IIPM Mumbai Campus
Tibetan diary: Tale of a close encounter
It was almost 40 years back that I had my first audience with His Holiness. He had known about my books and writings. He asked me if I knew Sanskrit. I said I did. Then he asked his secretary to bring a book and asked me to translate the same into English. It was one of the most famous 9th Century classics. In due course of time, I translated the book. Earlier, I had written a book on Tibet – its religion, culture and history. I presented a copy to His Holiness and he obliged me with a small foreword. After it was published, we became closer. In a meeting sometime later, he gave me another book, a 10th Century classic. The book had three chapters and he asked me, “Do you think those three chapters were written in three different time periods or at one go?” I was puzzled but guessed that since the three chapters dealt with the same subject and there were repetitions of certain arguments, they must have been written at different time periods. He agreed with me and I was elated. Later, he nominated me to the governing body of the prestigious Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.
There was yet another occasion I recall, a seminar where scholars from Varanasi and Sarnath had come. They wanted to have an audience with His Holiness. We sent a message, and instead of us having to travel to McLeod Ganj, he offered to come and meet us. When he came, he asked me to take the next seat. He held my right hand, raised it and said, “Look, this man helped us, Tibetans, through great difficulty without any selfish motive.” He was referring to the incident when I was able to convince him to stay back in Dharamshala.
Back then, some Tibetan youth had a fight with the Gaddi tribesmen and a Gaddi was killed. The Tibetan was acquitted of the murder charge, but the incident incited the Gaddi community and soon there started major violence against the Tibetan people. They beat up the lamas and broke window panes. His Holiness was then in California. When he came back to India, a lot of journalists, Indian and foreign, had thronged to McLeod Ganj. One of my friends, Naoroji, who is no more, rang me up and informed that His Holiness had decided to leave Dharamshala and settle somewhere in Faridabad near Delhi. I was worried throughout the night and called a meeting with a few people in the morning to appeal to His Holiness not to leave Dharamshala. Naoroji, myself and another friend of mine went to meet His Holiness at 3.30 pm and sent a word through his security in-charge, who happened to know me, for an audience with him. He, however, conveyed that His Holiness was busy and would not be able to meet us. I then told the chief of security that we would sit in dharna and not budge until we got an audience. At about 5.30 pm, we received a message that His Holiness would meet us at 5.45 pm.
As usual with His Holiness, whenever you have an appointment with him, he will be waiting to receive you at the doorstep. As we crossed the threshold, he looked into my eyes and said, “So, we are being kicked out.” That was awful. I said, “That’s not true” and asked him if we could sit down and talk. We spoke for about half an hour. His Holiness was really shocked about what had happened in his absence. The talk was so emotional that I started crying. Finally when all of us got up, he embraced me tightly and said, “No, I will not go.” The next day I gathered a big crowd of about 1,000 people and took them to McLeod Ganj to seek the blessings of His Holiness. This was supposed to be a show of solidarity with him. The mood was one of joy and peace.
His Holiness never shows anger. We may abuse China and revile against the Chinese but he will never do the same. His Holiness likes frank people. He has a great sense of humour. The most impressive thing about him is when he laughs, if you are not looking at him, you would think it’s a six year old. His presence conquers you. You feel absolutely at peace with yourself and the world. He is the greatest living human being on this earth.
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Tibetan diary: Tale of a close encounter
It was almost 40 years back that I had my first audience with His Holiness. He had known about my books and writings. He asked me if I knew Sanskrit. I said I did. Then he asked his secretary to bring a book and asked me to translate the same into English. It was one of the most famous 9th Century classics. In due course of time, I translated the book. Earlier, I had written a book on Tibet – its religion, culture and history. I presented a copy to His Holiness and he obliged me with a small foreword. After it was published, we became closer. In a meeting sometime later, he gave me another book, a 10th Century classic. The book had three chapters and he asked me, “Do you think those three chapters were written in three different time periods or at one go?” I was puzzled but guessed that since the three chapters dealt with the same subject and there were repetitions of certain arguments, they must have been written at different time periods. He agreed with me and I was elated. Later, he nominated me to the governing body of the prestigious Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.
There was yet another occasion I recall, a seminar where scholars from Varanasi and Sarnath had come. They wanted to have an audience with His Holiness. We sent a message, and instead of us having to travel to McLeod Ganj, he offered to come and meet us. When he came, he asked me to take the next seat. He held my right hand, raised it and said, “Look, this man helped us, Tibetans, through great difficulty without any selfish motive.” He was referring to the incident when I was able to convince him to stay back in Dharamshala.
Back then, some Tibetan youth had a fight with the Gaddi tribesmen and a Gaddi was killed. The Tibetan was acquitted of the murder charge, but the incident incited the Gaddi community and soon there started major violence against the Tibetan people. They beat up the lamas and broke window panes. His Holiness was then in California. When he came back to India, a lot of journalists, Indian and foreign, had thronged to McLeod Ganj. One of my friends, Naoroji, who is no more, rang me up and informed that His Holiness had decided to leave Dharamshala and settle somewhere in Faridabad near Delhi. I was worried throughout the night and called a meeting with a few people in the morning to appeal to His Holiness not to leave Dharamshala. Naoroji, myself and another friend of mine went to meet His Holiness at 3.30 pm and sent a word through his security in-charge, who happened to know me, for an audience with him. He, however, conveyed that His Holiness was busy and would not be able to meet us. I then told the chief of security that we would sit in dharna and not budge until we got an audience. At about 5.30 pm, we received a message that His Holiness would meet us at 5.45 pm.
As usual with His Holiness, whenever you have an appointment with him, he will be waiting to receive you at the doorstep. As we crossed the threshold, he looked into my eyes and said, “So, we are being kicked out.” That was awful. I said, “That’s not true” and asked him if we could sit down and talk. We spoke for about half an hour. His Holiness was really shocked about what had happened in his absence. The talk was so emotional that I started crying. Finally when all of us got up, he embraced me tightly and said, “No, I will not go.” The next day I gathered a big crowd of about 1,000 people and took them to McLeod Ganj to seek the blessings of His Holiness. This was supposed to be a show of solidarity with him. The mood was one of joy and peace.
His Holiness never shows anger. We may abuse China and revile against the Chinese but he will never do the same. His Holiness likes frank people. He has a great sense of humour. The most impressive thing about him is when he laughs, if you are not looking at him, you would think it’s a six year old. His presence conquers you. You feel absolutely at peace with yourself and the world. He is the greatest living human being on this earth.
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