Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit
Recently, Tibetan community in Nepal celebrated the spiritual leader Dalai Lama’s birthday with much fanfare. The 14th Dalai Lama, has achieved a level of visibility and celebrity that would have been unimaginable for his predecessors. He became the most famous Buddhist teacher in the world and is widely respected for his commitment both to nonviolence and to the cause of Tibetan freedom. The Dalai Lama means ocean of wisdom and is the manifestation of the Buddha of compassion. Dalai Lama is a highly influential figure of Tibetan culture, and his escape to India sparked major outrage in the region. He reiterated his mission to serve humanity and urged supporters to be compassionate. The Dalai Lama is a revolutionary because of the peace and love he spreads along his journey towards a Tibet free from china’s communist grasp. The Dalai Lama, often referred to as His Holiness, is the Head of state and spiritual leader of Tibet. He calls himself a ‘son of India’ and somebody who has lived the longest in India as a ‘guest’. His birthday celebrations, each year, in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh had always been one of the biggest events for Tibetan community. There are many factors that helped in the Dalai Lama’s fame and reputation in Tibet. Like his human rights pronouncements and holding degrees from different western universities, having talks with most of the world leaders about religion and politics, writing hundreds of books in many different languages and appearing on TV shows made him one of the most famous religious figures on earth. The Dalai Lama is now known around the globe for being a messenger of peace and love. It is a fact that the Tibet and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama are inseparable and very much connected. Due to the Tibetans moving to many parts of the world, to many countries and to different cultures they are known for its religion. According to Buddhist belief, the current Dalai Lama is a reincarnation of a past lama who decided to be reborn again to continue his important work, instead of moving on from the wheel of life. A person who decides to be continually reborn is known as Tulku. He believes that the purpose of life is to be happy. From the moment of birth, every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affects this. If we want to understand Dalai Lama’s preaching of non-violence, we must comprehend non- violence. Non-violence is one of the highest virtues that should be accepted by everyone, no matter if they plead to Buddhism or not. Non-violence means to refrain from vicious actions. The Dalai Lama’s role as a spiritual and political leader was forced to change before the 1950s and he was the Buddha of India and he was the first to start Buddhism religion, and he was loved by most of his own people and had a lot of respect across a good majority of the western world. He has dedicated his life to working towards a free Tibet, away from the communist Chinese grasp. Ever since the invasion of Tibet by china the only goal for the Dalai Lama has focused on was a free Tibet, and he has dedicated his life for his cause. In 1989, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent efforts for the liberation of Tibet and his concern for global environmental problems. He has travelled the world, spreading his belief in kindness and compassion. The Dalai Lama believes that showing kindness and respect is even more important in the world today because of violence around us. He also hopes to teach children through these values. Long live His Holiness Dali Lama.
