New York: ALotusInTheMud.com, the premier wellness and spirituality web magazine founded by seasoned journalist Parveen Chopra, is celebrating its first anniversary after it was launched at the Indian Consulate in New York in January 2023.
Prof Indrajit Saluja will felicitate Lotus and his longtime friend, Mr Chopra at the Gratitude Gala of ‘The Indian Panorama’ on February 25 in Hicksville, Long Island.
Mr Chopra, who has specialized in the body-mind-spirit genre of journalism, says about the content mix of Lotus, “We tap diverse religious and spiritual traditions, particularly from India, for wisdom as well as draw from the latest scientific research to present helpful articles for people to be fully productive and yet be healthy, happy, and centered.”
The variety of articles in his web magazine has ranged from ‘I took Finland’s Masterclass of Happiness, so you don’t have to’, and ‘How to heal a broken heart – Valentine’s Day special’ to ‘The new university for your child’s education – Mother’s womb!’
Among highlights of one year of Lotus, Mr Chopra cites launching a biweekly newsletter ‘The Lotus Bloom’ last June, covering Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in August, organizing a discourse in September on Kashmir Shaivism by Virendra Qazi, a top expert on the subject.
Explaining the unusual name, Mr Chopra says that ‘Lotus in the mud’ is a key concept in Buddhism and Hinduism, signifying that we may get muddled by problems, but each one of us has the inherent capability to emerge as full bloom lotus in body, mind, and spirit. He claims that he conceived Lotus roused by the Covid desolation to do something helpful for society.
Lotus web magazine is published by the American Center for Wellness and Spirituality Inc (ACWS), a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation. ACWS is a social enterprise that also plans to do offline activities. Among its objectives is fostering interfaith and inter-cultural harmony as well as world peace.
Mr Chopra is an editor-entrepreneur focused on wellness, personal growth, and spirituality. A trained teacher of meditation, he started ‘Life Positive’, India’s first body-mind-spirit print magazine, in 1996 from New Delhi. He has worked for ‘India Today’ and has contributed to magazines like ‘Yoga Journal’. Moving to the US in 2007, he edited ‘The South Asian Times’ for over a decade and ‘One World Under God’ interfaith journal.
He is growing his team in the US and India, and plans to launch Lotus’s India edition later this year from New Delhi.

A screenshot of ALotusInTheMud.com website