I am India’s messenger, says the Dalai Lama

It was not only “non-violence” and “love for India” that dominated the Dalai Lama’s speech here on Friday. Delivering the 15th Justice Sunanda Bhandare Memorial lecture on ‘Women and Peace’, the Tibetan spiritual leader also took swipes at successive Chinese governments. But he stressed that he was not making “political statements”.
Predictably replete with his characteristic humour, the impromptu discourse was also on serious issues like women’s emancipation and their role in building a “peaceful and compassionate society”.

“In the early period, Mao Zedong was okay. But in the later period, power spoilt him,” the Dalai Lama said, adding, “In 1954, I saw how he was dedicated to the people. Mao always said communists must take criticism from people, otherwise, they’ll be like fish without water. But by 1957 all those criticising the communists were eliminated. So the ideology wasn’t practiced too well, some hypocrisy [was there].”

The spiritual leader told a packed auditorium, “I consider myself as a messenger of India. My ideas come from India. Even before Buddhism flourished in Tibet, we had a culture. But our culture progressed manifold after Buddhism reached India. I consider myself as the chela (disciple) and India as my guru (teacher).”

Though he refrained from pointing fingers at any political establishment, the Dalai Lama claimed that talking about peace had become fashionable and no leader was doing enough to attain peace.

“Political leaders talk of peace but don’t practice it. It is in fashion to talk of peace nowadays. Leaders must understand that peace doesn’t come from gestures and words. It comes from the heart, like anger, violence and hatred,” he said.

Hailing women as true envoys of peace, he said that by nature, they are sensitive and have stronger affection. “While most nurses are women, most butchers and killers are male. This is nature and in this century, women must take the lead in peace activities as they have more potential to show compassion,” he said.