Abhi: Whenever you get any question that is slightly offensive, you manage to stay calm.
Sadhguru: Whether it's a bouncer or a googly,
I am calm. I'm just a normal human being. All the others who have taken to self-imposed crippling
aspects to their life, they are all thinking I am something very special.
Abhi: Is Ramayana and Mahabharat real, or was it just a story?
Sadhguru: This human story in some way, should right a few things within you,
should inspire you to do something about your life. But today, it is all factual,
you know, 1452 this battle happened, 1566 that battle happened. What are you going to do with it?
There is no nutrient in the soil. That means death for most of the populations. We have
this challenge, and we have this privilege, that if we can turn the life on this planet
back from its brink to a safer place, or we can let it pass.
Abhi:
So, namaskaram Sadhguru.
Niyu: Namaskaram Sadhguru. (Overlapping conversation)
Sadhguru: Namaskaram. Namaskaram both of you. Namaskaram.
Abhi: Okay, so the first question that I have for you is that, whenever you get any question that is
slightly offensive or that is triggered... that is targeted in such a way to get a reaction from you,
you manage to stay calm. That is one quality that you have, that I really want to... us
to have as well, becasue we are really new to social media (Sadhguru laughs).
Sadhguru: No, (Laughs) I don't stay calm only because something is a bouncer question,
I'm just calm. Whether it's a bouncer or a googly, I am calm, not because of that question
or not to attend to that particular question; I am like this, okay? Why I'm like this is,
see, essentially what you call as reaction is, that your faculties don't function the
way you want. Your thought, your emotion, your speech does not function the way you want. Well,
that is called crippled. Hello? If you can't use your hands the way you want,
if you can't use your head the way you want, it's a crippling experience, isn't it?
So, I'm just a normal human being, who knows how to use his thought, his emotion, his energy,
his hands, his legs, the way he wants. All the others who have taken to self-imposed crippling
aspects to their life, they're all thinking I am something very special. No, this is how a human
being should be, because you are the only creature on the planet who is referred to as a being. No
other creature is referred to as a being. Why you are referred to as a human being is, you're
supposed to know how to be. If you knew how to be, would you keep yourself blissful or miserable?
That's all I'm doing (Niyu laughs).
Abhi: (Sounds like – Right?).
Abhi: So, the next question we have is that, a lot of students are facing a lot of stress right now,
because of their exams. So, just the way you manage to stay calm in stressful situations,
like... I mean, of course, this is not a stressful situation, but this is something that is happening
beyond what is planned. So whenever... like Mike Tys... Mike Tyson had this quote that,
"Everything goes as per the plan, until the first punch lands on your face." So, what does a... what
should a person do when things are not going according to the plan, especially students?
Sadhguru: The examination is not supposed to go according to your plan,
your education should go according to your plan. The examination is always
supposed to be a surprise question for you, otherwise, what's the point of
examination, all right? So, the problem is, we are thinking examination is a problem; the problem is
we are doing something that we are not interested in, largely. Most people are not interested
in doing that. Because this is large scale education, everybody should go through
academics, everybody should read physics, chemistry, mathematics, che... you know,
biology. This is not a reality, this is not an intellectual reality in the world, not everybody
is designed for that. Somebody may do well with music, somebody may do well with something else,
but there is no such opportunity, everybody's going through the same stuff. So, different
shapes of people are all put through the same extruder, so there is a certain amount of pain.
If we know what we're reading, if we are interested in the subject, we won't be reading
the syllabus, we'll be reading something beyond that, isn't it? So, examination would be a play.
But right now examination is such a big stress for everybody,
because first of all, through the year they're doing something they don't much care for.
Everybody is going through education not because of the longing to learn,
because somebody has told them, "If you do this, you will... can get this much
money. If you do this, you can have this kind of lifestyle." So, because of that they're doing it.
So naturally, they will suffer the process. So this is very important.
In yoga, we say like this, "If you have one eye on the goal, you will have only one eye to find
your way," and it's very hard, inefficient. If you use both your eyes to find the way,
depending on your competence and the fire within you, you will go as far as you go naturally.
So, this problem is, this Westernized way of being goal-oriented – they're dedicated to the goal.
This is something I'm changing here with our people; here people are devoted to the
process – if you do the process well, the goal will happen. Now you're only wanting the goal,
you want the mango, but you don't want the mango tree, this will cause a lot of suffering (Laughs).
Niyu: Very true.
