99% of Tibetan minds are on India, he says at the Kosambi festival of ideas.
Nigel Britto
Even hours before it was scheduled to begin, the crowds had begun swarming the Kala Academy in Panjim, Goa’s capital, in anticipation of what would be. Then, at the dot of 2:30 pm, the curtains at the Dinanath Mangueshkar auditorium parted, revealing a smiling Dalai Lama. With hands joined, he exuded the charisma of a rock star and the calmness of a saint. A few thousand stood in respect, and with a quick gesture of ‘enough’ from His Holiness, they settled down. As courtesy dictates, the Chief Secretary of the state of Goa, Sanjay Srivastava, presented him with a bouquet, and then proceeded to leave the stage. “No, no; you come back here,” the Dalai Lama commanded him, and the meek official made his way back to receive a scarf from the man who calls himself ‘a simple Buddhist monk’.
Suddenly, the Dalai Lama saw the compere on the stage, and immediately told her, “You will get one later!” Then, he commenced his presentation, seated on a red mini-sofa with a collar microphone. Gently swaying from left to right, he proclaimed that “we all come from the same creator, whatever the name”. Sometime into his lecture, he abruptly stopped when he noticed the lectern to his right. “I want to talk from there,” he said, to the amusement of all present. To the sound of polite laughter, he mumbled, “I forgot, sorry.” Inner happiness was the core of his message; he argued that every sentient being, whether man, animal or insect, has an innate desire to be happy. “You gain satisfaction when you serve others”, he told the crowd.
He interspersed his talk with numerous anecdotes and a continuous barrage of humorous statements which kept the packed auditorium engaged throughout. There were people in the aisles, people on the parapets, people outside, people near his car, people everywhere. A section thought it wise to bring their toddlers, who greeted the Dalai Lama’s words with loud wails; another section found it fit to keep their mobile phones on, and the captivating speech was interspersed with the symphony of ring tones. The Dalai Lama, whose name means Ocean of Wisdom, went ahead unperturbed. When he laughed his contagious laugh, the crowd laughed with him. When he was serious, they were serious. Then, he went on a rampage against the unscrupulous accumulation of wealth, proclaiming that “money diminishes basic human values,” to a crowd that had Goa’s chief minister, Digambar Kamat, in the front row. Later, he stated, to wild applause, that as far as socio-economic theory goes, “The Dalai Lama is Marxist”.
The spiritual leader then stressed on the importance of ‘inner values’, which he says human beings can ill-afford to neglect. “At 16, I lost my freedom, and at 24, my country,” he reminisced, adding that throughout the many struggles he went through, he never touched alcohol or drugs (both of which are banned by Buddhism). “When we look at the world in a holistic way, we bring to the fore the human potential that otherwise remains dormant,” he said. “Values and ethics need not be based on religious teachings, the Dalai Lama added. “Traits like loyalty are present even in animals; a dog is faithful to the hand that feeds it,” he explained, adding that the basis of ethics is compassion.
At many points during his presentation, he referred to a mother-and-child illustration, saying that “children who receive a lot of affection from their mothers generally grow up to be calm; the rest develop insecurities”. It is on this that he blamed the epidemic of depression that is gaining prevalence. Even though his speech dealt with a serious subject, he kept the audience alert with quips like “People who use the words I, me and my suffer a greater chance of heart attack”, “We’ll have world peace when all 6 billion inhabitants disappear”, “China’s communist party doesn’t have a communist ideology”, and “God made hell, so perhaps there should be people who must go there”, the last one clearly in jest. He described the 20th century as the Century of War, and expressed hope that the 21st becomes the Century of Dialogue.
Toward the end, the Dalai Lama, now seated on the sofa wearing a red cap, took questions. “No silly ones, please”, he said with a wry smile before the session began. During the course of his answers, he said that “the purpose of life is happiness”. He also had words for the media, which in his opinion performs a pivotal role in a democracy. “Media persons should have noses as long as an elephant’s”, he said. To a question about Indo-Tibet relations, he pointed out that though China has physical control of Tibet, 99% of Tibetan minds look to India. He ridiculed the practice of erecting statues of Buddha, wondering aloud ‘what’s the point?’ He suggested that the money would be better spent on printing books. Ironically though, a little later, the chief minister gave him a statue of Buddha, and the Dalai Lama, with a wry, knowing smile, gave the chief minister a book. “Read it when you have time”, he told the CM.
