Happiness is something everyone desires. Yet how to find happiness–or even if we deserve to–remains a mystery. Still more mysterious is the secret to a lasting happiness that cannot be taken away. In The Ultimate Happiness Prescription , bestselling author Deepak Chopra shows us seven keys to uncover the true secrets of joy in the most difficult times.

The goal of life is the expansion of happiness, he contends. But in today’s demanding world, that goal seems elusive, if not impossibly out of reach. Society reinforces the belief that fulfillment comes from achieving success, wealth, and good relationships. Yet Chopra tells us that the opposite is true: all success in life is the by-product of happiness, not the cause.

So what is the cause? The Ultimate Happiness Prescription shares spiritual principles for a life based on a sense of your “true self” lying beyond the ebb and flow of daily living. Simple daily exercises lead to eliminating the root causes of unhappiness and letting a deeper level of bliss unfold.

After all avenues to happiness have been explored and exhausted, only one path is left: the journey to enlightenment. In The Ultimate Happiness Prescription , the daunting and exotic challenge of finding enlightenment becomes accessible step by step. We are taken on an inspiring journey to the true self, the only place untouched by trouble and misfortune.

On the way we learn the secrets for living mindfully and with effortless spontaneity. Now happiness is no longer hostage to external events but an experience we carry with us always. As Chopra inspiringly concludes, “Everything we fear in the world and want to change can be transformed through happiness, the simplest desire we have, and also the most profound.”

Deepak Chopra (Hindi: दीपक चोपड़ा; born October 22, 1946) is an Indian American public speaker, and writer on Ayurveda, spirituality and mind-body medicine. Chopra began his career as an endocrinologist and later shifted his focus to alternative medicine. Chopra was a top assistant to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi before launching his own career in the late 1980s by publishing self-help books on New Age spirituality and alternative medicine.

A friend of Michael Jackson for 20 years, Chopra came to widespread public attention in July 2009 when he criticized the "cult of drug-pushing doctors, with their co-dependent relationships with addicted celebrities," saying he hoped Jackson's death, attributed to an overdose of a prescription drug, would be a call to action.

According to a 2008 article in Time (magazine), Chopra is “a magnet for criticism” primarily from the scientific and medical communities. Some critics say that Chopra creates a false sense of hope in sick individuals which may keep them away from traditional medical care. The Time article summarized Chopra's reception and popularity thus: "Of all the Asian gurus…,Chopra has arguably been the most successful at erasing apparent differences between East and West by packaging Eastern mystique in credible Western garb. …[H]is quest to construct a pleasing and seamless model of the universe tends to jump to easy conclusions and to spackle over problematic gaps and inconsistencies in the ideas he presents — is obvious to all but his most starry-eyed fans. But grousing about such crimes — as many do — does little to explain his enormous popularity. Chopra is as rich as he is today not because he has been dishonest with anyone, but because his basic message — that love, health and happiness are possible, that mystery is real and that the universe is ultimately a friendly and benevolent place where orthodoxies old and new can meet and make peace with one another — is one that he wants to believe in just as sincerely as his readers do."