Abhi: Speaking of a tree, a lot of times people say that our education system is trying to
disconnect us from our roots, especially when it comes to ancient Indian epics such as Ramayan and
Mahabharat. Now there are great leadership lessons that are there in Ramayan and Mahabharat, that
used to be taught to kings, so that we can make better leaders out of them. So, a lot of times,
the conversation gets stuck at this particular question that, "Is Ramayana and Mahabharat real or
was it just a story constructed to guide us into our future?" So what are your thoughts about it?
Sadhguru: Whatever happened in your life yesterday, if you tell somebody, it is a story,
isn't it? Whether it's an interesting story or a boring story, that's the only question, but it's
a story. So, even (Laughs) – I'm playing on the words – his-story... means they left her out,
his-story it is (Laughs), all right? So, what happened to people in those times, the stories are
said to people from generation to generation, context changing slightly
according to the generational requirement. This is a flexibility we have in this country, which
the western way of looking at life... just facts are important. I'm asking you...
People are debating about this, you know, "If... if Krishna was born in Uttar Pradesh,
how come he was dark? Probably they got it all wrong or maybe he's a South Indian man."
This is silly. I am saying, "Whether Krishna was dark, he had a nose or not, what is your problem?"
Our problem is, what he inspires within you – the character. You don't know him,
all right? The character that we call as Krishna, what does he inspire within you?
But look at the Western aspect of history,
simply this year this happened, that year that happened, this guy killed that guy.
That is not what we want to know. What happened in people's minds and hearts? What inspired them
to do the right things and the wrong things, what drove them? Because this is a human story.
This human story in some way, should right a few things within you, should inspire you to do
something about your life – this is the idea of history in this country. But today, it is all
factual, you know, 1452 this battle happened, 1566 that battle happened. What are you going to do
with it? You can pass a stupid examination, that's all. In what way is it relevant to your life,
that this king kill that king, that happened, this happened, this happened? What does it mean?
Unless we know what was happening in their minds, why they did what they did.
So, these are poignant stories. Well, anything that happened day before yesterday... You
can believe your father did not exist, after some time, all the best (Laughs)!
Because nobody told you much about your father, after he's gone, you can believe, maybe he did not
exist, because there's no proof. Tch, there's no proof. But this is a silly way of looking at life.
These are living stories which have lived in this country. Well, exaggerations might have happened,
enhancement might have happened, edits might have happened. People might have pushed it and
pulled it according to their needs. Yes, they have done all that. But the central part of the story
is history in this country, all right? But unfortunately, anything that is beyond 3000
years in the world, people are calling it as mythology. No, no (Niyu laughs).
Niyu: That's true. So, Sadhguru ji, I have heard that you have a Save The Soil...
Save Our Soil campaign right now. So can you just tell us,
what is this very grave crisis regarding soil, that we are facing right now?
Sadhguru: See, every responsible scientist is pointing out...
the UN agencies have clearly stated, we have only, sixty to eight harvests left in the planet,
that means somewhere between forty-five to fifty or fifty-five years. After that, we don't have
the ability to grow food on the land because there is no nutrient in the soil. Why did such a thing
happen? Simply because, soil is not dead material where you can throw some nitrogen, phosphorus,
something and make it happen; it's a living entity. A handful of soil has eight to ten billion
organisms – in... in one handful of soil. So that is more than the human population, I'm saying.
But we have let it die. How did this happen? Because of industrial level of agriculture,
where there is no organic input into the soil. Organic input is the food for all these organisms,
so that they thrive and in turn, they exchange nutrients with the plants and
plants in turn, cap... capture carbon and make carbon sugars and exchange with the microbes.
We must understand, this microbial life is the basis of our existence. Even evolutionary
part of it, in the... in... in terms of evolution, we are just a reflection of what is be...
happening bitin... beneath our feet, the microbial activity there, is what is happening here.
And only forty percent of your body, has genetic content from your parentage.
The remaining part is all microbes – sixty percent you are a microbial life (Niyu laughs). You know,
between the two of you, you can call each other some species which is dominant (Laughter).
Niyu: Good idea. Good idea. I'm going to remember that (Both laugh).
Sadhguru: So, this is the same thing happening in the soil on a much larger scale.
Today, everybody knows this, without the gut microbiome, you cannot digest the food that
you eat. The same is true in the soil, the plant cannot get the nutrients that it wants, without
the help of the microbes, because those microbes is the... are the basis of life on this planet.
And on an average, 27,000 species of microbes are going extinct per year,
according to UNFAO. On an average, they're saying 27,000 species, not organisms, going extinct. If
it goes at this rate, in about thirty to forty years, we will reach a point where we cannot
grow food, and if we try to regenerate the soil at that time, it will take 150 to 200 years.
