Indo-Asian News Service
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 (New Delhi)
The self-exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama says he once met 
Mahatma Gandhi - in dream.

''In this lifetime, I never met him. But at least on one occasion 
during a winter in Potala palace (in Lhasa), in my dream, I met 
Mahatma Gandhi,'' he said after inaugurating the Satyagraha Centenary 
International Conference on Tuesday.

''As Buddhists, we believe in the rebirth theory. So, I feel that in 
previous lifetime, I had some contact with Gandhiji,'' he added.

Illustrating the global legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, he told the 
audience of Gandhians and students that American civil rights leader 
Martin Luther King's widow had told him that her husband was so 
attracted by Gandhi's philosophy that he wanted to dress in his manner.

''Can you imagine, an American black in dhoti?'' he said, with his 
characteristic infectious giggles. He pointed out that non-violence 
was not ''mere absence of violence''.

''The absence of violence could also be due to fear. Genuine non-
violence is related to sincere motivation (of the practitioner),'' 
said Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan leader, who has been in exile in India since 1959, 
pointed out that non-violence, compassion and religious tolerance 
were India's ancient values that it has exported to the rest of the 
world.

''I tell my young Indian friends that they should realise their 
richness and keep them as living tradition,'' he said.

The week-long conference on the theme of ''Globalisation of the 
Gandhian way: Sociology, Politics and Science of Satyagraha'', held 
at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, is being attended by Gandhians 
from 17 countries.

The open-air inaugural event had a festive air, with a large part of 
the audience made up of Tibetans, who prostrated on the ground when 
the Dalai Lama came onto the raised dais.

Later answering a query posed by a student, the Nobel Peace Prize 
winner said violent methods have never changed anybody's mind, but 
rather have the tendency to go out of control.

''Therefore, it is always safer to avoid violence, under any 
circumstances,'' he said.