It is a very sad affair to say that nobody in the whole world even protested that an innocent country, which has never invaded and had never shown any desire to invade anybody, should be simply taken over because another country has power. It seems our whole civilization is a pretension; our whole talk about freedom and independence are mere words. Not only that, nobody raised a voice against China. Just now, Rajiv Gandhi has said, “Tibet is China’s internal affair.”

It seems the law of the jungle still prevails. The bigger fish goes on eating the smaller fish – no protest.

Now Dalai Lama, seeing the situation that India and China are going to become friends, has started to prepare to leave the country – because China’s first demand will be that Dalai Lama should be handed over to China; other than that there is no possibility. It has been consistently China’s demand that, “Unless you hand over Dalai Lama to Peking there is no possibility of friendship.”

And Rajiv Gandhi has forgotten completely those thousands of miles of Indian territory. That too is China’s internal affair? Then soon the whole of India will be China’s internal affair!

One should not be so weak, either. I would like to say to Dalai Lama: “Don’t think of going anywhere; you will not get residence anywhere in the world, because nobody wants to be antagonistic to the biggest country, China.” Just two years ago, even America refused just a three-week tourist visa for Dalai Lama on the grounds that they did not want to annoy China.

I have loved Buddha, and I have loved those who have loved Buddha. I have deep love and respect for Dalai Lama. My suggestion to him is: don’t leave this country; just drop the desire to be the sovereign head, the political head of Tibet. In fact, it is not right for a religious man to have such aspirations for being a political head. Just drop that idea. Be an ordinary meditator, a lover of Buddha – then China will not ask for you. You are being asked for because of your continuous desire to be the head of Tibet again. Too much water has gone down the Ganges; it cannot happen, at least in your lifetime.

But my insistence is that fundamentally your desire is wrong. Tibet is gone, out of your hands. You should have renounced it. Your desire for power is a political desire – it is shameful in a man who is thought to be a meditator. Just remain in the Himalayas, and nobody is going to trouble you. The trouble is arising within you because of the desire that you want Tibet to be again under your rule.

Forget all about it. It is ugly, absolutely condemnable, to have such a desire. That was the singular message of Gautama the Buddha: don’t have any desire in this world; when the other world, the mysterious world, is ready to open its doors you are asking for some illusory power.

This shows that Dalai Lama himself is not a meditator.

I would like him not to go anywhere. You have a beautiful place in Dharmasala – go inward. It is time that you prove that there is an inner world far more precious than anything the outer world can give to you. And if you cannot prove this, who do you think is going to prove it?