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Dalai Lama congratulates Barack Obama

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The Dalai Lama arrives at a hotel in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on 19 January 2009.File photo/Reuters/Krishnendu Halder/India

The Dalai Lama congratulated US President-elect Barack Obama, who will be taking the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States, agencies reported.

Talking to newpsersons at Auroville, the Dalai Lama said, “I express deep congratulations and prayers for the success of Mr Obama.”

Barack Obama will step in to history for becoming the first black President of the United States. He will take the oath of office at 12 p.m. EST on the steps of the US Capitol.

The Dalai Lama was in Auroville to inaugurate the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture.

He has stressed the need to promote common interests rather than divisive interests. If the common interests were accomplished, there would be peace, prosperity and compassion among the people, he said.

He also highlighted the importance of respecting all human beings. “Problems like war and colonial rules were the results of self-centered attitude.”

He said during his every visit to Auroville, he found more development and progress, and the most important was that people from different countries were living at the township peacefully.

Dalai Lama had laid the foundation for the pavilion in 1993. It was his third visit to the township. Auroville was founded on 28 February 1968 by Mirra Alfassa, also known as the Mother.

Director of the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture, Claude Arpi, described the occasion as significant. He said it was the first cultural pavilion that had come up in Auroville.

Claude Arpi recalled that the Mother, spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, had dreamt of a city where people of all nations could live together in peace and harmony.

The Dalai Lama arrived in Chennai today, where several hundreds Tibetan students and his admirers gathered in large numbers at the Meenambakkam Airport to accord a warm welcome to him.

He will deliver a talk on ‘Peace and Happiness’ at the Madras University Centenary Auditorium tomorrow.

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