Sri Sri Ravi Shankar received death threats from ISIS

India’s role as World Guru

Intro: The Eighth Chamanlalji Memorial Lecture focused on the role of India as World Guru.

India will have to play the role of World Guru in better manner said Samdhong Rinponche, former Prime Minister, Tibetan government-in-exile on the occasion of Eighth Chamanlalji Memorial Lecture, organised by International Centre for Cultural Studies (ICCS) in New Delhi on March 27. The programme was subjected ‘Emerging Cultural Crisis in the West and India’s Role as the World Guru’.
Rinpoche appreciated Chamanlalji and said he was the source of inspiration to thousands of workers. He was a combination of an agile, perceptive mind and diligent activism.

Focusing on the problems the world is facing he said, presently we are suffering from many difficulties. The few important are over population, violence, terrorism and environmental issues. Global warming and pollution is reaching extreme, and terrorism becomes global and a business for the arms producer—a bloody game they wish to keep alive for their personal profit. In the wake of growing challenges, he reiterated that “To save our cultural and religious values, the need of the hour is to find the root cause of problems and solve them, and to fulfill our responsibility virtuously to be the World Guru.” He added, “Upholding the tradition of an integrated society that we have been part of, we’ll need to teach the world to solve problems by debate not by violence. We’ll have to train the mind to be disciplined and honest and uphold the ideal virtues of moral values and ethics embedded in our culture to guide the people of the world on the right path.”
Chief Guest on the occasion, Dr Lokesh Chandra, Director, Indian Council for Cultural Relations said, “Sangh has played a big role in Indian politics and in saving Indian culture.” Emphasising on responsibility, he said that an individual needs to think what exactly he or she wants from his/her life. It is important to think about your responsibilities towards society before asking for your right. If one can’t remain honest towards work, he can do nothing in life. It is important therefore to remain focused and work towards achieving our goals.
Prof Kapil Kapoor, president ICCS said, “People belonging to rural areas are often more affectionate than those living in the metropolitan cities. Focused on western education for our children, we’ve distanced them from our cultural roots. It’s time we nurture our traditions, culture to help our children live a disciplined and devoted life.” “Ethnic and religious conflicts have increased in today’s world. We Indians had a repairing culture but following west blindly, we are living in a disposable culture, and this needs to course correction,” he said. Other eminent personalities present on the occasion were Dr Subhash Kashyap, former secretary General-Lok Sabha, Balkrishna Naik, senior VHP karyakarta, Shri Ramdas Pande and Prof Rajkumar Bhatia.                                                              —Nishant Kr Azad