BEIJING SAYS DALAI LAMA SHOWS ANTI-CHINA BIAS

DALAI LAMA TRIP TO ARUNACHAL PRADESH
AND BORDER REGIONS STRAINS INDIA-CHINA TIES

BEIJING - (AP - AFP) China said it expressed grave concern to India about a visit by the Dalai Lama to a state in the country's northeast at the heart of a long-running border dispute, saying it showed an anti-China bias. Tibet's spiritual leader is scheduled to visit a monastery in Arunachal Pradesh on Sunday on what he has said is a spiritual, and not political, trip. The Nobel peace laureate has an emotional attachment to Arunachal which provided his point of entry into India when he fled Tibet in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule. During his visit, he will give teachings at India's biggest Tibetan monastery in Tawang, which was briefly occupied by Chinese troops in 1962 before they withdrew. "We have expressed our grave concerns. We believe that this once again exposes the nature of the Dalai Lama as anti-China," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said. "We firmly oppose the visits of the Dalai Lama to the border regions ... this is a separatist action," he said.

On a trip to Tokyo late last month, the Dalai Lama said the Chinese government reads too much political meaning into his frequent travels abroad. Despite strong criticism from China, the Buddhist leader, who lives in exile in India, recently visited Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory. Beijing opposes most activities of the Dalai Lama, whom it accuses of advocating independence from Chinese rule for his native Tibet. Last month he visited Taiwan, his third trip there, to bless the survivors of Typhoon Morakot, which left nearly 700 people dead after it hit the island on Aug 8. He visited disaster areas in southern Taiwan, comforted survivors and held a prayer meeting for typhoon victims attended by 15,000 people, according to his official Web site.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Unless we come in association of sadhus we are atheists. We never believe God. There is a God who is the creator, who is the protector and who is the destroyer. And he should be realized. His blessings should be recognized. And the opulence of this material world, we see in this world, is due to Him. Now we should know him. We should realize him. How can you realize? There are no schools and colleges or universities where this subject is being taught. They teach history, geography, science and chemistry, botany and all the subjects of material world. But the spiritual science nobody teaches you. Now you must hear that spiritual science from a pure bonafide sadhu or a religious teacher, or a spiritual master, or - you call it a Guru.

Srila Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Maharaj:
"Repeat Namam & Tolerance"
Lecture given in Zagreb, Croatia - 27.6.1999.