HH the Dalai Lama Delivers Lecture in Goa
February 8th 2011
Panaji, Goa, India, 7 Feb 2011 (Various Media Reports) - The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has said that his deep-rooted relationship with India would not be affected by recent developments, including that of the Karmapa controversy and also in the broader context of India's relationship with China.
At the end of a Goa State Government sponsored lecture on “Ethics for the new Millennium” at the D.D. Kosambi Festival of Ideas 2011 here on Monday, the Dalai Lama was answering a specific question whether he was concerned about the implications of the recent controversy and about the otherwise “growing feeling of inconvenience about his relationship which existed over decades” with India.
He dismissed the Karmapa episode saying it was the result of “carelessness to keep proper records of money” and called it “a mistake and nothing serious” to have any consequences on their long-standing relationship with India and the future of the Tibetan community in India.
“Our relationship is not just a matter of a few decades, but a few thousand years. I view this relationship like the guru-chela relationship in the greatest Indian tradition — India our guru and we its chelas.” The Dalai Lama recalled a letter addressed to him by Morarji Desai in response to his congratulatory letter wherein he had described India and Tibet as two branches of one Buddhist tree and said, “the tree grew in India and spread its branch to Tibet. That is the basic sort of relationship with this country.”
"Six million Tibetans are physically controlled by China but 99% of their minds look at India," he said.
Commenting on Indian politicians, the Dalai Lama said they lack the spirit of great freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi.
The Dalai Lama recalled that he was invited when a huge statue of Mahatma Gandhi was installed in front of the Parliament.
"I am not a politician but at that time I had told Indian politicians that they must remember about Gandhiji''s truthfulness," he said.
The Nobel laureate said that Indian freedom fighters had worked selflessly and fearlessly for the country.
"They did their work honestly," he said, adding that although India got independence 60 years ago, "the current politicians lacked spirit of these freedom fighters."
He said that compared to other nations, India was stable because of democracy and independent judiciary.
"If people involved in justice are even little corrupt then it would be a disaster for the nation," he added.
During his two hour long lecture, the Dalai Lama also asked the media to play a responsible role.
"People in media have a special role to play. They can stop the wrong doings," he said and added that media should have a long nose like an elephant and should be able to smell things which are beyond the superficial reality.
"Investigate what''s going on thoroughly and inform people in unbiased form," the spiritual leader advised.
The Dalai Lama also said that India should focus on printing books that enable to spread the wealth of knowledge present in the country.
"There should be libraries in temples instead of statues," the Nobel Laureate said while responding to a query.
India has been a store house of information for the last 3,000 years and libraries in temple would motivate people towards education, he said.
"For thousands of years India has been a messenger of ''ahimsa'' and religious harmony. This itself is a message to the world," he said.
The Dalai Lama recalled an incident when a person told him about plans to build a Buddha statue.
"I told him, a Buddha statue does not speak. Instead of it, print more books that is more important," he said, adding after several wars in the last century, the 21st century should be known as the century of dialogue.
The Dalai Lama also said he was once "very much" attracted to Marxism and even wanted to join the Chinese Communist Party, which he now feels is bereft of Communist ideology.
"I was very much attracted to the internationalism of Marxism. I wanted to join the Chinese Communist party, (but) today the Chinese Communist Party is without Communist ideology," he said during the interaction session.
The spiritual and temporal leader of Tibetan Buddhists, living in exile in India for decades, still does not find anything wrong about Marxism as an ideology.
"As far as socio-economic theory is concerned, I am a Marxist," he said terming the present day Communism in China as "Capitalist Communism".
Maintaining that there was a time when Chinese Communists really worked for the needy, the Dalai Lama said, "The spirit of Marxism died in China, after the Chinese Communist Party started silencing both criticism and critics of people in power."
