Arrival to India was moment of freedom, says Dalai Lama

Guwahati: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Saturday said the warm-hearted welcome he received on his arrival at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh 58 years ago was a “moment of freedom” for him.

“The days prior to my arrival in India was filled with tension and the only concern was safety, but I experienced freedom when I was received warm heartedly by the people and officials and a new chapter began in my life,” The Dalai Lama said recalling his escape from Tibet in 1959.

The Nobel laureate expressed his aversion to the negative, community-specific terminologies, while speaking at a platinum jubilee anniversary function of The Assam Tribune group of newspapers here.

The spiritual leader strongly disapproved of terms like “Muslim terrorists”, saying he feels immensely “uncomfortable” at such usage.

He also said the voice for peace was growing stronger in the 21st century and India’s secular traditions could go a long way in reducing the global sufferings and tension.

“The use of such terms (like Muslim terrorists) is wrong and I feel uncomfortable. There are genuine followers of Islam who follow the Koran seriously and sincerely,” said the Dalai Lama, at the function which also marked the golden jubilee of The Dainik Asom.

He was visibly moved on watching photographs related to his arrival in India. The photographs were published on the occasion of his visit here.

An emotional Dalai Lama said that the picture of his mother and sister along with other events published in the newspaper had brought back memories of those days, especially the sufferings of thousands of Tibetans who escaped their homes and arrived in India as refugees.

“Pandit Nehru gave us shelter and received us as guests. I am the longest staying guest of the Indian government,” he said.

After his arrival in India, he made several visits to European countries and “I realised that with our knowledge and culture, we can contribute to peace and help the world to become a better place.

“In those countries, there is material development, but people are not happy. Anxiety, stress and suspicion plague them and gradually I realised that we can help them with our traditions,” the Nobel laureate said.

“A magazine had also referred to some Buddhists in Burma, harming Muslims. But these are done by a few individuals,” he said, while pointing out that there exist “mischievous elements” in all communities, but they do not represent the whole community and its traditions.

The spiritual leader advised winning over such individuals through love and compassion.

“There should be efforts to reach out to these elements, calm down their minds and gradually win them over through love and compassion,” the Dalai Lama said.

Dwelling upon the need for global peace, the Dalai Lama said the 20th century witnessed widespread violence and suffering with more than 200 million people getting killed.

“That kind of situation should not arise again.”

“There are a lot of problems like violence, killing of innocent people, children dying of starvation... We cannot ignore these. The major problem is suffering and we must have the ability to reduce and ultimately eradicate it with the compassion and promoting a sense of oneness.”

“This cannot be done by prayers but by utilising human intelligence properly which, in turn, will create happy individuals, family, community and world to build a peaceful century,” he said adding education and awareness must create compassion among the people of 21st century.

Maintaining that the religion and faith alone will not herald peace, the spiritual leader,  “We must encourage individuals to debate, raise questions, investigate, analyse, create a strong platform of dialogue to solve problems for peace.”

He said India can make a significant contribution in this regard by reviving its age-old sophisticated philosophy and traditions of “karuna” (piety) whose foundation lies in “ahimsa” (non-violence).

“According to India’s ancient secular tradition of respect for all religion and also respect for non-believers, it is possible to create a happy society and community where every individual is capable of inner peace, irrespective of the religion they belong to,” the spiritual leader said.