The past few decades haven't been among the most spiritually attuned in history, especially in western countries. Rarely has the spiritual element of life been so under fire.

As such, Deepak Chopra sets a bold agenda when he seeks to delve into the life of Buddha. But this is no epic treatment of a cosmic giant. Chopra approaches the being many see as a god as a mere mortal who achieved something we all have the potential for.

Siddhartha Gautama, the man who would be Buddha, was born a prince sometime between the fifth and six centuries BC in what's now Nepal. His father, Suddhodana, pained by the loss of Siddhartha's mother while the child was a baby, resolved to protect his son from all worldly pain. Siddhartha was pampered and cosseted as a result.

Gradually, Siddhartha stumbled on examples of human suffering, which he found intriguing and which spoke to him with a voice he hadn't heard before: the voice of shared pain. In his mid-30s, Siddhartha decided to leave his wife, Yashodhara, and infant son and set off into the outer world as a mendicant monk.

Things went badly at first and Siddhartha struggled to maintain his vows to himself and continue his expedition into the inner world of the human experience. He suffered greatly, pined for his family and came close to death more than once.

Eventually, Siddhartha gained enlightenment and came to realise that the potential to reach the highest state of human existence - Nirvana - is within each one of us. As such, Siddhartha, who eventually became known as the Buddha - the Enlightened One - began to advocate a revolutionary concept: we are all Buddha.

Buddha is an improvement on Chopra's earlier fiction. However, the pacing falters and the great themes struggle to rise above the prose. Much is given to the early life and adolescence of Siddhartha, yet much more could have been made of his struggle with himself and his demons on the path to enlightenment.

Although Chopra seeks to present the Buddha story as real life, the characters move with divine gravitas. The evil Devadatta and Siddhartha's boyhood friend Channa are among those whose motivations Chopra struggles to portray.

These characters are mere pinions to the larger cogwheel of Siddhartha and the main character lives and breathes through the text. This is a man troubled by pain, both his own and that of others, and who is a seeker of solutions to humanity's ills.

All too humanly, Siddhartha waxes and wanes in this tale of the soul, and Chopra tracks the evolution of his growing beliefs - such as those now known in Buddhist texts as the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path - and his physical and mental approach to life and learning.

It's difficult to accept Buddha as non-fiction, as the publisher describes it, yet its veracity and its historical worth may not be its most valuable legacies. For all seeking to better understand the human landscape, both external and internal, it stands as an important signpost.

By presenting the Buddha as a man complete with fears, desires and whims, Chopra allows readers to gain insight into one of the world's great religions, and gain inspiration to see further, hear more clearly and act more wisely. Buddha is a timely, inspiring and ultimately poetic guide to rising above the temporal and corporeal ties we all too often allow to bind us.