Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama extolled the virtues of music as a way to bring peace as he opened a three-day festival here of chants from the world's different religions.
Greeting the crowd of 2,000 gathered at a New Delhi park, the 68-year-old Buddhist monk said such performances of sacred music "are useful ways to promote positive qualities."
"I believe that music and sound have a particular ability to affect the mind positively which is why I think music and chanting are useful, particularly in a religious context," said the Dalai Lama, clad in his customary maroon and yellow robes on Monday.
"Once we develop peace of mind, then automatically our actions become more peaceful. This is the way to promote a peaceful type of individual, a peaceful family and a peaceful society," he said.
The Tibetan leader, who has lived in exile in India since 1959, said that "rapid developments" in science, especially the computer revolution, "have made the world significantly smaller."
"Either we find peaceful solutions to the problems and conflicts that confront us, so that everyone gains and nobody loses ... or we selfishly follow the law of the jungle and perish," he said.
The session began with traditional chants by Sri Lankan, Tibetan and Vietnamese Buddhist monks and featured prayers by an Israeli group to mark Monday's holiday of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
A singer from New Delhi performed qawwali, the voice-straining poetry popularised by the Sufis, or Islamic mystics, of South Asia.
Other chants were performed by Benedictine nuns from the Netherlands, a Shaman from the Russian republic of Tuva, an American Indian from the United States and Hindus, Sikhs, Zoroastrians and Bahais from India.
The Dalai Lama closed the hour-long session by presenting ceremonial Tibetan white scarves to all who chanted.
"It is wonderful to hear the variations in voices and tones," said one of the Israeli performers, who gave her name as Gabriella.
"Sometimes people think religious music has to be pale and soft but sometimes things said or sung with force are equally appealing," she said.
Ami Gaston, whose US-based ensemble performed an African chant, described the session in superlatives: "Awesome, amazing, stunning and beautiful."
Festival organiser Hillel Natanson said it took a year to plan the event.
Indonesian and Australian Aboriginal groups that were slated to perform could not come to the Indian capital due to lack of funds, she said.