the goan I network
PANAJI
On a day when the upper house of the India Parliament passed the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) which will differentiate heavily between immigrants on the basis of religion, one of the world’s most famous spiritual leaders, the Dalai Lama, will be remembered for having preached, in the very same country, universal brotherhood.
His holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, who was at Kala Academy to talk to students of the Goa University, spent a good part of his address “The Relevance of Ancient Nalanda Teachings in our Modern Times”, which lasted for around half an hour, talking about the importance of brotherhood.
Addressing the packed indoor auditorium at Kala Academy on Wednesday as “brothers and sisters”, the Dalai Lama said he “really believed” that seven billion odd people on the planet were part of one human community, and that all other differences were secondary.
“We need a sense of oneness of the 7 billion human beings. Different faith, colour, nationality, and rich and poor is secondary,” said the spiritual leader.
The spiritual head of the Buddhists across the world said that these days, of all his commitments, including leading/protecting Tibet, his number one commitment was as a human being, to promote basic human values on the basis of scientific findings.
“Scientists have found anger and hatred eating at the human community. But our basic nature is compassionate,” said the Dalai Lama, who said also that the first person who had taught him compassion in life was his mother. Recounting his childhood with his mother, the Dalai Lama said that she had been a very compassionate lady, who never got angry with her children.
The spiritual and political leader also said that one of the ways for India to improve its “warm heartedness” was to look to its own ancient traditions of thousands of years ago.
He said that while it was all very well that India followed the British system of education, it definitely needed to revive its own systems of education, as concepts like “ahimsa” and “karuna” were not new to India.
He said that relying too much on the modern education system from Christian countries, which, as far as spirituality was concerned, promoted a lot of prayer, was inadequate.
“In order to increase warm heartedness we must use our brain, not just faith... The ultimate source of happiness is within ourselves, and if we see that, then we automatically reduce anger, and frustration. Now in education, we should include education about our mind,” he urged.
The world leader also lauded India’s 1000s of years-old tradition of secularism calling it “wonderful.”
“What faith you believe in is a different matter,” he reiterated.
GU choir makes history by giving first performance for his Holiness
PANAJI: The Goa University choir on Wednesday made history by giving the first performance at Kala Academy of the “Big Ocean Cantata”, a cantata composed for the 14th Dalai Lama, by the choir’s conductor Santiago Lusardi Girelli.
The cantata, the music for which was composed by Girelli, includes texts from the Dalai Lama himself, and was especially composed in honour of the Dalai Lama’s visit to the University on Wednesday.
The Big Ocean cantata includes Indian, Tibetan and Western musical traditions, and is written entirely in Tibetan and Sanskrit. A narrator at the event explained that the name Big Ocean refers to “Dalai,” which in Mongolian means “Ocean Big.” The cantata also commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize given to the Dalai Lama on
December 10, 1989.
‘Nalanda knowledge is inside
your mind, not in a building’
PANAJI: During the interaction with students at the Kala Academy, one of the students asked the Dalai Lama how he thought India would have benefitted from the Nalanda tradition if the Mahavihar was still standing and not taken down.
The Dalai Lama looked at the student and responded, “Nalanda knowledge is here,” and pointed to his mind, “not outside,” he said.
“When I visited the ruins of Nalanda, I see pigeons flying from here to there. But it doesn’t matter, because the knowledge has been kept alive on the planet in the Tibetan monasteries. Now, scientists and many Buddhists are showing interests in the Nalanda tradition. These Buddhist teachings do not depend on a big house or temple, but study,” said the spiritual leader.
