Mahatma Gandhi and His Holiness The Dalai Lama on Non-Violence and Compassion

The book is arranged as a calendar of daily reflections, beginning with January and continuing through the year. Each entry presents a passage or teaching centered on non-violence, compassion, truth, inner discipline, or ethical responsibility, followed by a short concluding sentence that distills the core message. Gandhi’s entries emphasize satyagraha as soul-force, truth as the foundation of freedom, non-co-operation as purification, interreligious respect, Hindu-Muslim unity, cow protection without violence, resistance to hatred, self-restraint, social discipline, and the courage to suffer rather than harm. The Dalai Lama’s entries develop the psychology and practice of compassion, stressing human affection, warm-heartedness, altruism, responsibility toward all beings, transformation of anger and hatred, vegetarian concern for animals, equality of men and women in spiritual capacity, preparation for death, generosity, wisdom, and the cultivation of positive mental states. The volume’s publisher’s note explains that it was issued by the Department of Information and International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration for the 70th birthday commemoration of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, with the hope that younger generations would benefit from the thoughts of these two moral leaders. The work therefore functions as a practical ethical reader, bringing Gandhian non-violence and Buddhist compassion into a shared framework of personal discipline and social responsibility.