"I don't see a real danger of a world war. Nobody will dare use this [nuclear] weapon. …Unless one or two individuals, mad people, have this opportunity… Otherwise I don't think a third world war is possible," Tenzin Gyatso, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, said in an exclusive interview with RIA Novosti.
Earlier this month, the Dalai Lama attended a World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Italy's capital Rome. Global nuclear potential was high on the agenda. The peace laureates underscored that the existing nuclear warheads stockpile was "hundred times stronger" than the bomb which wiped Japan's Hiroshima during World War Two, Tenzin Gyatso said.
At the same time, the Dalai Lama admitted that the world has recently found itself in a "difficult situation". He said people around the world were overwhelmed with "strong emotions" that had dulled their capacity to think critically.
The Tibetan spiritual leader called on humanity to take control of their runaway emotions, and said he would pray for this emotional strain to gradually ease.
The Dalai Lama, whose title literally means "Ocean Teacher" or the "Ocean of Wisdom", was speaking to RIA Novosti in the wake of his three-day teachings in India's New Delhi at the request of a 1,500-strong group of Buddhist worshipers from Russia.
