His Holiness the Dalai Lama Delivers Lecture in Goa[Tuesday, 8 February 2011, 9:06 a.m.]

Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat presents an idol of Buddha to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in capital Panaji on Monday

PANAJI:
His Holiness 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, His Holiness 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.” His Holiness 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.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama delivering a public talk in Panaji, the capital of Goa, India, on 7 February 2011

Commenting
on Indian politicians, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said they lack the
spirit of great freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi.His Holiness 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.His Holiness 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, His Holiness 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,” His Holiness advised.His
Holiness 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,” His Holiness said while responding to a query.

The people of Goa listen to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the capital Panaji

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.His Holiness 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.His Holiness 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.”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, His Holiness 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.”(compiled from various media reports)