Monday, 12 January 2009: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Monday said that the world was facing an economic meltdown due to lack of spirituality among people.

“Lack of spirituality and culture is the main cause behind the rampant corruption in the world. People have become selfish and materialistic, which has led to the economic slowdown,” The Dalai Lama said.

The Tibetan guru was speaking on the fifth day of his week-long religious discourse at Kalchakra ground of Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (CIHTS) in Sarnath.

He met scores of followers of Buddhism from the North Eastern states of the country in the morning before beginning today’s session.

Thousands of Tibetans from all over the world have gathered here to attend his lectures on Acharya Shantidev’s Bodhicharyavatar and Acharya Kamalsheel’s Bhawanakram, both translated from the original Sanskrit into the Tibetan language in the eighth century.