#SomethingGood: Plano Brother and Sister Get Audience With Dalai Lama

A family trip was planned to India to celebrate their grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. The siblings wanted it to be a bigger moment.

A good, old-fashioned water fight is just of part of summer fun for Savir Kumar and his big sister Saeisha, but it ends quickly.

The change may have come about following time spent in the presence of a spiritual leader.

"That experience when I met him was a once in a lifetime opportunity," said seventh grader Saeisha Kumar.

"It changed me because earlier, Saeisha and I used to fight a little but now we don't fight at all," said her little brother.

The fourth and seventh graders from Plano are still in awe of what they experienced a few weeks ago. A family trip was planned to India to celebrate their grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. The siblings wanted it to  be a bigger moment.

Here's the story they tell of how they got to meet the Dalai Lama.

Saeisha: "Our family's been aware of the Dalai Lama for quite a while now."

Savir: "And we were very curious to learn about him."

Saeisha: "We found on his website. There's an email we can reach him at. And so we emailed him, about us, our entire life, where we live."

Savir: "We sent him an email and got no response for two to three months, and then after, that we got a response. They said, maybe."

Saeisha: "'Til the last second, we didn't know if we were going to meet him. It was just a miracle that we did."

And there they were -- in a room with the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, asking a question they'd researched for weeks.

"As soon as we entered around him, there was this wave of calm that passed over me. And, he held our hands. And it felt like the most natural thing in the world to talk to him," Saeisha described. "That's probably the only reason I could've asked him that question, but I was having a nervous breakdown. He was completely fine" as she points to her brother.

Savir picks picks up the story from there, "Right when I came to him, I just gave him a big hug because I felt like I'd known him before. And I felt very calm around him, but Saeisha was still feeling a little nervous, until she asked the question."

"Our question which turned out to be, if you could give one message to the kids in America, what would it be?," Saeisha said.

And, the answer was recorded in a video posted to the Dalai Lama's Facebook page. The video has 1.7 million views.

"Cultivate a combination of a sharp brain and warm-heartedness. Just a brain, no guarantee to be happy person. Sometimes very intelligent person, educated people become more troublesome, troublemakers," he said. "So, warm-heartedness combined with this intelligence can become positive, constructive.That's important."

Now back home in Plano, the brother and sister hope to spread that message to other kids through a nonprofit or club.

First, though, is just accepting their accomplishment.

"There's the fact that I met such a great person. That's blown my mind away. I never thought this was possible. and, then there's his message," Saeisha said. "Before this, I don't think I ever thought about something so philosophical."

Savir agreed, "it was very exciting, and I feel like a chill was going down my spine 'cuz I was meeting someone so famous, so peaceful and the most peaceful man on earth, right now. And he's the Dalai Lama."

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