Dakini Conversations

IntroductionThis is a Dakini Conversations interview podcast (June 1 2026) with a woman who needs little introduction in India: Maneka Gandhi. She is widely known not only as a former member of the socially and politically influential Gandhi family, but also as a leading animal rights advocate, founder of major animal welfare initiatives, environmentalist, vegan campaigner, author, and former Union Minister for Women and Child Development.When I first searched online for a prominent animal welfare campaigner in India to interview, Maneka Gandhi’s name immediately came up. At the time, I knew little of her remarkable and tragic personal history. Only after she kindly and immediately accepted my interview request did I learn more: that she was the daughter-in-law of India’s first female Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, who was assassinated, and the widow of Sanjay Gandhi, who died in a plane crash just 100 days after the birth of their son, when Maneka was only 23 years old.Despite such profound loss, Maneka Gandhi went on to build a life not only as a leading female politician but notable public service to animals and the environment. With the money left to her by her late husband, she founded an animal welfare hospital and later established People for Animals, now one of India’s largest animal welfare organisations. She has been active in Indian politics for over 30 years, and has written several books on animal rights, law, and etymology.This was my first time meeting and speaking with Maneka Gandhi, whom people address as Mrs. Gandhi ji. We had agreed in advance that I would not focus on her personal or political life, but on her activities in animal welfare, the environment, vegan diet, and women.Although we had never met before, Maneka—now 70—was open, direct, approachable yet someone who did not suffer fools too gladly (a bit like myself in that respect). She also shared some fascinating reflections and personal anecdotes including how she had told the 14th Dalai Lama to stop "boasting" about eating meat for health as it had a negative influence on people.  But also, how conversely, how the 17th Karmapa influenced vegetarianism and animal rights in India in a very positive way and was like an "angel" in that respect. She also shared her thoughts on a popular belief that the Buddha was poisoned by pork as his final meal, as a mistranslation of the original Pali. Other topics, included how she had wanted to ban Tibetans from India, for their role in wildlife hunting (for an animal skins), her views on meat as being the main issue in all environmental concerns and even conflict between Hindus and Muslims (due to their wanting to eat beef/cow).For the record, I do not follow Indian politics and remain entirely impartial in that sphere. My reason for inviting Maneka Gandhi was to highlight her significant and beneficial work for animals in India. We also touched briefly on her work for women, including some of her achievements in that area, such as pensions.Whatever one’s political views, Maneka Gandhi stands as a prime example of resilience, intelligence, and courage—someone who has overcome immense hardship and used her life to benefit others in both public and private spheres. The fact that she, as a widower, lone mother and woman who has done that makes it even more inspiring.Two years ago, I noted, that Maneka said in an interview: “I believe my life only has meaning if it reduces some amount of suffering.” As a woman and a Buddhist, that statement deeply resonated with me, and it is one I was honoured to discuss with one of the most prominent, powerful and influential women in India.

For Episode 9 of the Dakini Conversations podcast I am delighted to welcome Deepak Anand, an Indian explorer, writer and researcher and author of several books on Indian Buddhist heritage sites and Buddhist relics, and founder of a remarkable project to film and document important Buddhist sites by personally retracing by foot, the route of the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, 7th CE monk scholar Xuanzang’s epic journey of over 10,000 miles from China to India and back, to throw fresh light on the routes and sacred places of the Buddhist pilgrimage
and create awareness about the importance of Xuanzang in preserving the Buddhist pilgrimage legacy.

Anand's walk took six months going through Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and parts of southern Nepal, and ended at Nālandā in Bihar, which was Xuanzang’s final destination in his journey, covering a distance of roughly 2000 kilometres. This pilgrimage was no hyper-expensive luxury spa/hotel trip with privately arranged cars and tour guides. It involved
Anand walking long distances, sleeping wherever he was offered a place to stay in local villages and institutes, crossing many rivers during the monsoon season and along precarious paths and routes. Making his pilgrimage as close experientially to Xuanzang's (and Buddha's) footsteps as possible.

Although Anand has been working on this project since 2020, I only recently discovered his work on his excellent website, Nalanda-Insatiable in Offering
(http://nalanda-insatiableinoffering.blogspot.com/), while researching pilgrimage sites of Buddhism myself in relation to my own current andongoing pilgrimage travels around Asia. Part of the project is also to include local communities in their heritage by raising awareness within them but also using their unique local knowledge about the places
themselves that have been passed on for generations.

In this interview we discuss Anand’s background and interest in Buddhism in India and Xuanzang, inspired by the Xuanzang Memorial project built in Nālanda in 2007
(https://artsandculture.google.com/story/xuanzang-memorial-n%C4%81land%C4%81-xuanzang-memorial-nava-nalanda-mahavihara/-gXx1Bey76EHJA?hl=en)
his work on reviving walking pilgrimage in India (Cetiya Cārikā), motivation for starting the project, the highlights and challenges of his journey so far, and plans and aspirations for the future.

For the latest episode of Dakini Conversations podcast Episode 8, Adele Tomlin speaks with writer, thinker and philanthropist, Prof. Peter Singer, considered by many to be the “founder of the modern animal welfare movement,” he was recently named one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine (https://content.time.com/time/special....

I first came across Singer’s ideas  a few years ago (before becoming a Buddhist) while a Philosophy postgraduate student in London and I was studying his works on animals and ethics.  It was groundbreaking and inspiring, and I agreed with everything he wrote about animals and our lack of respect and care for them when treating them as food for humans. Shortly after, I became vegetarian.  So having the chance to meet and discuss these issues with Singer is like a personal dream come true.

