Interview with Sadhguru

One of the most influential people of our times, Sadhguru is a Yogi, mystic and visionary with all his life efforts going towards raising human consciousness. Founder of Conscious Planet and the Save Soil movement, his actions are supported by over 16 million volunteers worldwide. He recently undertook a mammoth 30,000 km motorcycle trip visiting 27 countries in 100 days to raise awareness about the importance of preserving the world’s soil health.

It is the honour and privilege of The Citizen that Sadhguru took time from his hectic schedule to talk to the magazine about a small part of his thoughts, teachings and life mission.

Vanashree to Conscious Planet and Save Soil has meant three decades of commitment to the health and future of Earth. What can you tell us about your movement?

Soil degradation is a global phenomenon; half of the world’s topsoil has been lost. In large parts of the world, the organic content in the soil is well below one percent. For any soil to have agricultural potential, it must have a minimum of three to six percent organic content. Right now, United Nations’ statistics say that we may have agricultural soil only for another 80–100 crops. This means after 45–60 years, there could be severe food shortages, and getting rich soil will become the basis of wars on this planet. If we take concrete action now, then in the next 25–30 years, we could turn the soil around quite reasonably. But if we wait for another 50 years, turning the soil around will take 100–150 years. That means four or five generations will experience a difficult life because of the weak condition of soil. This is why in 2022, we have taken up the Conscious Planet – Save Soil movement. However, it isn’t that we suddenly thought of saving soil. We have been working on this for the last 26–27 years. In many ways, our other initiatives of Project GreenHands, Rally for Rivers or Cauvery Calling are not different things – it has all been about soil. But we talked about rivers and water because people can easily relate to them.

What a fantastic feat, 100 days on a lone motorbike journey from the UK to India. What does it take to organise such an undertaking?

Two-and-a-half years ago, we formed the Conscious Planet Trust in the United States, but I kept everyone in the Isha Foundation completely in the dark. No one knew that such a thing was happening. On 3rd January 2022, I spoke to about 15 to 20 core people in the foundation about it for the first time. I said, “We need to do this globally.” They said, “No, no, no. How can we do this in two-and-a-half months? We will Save Soil in 2023.” I said, “No, it must be 2022. It has to be rolled out.” And it was only on 1st March, during Mahashivratri, that I announced it to the larger groups of volunteers. We made some enquiries with professional teams who organise adventure tours, and when they looked at our schedule and the madness of what we were doing, they all said, “No, we cannot do this.” But we did it. And, in those 100 days, we covered 27 nations and met with important leaders, holding over 690 events. On average, I rode nearly 500 km every day and took part in a minimum of three to five events – media interviews, social media interviews, and meetings with influencers and parliamentarians. My days ended at one-thirty or two o’clock in the morning. Even while I was riding, I was carrying out interviews. Because of the war, the route changed three times. We had to accommodate an extra 1,800 km into the existing schedule. Our volunteers handled all this without a single hitch. All our global teams - logistics, videography, and social media teams – worked seamlessly night and day. I am not saying all this to boast about our volunteers, but I am in awe of what they have pulled off. All this effort has been worthwhile because we have indeed changed the narrative towards soil.

Sadhguru

Photocred: Isha Foundation

Seventy-four nations have so far agreed to act to Save Soil. What is your ultimate goal, and what do you hope will happen as a result of this movement?

The first thing we want to change is the narrative in the world towards soil and recognise it as a living entity, not a bunch of chemicals, which has always been the predominant misconception. It is not about nitrogen or phosphorus; it is about living soil. Agricultural soil must have a minimum of three to six percent organic content, and this should become a policy in every country. Secondly, 5.26 billion people in the world live in a democracy. Given that an elected government usually only has a term of four to five years, they would not be willing to invest in long-term soil policies of 15–20 years unless their citizens stand up and speak. For this reason, we want to move at least 3.5 billion people, or 60 percent of the world’s electorate, to speak for a soil-health policy. In the last 100 days, the narrative towards soil has already shifted, with 3.9 billion people having spoken out about it. I am very sure that policies will be implemented almost everywhere. Now, it is only a question of managing the pace.

The soil is the source of our lives. What is the most important message for people to understand?

It is time we realise that the preservation and nurturing of this planet is no different from aspiring for a good life for ourselves. The very bodies that we carry are just an outcrop of this planet, so there is no good life without a good planet. This awareness and maturity need to arise in the people, businesses, industry, government, and whoever else is involved in managing or destroying the planet.

