Till 12.50 pm today I didn’t know that who am I going to see in next few hours or so. I was at my home having a little siesta, which I usually do after lunch ;). So, before going back to the job, I just casually called one of my friends, Praveer, if he had any extra tickets for the Dalai Lama. To my disbelief, he did happen to have one, which he had held for somebody else, but that person wasn’t going to come, so I could use that. Wow, what a luck! I was going to see the Dalai Lama in real. So, got back to work quickly, and took few hours off for this, and walked all the way to the UB stadium from my work place. That’s about a mile or so.
I was so excited that, I just couldn’t stop walking fast, and marching all the way towards the destination. Thousands of people literally had thronged UB today from all over Western NY and elsewhere as well. It’s difficult to find such a gathering in the US except football/baseball games etc.
The climate today couldn’t have gotten better than it already was. May be the Gods of rains and clouds too knew that the Dalai Lama is visiting UB, and they didn’t want to spoil the fun. It was a perfect sunny and pleasant day, with winds blowing at a decent speed.
So, in all these, I reached the Alumni Arena and met Praveer there to collect the ticket. We walked towards the stadium and what we see is, long lines of people wanting to get in and take their respective seats, I wouldn’t call them devotees, as this wasn’t meant to be a religious meeting. Anyways, so we were waiting in the queue to enter, and what I saw, is some people displaying banners, saying, Tibet is an integral part of China etc. Well, you must be knowing the geo-politics of that region, and I am not here to discuss that. But in general, any great leader always has her/his opponents.
So, we got in. And it was a huge gathering of people. The entire stadium was jam-packed, and I think it could hold more than 25,000 people (majority of them were students, because they get free tickets), and then there were chairs on the ground as well. Just imagine the gravity of the number. Well, I must say that not everybody present there, including me, was a Buddhist, most people were there to catch a glimpse of the great figure, and just to see the kind of charisma he enjoys.
So, now it was ‘the moment’, it was about 3 pm. After the usual welcoming ceremony of the who’s who of New York and SUNY system, it was the time for the Dalai Lama. On a similar not, to my surprise, Indians were given special representation on the dais along with other dignitaries. Meaning, the presidents of UB undergraduate Indian Student Association (ISA), and Graduate Indian Student Association (GISA), shared the dais with the Dalai Lama. Reason is simple, because he stays in India. The only other country being represented was his own Tibet.
Anyways, so he arrived, expectedly he received a standing ovation from all of the 25,000+ human beings. After that, he was awarded an honorary degree by the SUNY board of trustees. Earlier in the day I had read that, the Dalai Lama, has great sense of humor. And I just experienced it. After receiving the degree he jokingly said something like, ‘See you people study so much, and I keep on getting degrees without doing anything’. And the entire crowd was into laughs.
So, he thanked everybody, I think in Tibetese language, I don’t know the name. And his interpreter translated into English. Until then, I had never thought of what language does he speak.
But the very next moment, he started lecturing into English. Of course, he doesn’t speak fluent English, rather broken, and occasionally gets help from his interpreter. But, to spread his message of peace and love all over the globe, language is not a barrier anyways.
He spoke for about an hour or so on peace, love, mental and physical state of mind, how to be happy etc. Well, the message was similar to any other spiritual leader could have delivered, however, here it was delivered by him, the Dalai Lama. Just to be honest, I did feel bored at one point of time. Adding to it, the cold wind, it was blowing heavily and I was almost shivering, but didn’t want to leave. Because, who knows if I’ll ever get to see him in my life again.
Anyways, so that was my encounter with his holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, when he was on a 3 day visit to the University at Buffalo. Needless to day, it was one of the greatest moments of my life so far. Meaning, he is one of the greatest human being of our times. And you don’t get to see/meet such personalities everyday. He was also awarded the nobel peace prize in 1989. It’s just once in a life time opportunity, a privilege..!
Kaushal
Photos from the event:
To learn more about the Dalai Lama:
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