Issues should be resolved through dialogue: The Dalai Lama

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama today said issues should be resolved through dialogue and India needs to play its role in ensuring a peaceful 21st century.

Opposing the arms race and nuclear weapons, he said violence leads to counter violence and the cycle continues unabated.

This cycle should be broken to make the world a better place to live in, the Dalai Lama said here at the first convocation of the Central University of Jammu (CUJ), which was established in August 8, 2011.

"The only way to create peace, is we must develop will power no matter how complicated the situation is and try to resolve issues through dialogue," he said.

Dialogue will be successful if views of opposite parties are respected and their interests are taken into consideration, the spiritual leader said.

"India's ancient knowledge is very relevant in todays world to achieve a peaceful 21st century. The 21st century must be a century of peace and India can play a major role to achieve this goal," he said.

The world is going through immense violence and there is a threat of use of nuclear weapons, and "if you think it will make the world a better place, the answer, I think, is simply no", the Dalai Lama said.

The world presently has too much violence and it seems that the 20th century belongs to armies, he said.

"No matter how sincere the motivation (for violence) is and once there is involvement of military forces, it will have unpredictable consequences," the Dalai Lama warned.

Differences will always be there. But in order to face these differences, the use of force cannot be justified, the spiritual leader.

Once violence is committed, it "leads to counter violence and a chain cycle", he said referring to the 2003 Iraq war.

"I had written a letter to former US president George W Bush and suggested non-violent measures What happened, today the entire Arab world is engulfed (in violence). I feel a wrong policy was one of the factors that increased hatred towards the US," the Dalai Lama said.

The US, Russia and even a small country like North Korea, is developing deadly weapons and "if it continues, the 21st century would be a century of disaster", he warned.

"Basic human nature is more compassionate and constant anger and fear is actually eating our immune system," he said.

Mentioning India's rich culture and ethos, he said the country's 1,000-year-old tradition is of secularism, non-violence and religious harmony.

"India's Constitution is also based on secular credentials and according to Indian understanding it means respect for all religions. People from different faiths live peacefully in Jammu and Kashmir.

"I think religious harmony is really marvelous in the whole of India and it is the only country where people of different religions live together which is something very unique in todays world," he said.

The Dalai Lama said that modern education methods had failed to help reduce violence and that India was the only nation that can combine modern education and its ancient knowledge to achieve peace.

"Modern knowledge has given us physical comfort but ancient Indian knowledge has the power to provide inner comfort and peace. You can combine the two. Ancient Indian knowledge is very relevant in todays world," he said.

Education institutions should take full responsibility, and not only work for the development of the brain but also to teach the students wholeheartedness, the Lama said.

"I never attended school, university and modern institutions Our knowledge came from India. India is our teacher and we are its reliable pupil," he said.

Expressing displeasure that the ancient knowledge was disappearing from the country, he said, "We kept this knowledge."