You have said, “Idealism is good within yourself. But action has to be pragmatic because otherwise, it will not be practical or successful.” What can we as individuals do to play our part in solving the problem of soil degradation?

There is no question that everyone needs to take one small step to turn this around. But at the same time, the damage we have caused to the soil cannot be turned around with individual action. This needs a worldwide policy. In a democracy, the most important thing is the voice of the people. So, I want you to use your voice. I want each one of you to join this movement. Take this on as your movement and bring awareness to your nation and the rest of the world that the soil upon which we stand and walk is the basis of our lives; that the life which is happening in the first twelve to fifteen inches of topsoil is actually the basis of our existence.

We want to move at least 3.5 billion people, or 60 percent of the world’s electorate, to speak for a soil-health policy.

For the next 12 months, everyone must say something about soil, at least for five to ten minutes a day. Use social media – Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, or whatever you have. The whole world should speak about soil. Each one of you should reach as many people as you can, because when the people speak up, governments will make the necessary policy changes. Be a part of this and let us make it happen!

You have made so many wise statements in your lifetime. If you had to choose one thing you could tell us today, what would it be?

In the past, in pursuit of well-being, people have looked up. This has brought about many hallucinations – people have imagined all kinds of things. And it has created continuous wars between one kind of heaven and another kind of heaven. They are fighting over a God or heaven that neither has seen but over which they are still willing to fight to the death. In recent times, there has been a shift towards seeking well-being from the outside world. In seeking well-being from the world, trying to take the juice of life from outside, we are destroying the very source of our living – the planet itself. The only ultimate solution and the only way human beings will truly know well-being is by turning inwards. This is what Yoga means. Not up, not out, but in. The only way out is in. We have engineered the world sufficiently. Now it is time to engineer our interiority.

You founded Isha Foundation and Yoga Centre in 1992 and today have millions of volunteers and various centres worldwide. What can you tell us about its mission?

In the last few decades, we have pushed Isha Foundation as an instrument for individual transformation because a larger transformation in the world can only happen through individual transformation. Today, with the tools of science and technology, we have brought ourselves to a self-threatening situation where everyone in society needs to turn spiritual. Unless some sense of oneness touches people, especially the leadership on the planet, then self-destruction is a live threat. A non-religious, scientific, spiritual process is the need of the hour; it is the need of the century, the need of the millennium, and the need of eternity. Fortunately, we have tools to communicate with the whole world, which no one has ever had before in the history of humanity.

The fundamental goal of Isha Foundation has been, and will always be, to make spiritual possibility available to people. The goal is that every human being, irrespective of their caste, creed, religion, gender, or whatever else, must have at least one drop of spiritual process in them.

How can we attain spirituality while enjoying the material world? Are the two mutually exclusive?

Life comes as a whole. There is no such thing as “materialistic” and “spiritual”. This distinction of what is material life and what is spiritual life has come from a certain level of ignorance. When you sit here, can we separate whatever you are referring to as the spirit in you from your body? Your body is the material; it is the earth. So how can you separate the material and the spiritual? There is no spirit without material, and there is no material without spirit. Whatever material we handle - our homes, relationships, money - are external arrangements that we make in our life for our external convenience, comfort and joy. Similarly, whatever inner arrangements we make for our inner well-being are spiritual. Can you live if you have fantastic outside arrangements but are a mess internally? Or if internally you are blissful but have no food to eat? Both need to be organised. But with how much balance? The priority that you give to each is an individual choice. According to individual needs, one has to do it. As far as I can see, everyone is striving for happiness; everyone is striving to be free. That means every human being is seeking spirituality. A few are striving consciously; most are striving unconsciously. If you find unconscious expression in it, it gets labelled as materialism. If you find conscious expression in it, we call it a spiritual process. Isn’t it better to seek consciously with eyes open rather than closed?

And finally, who is Sadhguru?

“Sadh” means “within”, and “Guru” means “dispeller of darkness”. Sadhguru is not a title. It essentially means an uneducated Guru, in the sense that he does not come from scripture or tradition but from within. I do not know any scriptures, teachings or traditions. I just know this piece of life from its origin to its ultimate. In the Yogic culture, we have always seen that the way the human system is made is the way the whole cosmos is made. In terms of complexity, it may be different, but in terms of fundamental design, it is the same. So if you know this piece of life, by inference, you know everything worth knowing.

Find out more on savesoil.org or follow Sadhguru on I: @conciousplanet and @Sadhguru or T: @cpsavesoil and @SadhguruJV