiritual tradition, Sadhvi Bhagawati said, “The teaching that I am not my body, not my history, not my emotions, but that I am the soul, full, whole complete consciousness changed my life and enabled me to find healing.”

Sadhvi Bhagawati was born in an upper middle-class Jewish family in California and graduated from Stanford University. She was pursuing her doctorate in 1996 when she left the US and visited Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, north India, where she later decided to live. At the time, she was grappling with trauma, suffering, addiction and shame.

Four years later, she was officially initiated into the order of sanyas (monastic renunciation) by His Holines (HH) Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswati (HH Pujya Muniji).

Among those in the audience were HH Pujya Muniji and Indian actor Anupam Kher.

Following the discussion, HH Pujya Muniji said, “In this book Sadhviji has shared not only her own story but she’s shared the pain and challenges that are everybody’s story.

“You will find, as you read the book, that this is your own story. Like everyone these days, Sadhviji had everything set externally, but she was upset. This book teaches you how to be set.

“Spirituality makes you set. Dr Chopra has brought this concept to the West so beautifully: how we can be set in life and even when things in life go up and down, but with spirituality we don’t go up and down.

“Through this book, Sadhviji has brought the Himalayas to you. These truths and teachings are available for you whether you live in the mountains or in Manhattan.”

Kher later said on social media, “It was such a pleasure to be at the release of Sadhviji’s book Hollywood To The Himalayas. Listening to Deepak Chopra ji and Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswatiji in the august company of Pujya Swamiji of Parmarth Niketan was such an amazing and a learning experience! Looking forward to reading the book!”

Hollywood to the Himalayas delves into Sadhvi Bhagawati’s time of learning, sacrifice, joy, challenges, ecstatic experiences, and peaceful contentment in India as well as her work in the development sector, focusing on health, water, sanitation and hygiene, and the rights and empowerment of women and girls.

More For You

Modi set for UK visit to sign free trade agreement

FILE PHOTO: Keir Starmer (L) with Narendra Modi. (Photo: Getty Images)

Modi set for UK visit to sign free trade agreement

INDIA's prime minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to the UK by the end of this month for a visit that could see both sides formally sign the landmark India-UK free trade agreement and explore ways to expand bilateral ties in the defence and security sphere, diplomatic sources said.

Both sides are in the process of finalising the dates for Modi's visit to the country by the end of July or the first part of August, they said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rishi Sunak returns to Goldman Sachs, will donate salary to charity

Rishi Sunak. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Rishi Sunak returns to Goldman Sachs, will donate salary to charity

FORMER prime minister Rishi Sunak has returned to the banking world as senior adviser at Goldman Sachs group, with plans to donate his salary to the education charity he recently established with his wife Akshata Murty.

The US-headquartered multinational investment bank, where Sunak worked before entering politics, made the announcement on Tuesday (8) after the requisite 12-month period elapsed since the British Indian leader's ministerial term concluded following defeat in the general election on July 4 last year.

Keep ReadingShow less
 Post Office Horizon

A Post Office van parked outside the venue for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry at Aldwych House on January 11, 2024 in London.

Getty Images

Post Office scandal linked to 13 suicides, says inquiry

Highlights:

 
     
  • Public inquiry finds up to 13 suicides linked to wrongful Post Office prosecutions.
  •  
  • Horizon IT system faults led to false accusations, financial ruin, and imprisonment.
  •  
  • Sir Wyn Williams says Post Office maintained a “fiction” of accurate data despite known faults.

A PUBLIC inquiry has found that up to 13 people may have taken their own lives after being wrongly accused of financial misconduct by the Post Office, in what is now described as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.

Keep ReadingShow less
UK ramps up drought response following driest spring

The EA has begun conducting more compliance checks on high-usage industries

Getty Images

UK ramps up drought response following driest spring since 1893

Key points

  • Spring 2025 was England’s driest and warmest in over 130 years
  • Reservoirs across England only 77% full, compared to 93% average
  • Environment Agency increases monitoring and drought planning
  • North-west England officially declared in drought

Water conservation measures stepped up ahead of summer

The UK government has increased efforts to manage water resources after confirming that England experienced its driest and warmest spring since 1893. The Environment Agency (EA) reported that reservoirs were on average only 77% full, significantly lower than the usual 93% for this time of year.

The announcement came after a National Drought Group meeting on Thursday, which reviewed the impact of continued dry weather on crops, canal navigation, and river flows. Poor grass growth and dry soil conditions were noted as threats to food production and livestock feed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Norman Tebbit

Following Thatcher’s third general election victory in 1987, Tebbit stepped back from frontline politics to care for his wife. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Former minister, Thatcher ally Norman Tebbit dies at 94

Norman Tebbit, a close ally of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and a former Conservative Party cabinet minister, has died at the age of 94. His son William confirmed the news on Tuesday.

"At 11:15 pm on 7th July, 2025, Lord Tebbit died peacefully at home aged 94," William Tebbit said in a statement.

Keep ReadingShow less