After Singer became a vegetarian at Oxford University, he wrote what would become one of his most influential works, Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals (1975). In this ground-breaking book, Singer challenges the speciesism of human beings who kill animals to eat, stating that if we did the same thing to humans with a similar level of consciousness/sentience, people would (and do) strongly object. In 1999, after teaching at New York University, Singer became a Professor at Princeton University. This appointment was protested by people who objected to his view on euthanasia. He has been called a 'dangerous philosopher' by some.  In 2009, Singer wrote the first edition of The Life You Can Save to demonstrate why we should care about and help those living in global extreme poverty, and how easy it is to improve and even save lives by giving effectively. In 2018, Singer also  co-founded the open-access Journal of Controversial Ideas. Now, nearly 50 years on, Singer has published a revised version titled Animal Liberation Now.

Singer also recently entered into a discussion of Buddhist ideas and ethics with a Taiwanese Buddhist nun, Venerable Shih Chao-hwei, in the publication of their new book, The Buddhist and the Ethicist: Conversations on Effective Altruism, Engaged Buddhism, and How to Build a Better World (Shambhala, 2024).

Here is the seventh episode of the Dakini Conversations podcast, an in-depth discussion with the leading Indian Kālacakra scholar and translator, Niraj Kumar, who was also recently promoted to Joint Secretary of the Indian Ministry of Culture (after being the Director for a couple of years).  

Niraj is a commentator on Shakta and Buddhist Tantras, and has been active with various facets of Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhism for more than a decade. His ongoing work is five volume pentalogy on Kalacakra Tantra, the first comprehensive English translation and new commentary of the Sanskrit text, for several centuries after it was said to have been first written down in the 11th century. The Kālacakra Tantra is said to be the climax of the Indian Buddhist Nalanda tradition and the last major Buddhist tantra composed in India.  Niraj Kumar’s first volume on Kālacakra was published in 2022, and the second volume is expected to be released within next couple of months. Niraj is also a pan-Asian thinker and writer on geopolitics in Asia and was instrumental in organizing the First Asia Peace Forum in New Delhi (2015). He is also one of the key architects of ongoing exposition of the sacred relics of Shakyamuni Buddha in Thailand this year.

I first became aware of Niraj Kumar when he personally asked me to present his Kālacakra work at the Vajrayana conference in Bhutan in 2022, which he was unable to attend. Several people also suggested that I interview him about his work on Kalacakra. I then had the good fortune to meet Niraj in India last year for an Indian academic conference at which I was invited to be a keynote speaker. At that time, we exchanged our Kālacakra publications and on finally reading his work, I was amazed and fascinated by the research, ideas and revelations in the Introduction to his book. It was surprising that more people did not know about them and so part of the reason for this interview is to bring some of those ideas out to a larger more general audience. See also: https://dakinitranslations.com/kalacakra-2/

During our podcast discussion, we speak about Kumar's Introduction to the first volume, which is full of fascinating research and revelations, including some of the key concepts in the Tantra regarding time (kāla), the three realms (outer, inner and other), the types of breath/energy, and death itself. This is then followed by a discussion of the dating of the composition of the root Kālacakra text itself (1027 CE), the oldest extant texts available of it (one on palm-leaf currently housed at the British Library), and remarkably indeed the proposed authorship of the written root text being the great Indian Mahasiddha, Naropa, who received the transmission of it from his guru Tilopa, who is said to have been taught it in the Kingdom of Shambhala itself. 

The latter part of the discussion relates to how the main lineages of Kālacakra came into Tibet, finishing with an analysis of contemporary practice and application of Kālacakra and how it has degenerated away from the words and advice of the root Tantra text with 20th Century mass empowerments to thousands of 'unqualified' people, for predominantly political, social and financial purposes in cohorts with the Chinese communist government. Kumar also states in his book that the empowerments given by the 14th Dalai Lama are also not 'correct' because they were not all given on the full moon, as advised by the root Tantra.

For the Youtube video of the interview (with English captions) and chapter outline of the discussion, see here: https://youtu.be/TJ4ec1wV-2o

For article about the interview, see here: https://dakinitranslations.com/2024/03/17/the-roots-and-fruits-of-the-kalacakra-tantra-niraj-kumar-dakini-conversations-ep-7/

To download a free pdf file of Kumar's Kālacakra Tantra Volume I book:
https://www.academia.edu/76581752/Kalacakra_Tantra_Vol_I

On Tara Day (20th December 2023) it was a delight and honour to welcome a woman who really needs no introduction within the world of Tibetan Buddhism, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, who is now an unbelievable eighty years old. Jetsunma’s activities are hard to describe in a few words, as she is like an emanation of Noble Tara or Vajrayogini in human form, yet I will try.

One of the first western fully ordained Buddhist nuns in the Tibetan
Buddhist tradition, Jetsunma has pioneered by action and example the empowerment and recognition of the great capacities and potential of female practitioners and nuns, not only by spending twelve years in retreat in an isolated cave in the snow, but also from her founding and leading an extremely beautiful and thriving Dongyu Gyatsal Ling nunnery in Himachal Pradesh, India. In addition, her accessible, relevant lively, passionate and honest teachings and love of the Buddha Dharma.

Jetsunma is also a passionate advocate against ethical misconduct and female inequality in Buddhist cultural traditions, but also an
animal-lover who practices what she preaches with a vegetarian diet.

Turning eighty years old this year, Jetsunma is still going strong in
terms of Dharma activities and giving teachings, attending Buddhist
conferences and going on Buddhist pilgrimages, as well as kindly and graciously agreeing to the interview.