A precious interaction with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama

A group of thirteen students, teachers and our Principal were blessed to attend an interactive session at Springdales School, Pusa Road with His Highness, the Dalai Lama, the much-revered Tibetan spiritual leader on 22nd November, 2014.

The session organised by the National Progressive Schools Conference, was attended by principals, educators and student leaders of several schools of Delhi and the NCR. Our Principal and the Social Science department of our School, along with the thirteen students reached the venue at 9 am where we received a warm welcome. The venue wore a festive look. The session began at 10 am.

[gallery link="file" columns="2"] On his way to the dias, His Holiness was welcomed with a warm applause by an audience of more than 4000 admirers, assembled together. It felt historic to have His Holiness before us ! Looking out over a sea of smiling faces, His Holiness waved in acknowledgement. He commenced the interaction with the observation that compassion was the only solution to the ills plaguing human society. He explained the plurality of religious traditions, all of which conveyed the same message of love, tolerance, forgiveness, compassion and self-discipline. But how did this love, tolerance and affection arise , he asked.

He went on to explain that by virtue of being social animals, human beings developed a sense of community or a spirit of peaceful co-existence with each other. Such compassion stemmed from our common experience of growing up under our mothers affection and depending on others for our survival. To quote His Holiness, The first seeds of compassion in my life came from my mother. I think this is true of nearly all of us, including birds and animals. If our mothers had neglected us we wouldnt have survived. A mothers touch is important for the proper growth of the brain.

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To make life meaningful, He recommended that we must not neglect our inner values. Talking on the subjectivity of human beauty, he defined beauty as the reflection of our inner spirit. Our outer beauty is only skin-deep, while our inner beauty is divine and eternal.

He also expressed his disappointment with modern education, oriented extensively to material values. He referred to the 21st century as the era of competition for limited resources. Modern education is merely equipping students to become better professionals and not good human beings on account of the lack of value education in the students syllabi.

His Holiness made all of us extremely proud by describing himself the Son of India. All particles from my mind contain thoughts of Nalanda and that Indian rice, dal and chapatti have built this body, he clarified!

He answered questions about his childhood, on God and Buddha, about his relations with Indian leaders. He mentioned that Mahatma Gandhi is his inspiration and he sincerely believes in ahinsa.

It had been an experience of a lifetime. Indeed we came away blessed.

Filed by Ms. Sanghamitra Bhattacharya