Students at IIM Calcutta had the rare opportunity of being addressed to, by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama as part of the Institute’s Lecture Series. The Dalai Lama held the audience in rapt attention through his hour-long speech on “A Human Approach to World Peace”. His lecture, generously sprinkled with his deep philosophical insights, instructive anecdotes, timeless quotations and trademark humour left the audience unlimited food for thought.
Starting his speech by stressing upon “Oneness of Humanity”, the Dalai Lama went on to speak about man’s essential social nature and the importance of collective international action in the times of globalization. He acknowledged India’s contribution to philosophical thinking and also appreciated it for administering the world’s largest democracy. “Affection and love are the way ahead”, he stated as he highlighted the need for developing compassion and warm-heartedness to complement smart brains. He also, through a few anecdotes, illustrated the importance of inner beauty over outer beauty.
The Dalai Lama isolated the huge gap between the rich and the poor and corruption as the two evils plaguing the world right now that seek immediate attention. He emphasized upon the importance of sound principles to give rise to a healthy family and a healthy society. He also observed that secularism, in the Indian perspective, is not about being disrespectful towards religion but about being tolerant towards all religions and also towards non-believers.
He described himself as a messenger from India spreading two main messages – the message of Ahimsa and the message of religious harmony. He also wanted the gurus of Indian religions to spread the message of Ahimsa both within India and across the world and to contribute towards making the ancient school of thought, relevant in the modern world. He cited examples of good work done in Taiwan and Japan and wanted India to achieve real development through development of rural India, health-care and education.
The lecture was followed by a short question and answer session which saw active participation from both the students and the faculty of IIM Calcutta.