The Dalai Lama loves me

The Dalai Lama was in Mumbai for a medical check up. Somehow or the other, I got invited to a small group of people who were meeting him in the morning before he left.

We were all clustered around the lift outside the DL's room waiting for his holiness to come up from the lobby. I had brought my camera along and thought I would start snapping away like a papparazzi as soon as he appeared. After several false alarms the lift doors finally opened and the DL stepped out. His security detail tried to tell us to keep it brief..just do the quick hello and get outta there, but his holiness was having none of that. He gave us an impish smile and beckoned us to his room.

Off to a good start I thought. Then he started speaking in his broken english. But somehow, we could all understand every word he said. He spoke about the oneness of everything. How events in one part of the world affect the whole world. And in such circumstances, there can be no victory or defeat of one people by another. Then he spoke about Buddhism and it all was just good common sense and logic. No mumbo jumbo. And surprisingly, he exhorted everyone to keep practising whatever religion it was that they belonged to. I would have thought that as with any religious leader, he would have tried to convert us to Buddhism.

All too soon, the meeting was over. Then another impish smile as he saw the camera around my neck and asked "photo? No photo?" Everyone leapt up to take a group snap and get their stuff autographed and all that. Then we left.

But the strange thing was, I felt a lot lighter and a lot more at peace than when I walked in. Then of course, I went to work and the day began..end of peace!