Spiritually I Am Indian And Physically I Am Tibetan: His Holiness

"Buddhism comes from India. So, it is also their religion. I usually describe Indian as our Guru (Teacher). We are its Chelas (students)" His Holiness said, "So, I am a student of the India's Guru. And all my thoughts, my ideas, actually come from India's tradition. Therefore, I consider, and I also introduce myself, when I visit other countries, as a messenger of India. At the level of messenger, I am quite active promoting Ahimsa, compassion and religious harmony. So, now the time comes that my boss, my Indian Guru now must meet an active role regarding the promotion".

His Holiness the Dalai Lama was speaking at the international seminar on ‘Buddhist Heritage in Gujarat' being held at the Maharaja Sayajirao University, in Vadodara. The seminar was also attended by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who, in his inaugural speech earlier, had said that he wanted to build in Gujarat the country's biggest Buddhist temple with a centre for studies in Buddhism. And Tibetan spiritual leader supported the idea strongly, sating "That's very very essential. In America and also in Europe there are some Universities where Buddhist studies can be learned. So why not India? It is home of Buddhism".

Further, the 74 year-old Nobel peace laureate emphasized on the necessity of having realistic methods and holistic perspectives to challenge the troubles in today's' world. Addressing the scholars and Buddhist leaders from Bhutan, Japan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and as well as India, His Holiness said "we must make a distinction between faith and respect. Faith goes to one's own religion, respect, to all religions. That is very, very essential. We must appreciate the value or the immense sort of benefit to millions of people of other religion like Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism or all religions, like that".

"Buddhist science has nothing to do with Buddhist religion. Mainly Buddhist science is more about emotion, more about mind, more about the relation between the brain, neurons and mind", in terms of Buddhist science and its potential contribution to world, Tibetan leader said, "More interaction with modern scientists should bring both immense benefits. We Buddhists get a much deeper knowledge about the particles, quads (subatomic sort of particles) really useful to us. And then modern scientists get plenty of information about emotion, about the mind. So, closer interaction brings mutual benefit."

His Holiness concludes his speech by saying, "Spiritually I am Indian and physically I am Tibetan".