Dalai Lama Says Religion is Personal and Shouldn't Be Used to Mobilize

Dalai Lama Says Religion is Personal and Not to Use it as a Mobilization Tool

Dalai Lama Says Religion is Personal and Shouldn't Be Used to Mobilize
By kris krüg [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
He appreciates India for its diversity

Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, said religion is “personal business” and not be utilized to “mobilize”[/tweetit] the people on the basis of their religion. His Holiness made the remark speaking with reporters at the National Teachers Congress in response to being asked his view about the Koregaon Bhima violence. The event was organized by the MIT School of Government and the MAEERs MIT World Peace University.

Dalai Lama Says Religion is Personal and Not to Use it as a Mobilization Tool[/tweetthis]

The Tibetan spiritual leader said religion is at best a personal affair. He continued on to say it is immaterial whether one follows a particular religion or another religion. Whatever happens, the mob mentality must not be formed. There should not be a thinking that one is a Hindu, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist. The Koregaon Bhima violence happened in Maharashtra's Pune District. The violence on January 1 had the consequence of a shutdown which almost paralyzed the Indian state of Maharashtra.

The Dalai Lama said religious tolerance in India is absolutely remarkable and is “wonderful for people across faiths, who mostly arrived from the Middle East in the form of Christianity or Islam.

The Dalai Lama went further, saying he himself is a “student of ancient Indian knowledge, so wherever I go or during my meeting with scientists, I find many among the audience showing genuine interest in my explanations…all of this has come from India.” The relation between India and Tibet, he reminded the gathering, is an old one. A Tibetan emperor in the eighth century once invited scholars from the famed historical Nalanda University to stay in Tibet. The mountainous country then preserved those scholastic traditions for more than a thousand years. Indians have forgotten the knowledge and “Now, India must pay more attention and through rigorous study must revive its past,” he said.

“Today, the world is facing emotional problem and it can be only tackled by education and not religious faiths. The 21st century should be the century of dialogue….For building a better world, one needs to think about oneness of human beings,” Dalai Lama said.

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