Actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan and his partner Gautami met the Dalai Lama when he was in Chennai recently. Speaking about the meeting, the actor said the Tibetan guru suggested that he should use cinema as a medium to spread peace (ahimsa). Kamal added that he has always admired the Dalai Lama for his resilience.
“The Dalai Lama told me that he has not watched a single movie — not even television — with a smile. Yet, he opined that I could use my craft to propagate ahimsa, the great philosophy offered to the world by India. Being a fan of Gandhiji, it is not too far-fetched to become his admirer. Despite me being a rationalist and not spiritually bent, the meeting was invigorating and purposeful,” Kamal said.
On a concluding note, the actor said he would follow the monk’s advice, “For a man of his position, he indulged in small talk with abandon — the sign of a man with no worldly worries. Above all, he loved the company of strangers! He reminded me of a 2000-year-old lines from a Tamil poetry — ‘Everywhere is my town… All are my kin’ (Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir).”
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