When the Dalai Lama was done, his audience filed out of the auditorium silently and lined up along his car’s path to bid him farewell. Cameras clicked while many Tibetans, overwhelmed by their proximity to the man they so clearly adored, clutched their scarves with tear-filled eyes. Backstage, a bottle from which the Dalai Lama took a sip was in heavy demand; several people stormed down the aisle to touch it — for all purposes, it was holy water to them. They sprinkled a few drops on their palms and shared it among themselves. As he climbed into his Toyota Prado, his eyes were on the crowd, returning their greetings with a gentle, smiling Namaste till his car was out of sight.
Suddenly, the Dalai Lama saw the compere on the stage, and immediately told her, “You will get one later!” Then, he commenced his presentation, seated on a red mini-sofa with a collar microphone. Gently swaying from left to right, he proclaimed that “we all come from the same creator, whatever the name”. Sometime into his lecture, he abruptly stopped when he noticed the lectern to his right. “I want to talk from there,” he said, to the amusement of all present. To the sound of polite laughter, he mumbled, “I forgot, sorry.” Inner happiness was the core of his message; he argued that every sentient being, whether man, animal or insect, has an innate desire to be happy. “You gain satisfaction when you serve others”, he told the crowd.
He interspersed his talk with numerous anecdotes and a continuous barrage of humorous statements which kept the packed auditorium engaged throughout. There were people in the aisles, people on the parapets, people outside, people near his car, people everywhere. A section thought it wise to bring their toddlers, who greeted the Dalai Lama’s words with loud wails; another section found it fit to keep their mobile phones on, and the captivating speech was interspersed with the symphony of ring tones. The Dalai Lama, whose name means Ocean of Wisdom, went ahead unperturbed. When he laughed his contagious laugh, the crowd laughed with him. When he was serious, they were serious. Then, he went on a rampage against the unscrupulous accumulation of wealth, proclaiming that “money diminishes basic human values,” to a crowd that had Goa’s chief minister, Digambar Kamat, in the front row. Later, he stated, to wild applause, that as far as socio-economic theory goes, “The Dalai Lama is Marxist”.
The spiritual leader then stressed on the importance of ‘inner values’, which he says human beings can ill-afford to neglect. “At 16, I lost my freedom, and at 24, my country,” he reminisced, adding that throughout the many struggles he went through, he never touched alcohol or drugs (both of which are banned by Buddhism). “When we look at the world in a holistic way, we bring to the fore the human potential that otherwise remains dormant,” he said. “Values and ethics need not be based on religious teachings, the Dalai Lama added. “Traits like loyalty are present even in animals; a dog is faithful to the hand that feeds it,” he explained, adding that the basis of ethics is compassion.
At many points during his presentation, he referred to a mother-and-child illustration, saying that “children who receive a lot of affection from their mothers generally grow up to be calm; the rest develop insecurities”. It is on this that he blamed the epidemic of depression that is gaining prevalence. Even though his speech dealt with a serious subject, he kept the audience alert with quips like “People who use the words I, me and my suffer a greater chance of heart attack”, “We’ll have world peace when all 6 billion inhabitants disappear”, “China’s communist party doesn’t have a communist ideology”, and “God made hell, so perhaps there should be people who must go there”, the last one clearly in jest. He described the 20th century as the Century of War, and expressed hope that the 21st becomes the Century of Dialogue.
Toward the end, the Dalai Lama, now seated on the sofa wearing a red cap, took questions. “No silly ones, please”, he said with a wry smile before the session began. During the course of his answers, he said that “the purpose of life is happiness”. He also had words for the media, which in his opinion performs a pivotal role in a democracy. “Media persons should have noses as long as an elephant’s”, he said. To a question about Indo-Tibet relations, he pointed out that though China has physical control of Tibet, 99% of Tibetan minds look to India. He ridiculed the practice of erecting statues of Buddha, wondering aloud ‘what’s the point?’ He suggested that the money would be better spent on printing books. Ironically though, a little later, the chief minister gave him a statue of Buddha, and the Dalai Lama, with a wry, knowing smile, gave the chief minister a book. “Read it when you have time”, he told the CM.
When the Dalai Lama was done, his audience filed out of the auditorium silently and lined up along his car’s path to bid him farewell. Cameras clicked while many Tibetans, overwhelmed by their proximity to the man they so clearly adored, clutched their scarves with tear-filled eyes. Backstage, a bottle from which the Dalai Lama took a sip was in heavy demand; several people stormed down the aisle to touch it — for all purposes, it was holy water to them. They sprinkled a few drops on their palms and shared it among themselves. As he climbed into his Toyota Prado, his eyes were on the crowd, returning their greetings with a gentle, smiling Namaste till his car was out of sight.
This article was first published on The Times of India, Goa, in its edition dated February 8, 2011.
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