"Divinity in human form" - The simplicity and greatness of the Dalai Lama

In an article on the rediff.com web site by T P S Sreenivasan, a diplomat from India, the Dalai Lama is presented as believing himself to be a simple monk, and not the head of state or spiritual leader. The crowds of people who have been witness to the charisma of this spiritual giant would probably disagree with His Holiness on this point. The article also includes a description of a speech that occured in April of 2001, in which His Holiness personally escorted Mr. Screenivasan's party to their seats and then assigned an aide to sit with them to provide translation of the speech. At the end of the article, Mr. Screenivasan writes of his experience, "As we drove away from Graz after the audience with the Dalai Lama and his discourse, I felt that I had encountered divinity in human form."

The article started on a controversial note, however, as Mr. Screenivasan recounts a 1998 event he participated in at the National Press Club in Washington. During that event Major William Corson, who was introduced as "an intelligence aide to President Eisenhower" in the late fifties, is quoted as having stated that India's decision to offer political asylum to the Dalai Lama was given in return for support by the U.S. of India's nuclear weapons program. The article states:

"According to Corson, "Nehru was a notorious hard bargainer and the favour Eisenhower was asking carried great risks to India." So, apart from providing India a nuclear reactor under the atoms for peace programme, the US agreed to accept 400 Indian students in American Universities, who eventually became the corps of bomb makers in India... He went into great detail about the escape of the Dalai Lama to India as part of the deal. The whole thing sounded absurd, but since I had no hard information, I would have left his story untouched."

Mr. Screenivasan went on to state that his position regarding this idea is that it is a "fairy tale". He mentions how media later misquoted him to report that he had said it was a "fair tale", and that he has been unable to find any evidence to support the statement given by Corson.

The entire article can be read by clicking here.