That means death for most of the populations. But today, if we attempt this now, now if we take the
necessary action by enshrining soil regeneration and ecological regeneration as a part of our
national policies across the world, then, in ten to fifteen or maximum twenty years' time,
we can make a significant turnaround. So as a generation, we have this challenge,
and we have this privilege, that if we can turn the life on this planet back from its brink
to a safer place, or we can let it pass. I thought we should not let it pass.
So I'm sixty-five years of age, and now I'm riding 30,000 kilometers from London to Cauvery basin.
You know, 30,000 kilometers is not a joyride, but I'm doing this because
I want people to understand it's that urgent – it is that urgent.
People are saying, "Oh, why should you do this?"
I'm saying, "Why would you not do it, I'm asking?" This is the first time, that we
can sit here and talk to millions of people in the world, all right? When we have such a capability,
we have to activate this. To bring this into policy, we want to move anywhere between three
to four billion people, to speak about soil. Now, it's not necessary everybody should support me or
whatever. From March 21st, for one hundred days, everybody should talk about soil for hundred days.
If you do that, we will aggregate these numbers on the social media platforms
and come to a place, where if three to four billion people have spoken about soil,
no government is going to ignore it. Because in a democratic nation, the only currency that flies
is numbers, and that numbers we need to create. The reason why governments are not investing on
long term well-being of the planet and the nation, is people have not spoken; people need to speak.
People need to understand, the most powerful thing that you have in a democratic nation is your vote
and your voice. Vote, I don't know what you have done with it, at least your voice, speak up for
hundred days, spend five–ten minutes. Five minutes a day is enough; every day, five minutes a day,
just on all the platforms that you can speak, just say something. If you don't... We will
provide enormous material on our website, you can pick it up and use it as yours. If
you don't even know that, just say, "Save Soil. Let's make it happen" – every day.
Abhi: In the end of every video of ours, we have a small section
called, "Hum kya kar sakte hain?" (Referring to Hindi – What can we do?), in which we
encourage people, some small level actions that they can do in their everyday lives,
for betterment of this particular issue. Like our objective is to make India and the
world one percent better. Because we have to believe that at an individual level as well,
we can take some actions, that will contribute and aggregate towards something big. So, for somebody
like us, who stays in cities or for somebody who is in the villages like a farmer, what do
you think, what we can do to help this cause, in the sense, help soil stay alive for longer?
Sadhguru: See, right now, if everybody gets to run around and try to fix the soil,
it's not going to work; it has to become a part of the policy. Which city do you live in?
Abhi: Mumbai.
Sadhguru: Mumbai. You're in Mumbai. Today there are laws. Suppose you have a 5000
square feet plot in Mumbai city, you can't build 5000 square feet of building,
you have to build 2, 3... 3000 or something and leave some space for yourself, your neighbor,
something – there is a law. You can't build according to whatever you think.
But there are parts of Mumbai, let's say you went to Dharavi.
If you go there, homes have been built, where there is no concept of a window;
there is a one door entry, one door... same door out – same door in, same door out.
Because everywhere people have built, whichever way they know. Why this happened? Because there
is no law about it. This is what the difference is, between having a policy and not having
a policy. Right now, if you have ten acres of land, you can plow every inch of it, use it
whichever way you want; in ten, fifteen years, you can turn it into a desert. There is no law
even to ask you, why are you doing this? A law is needed because seventy-one percent of the world's
land is under agriculture. If you don't make a law, how an agricultural land should be kept,
then we are heading for a super disaster, okay? We are looking at massive famines in the next
five to ten years' time, in many parts of the world. UN agencies are clearly saying by 2035,
you can expect dozens of civil wars around the world because of food shortages. By 2045,
we are producing forty percent less food, and our population will be over nine billion. That's not a
world we want to live in. That's not a world where we want to leave our children and go. So, this is
very important. And above all, this is a cusp of time where we have an opportunity to turn it
around. If we don't turn this around now, we will regret seriously, in the next couple of decades.
So, about young people what can they do? Should they go and fix their garden?
Yes, that is their business, they must do it. But that is not the important thing right now,
the important thing is one hundred days, say something about soil,
raise your voice about it. That is what makes the difference. Namaskaram.
Abhi: Just one last request, Sadhguru. We end each video by this one line – "And that's the
reason why, farak padta hai (Referring to Hindi – it makes a difference)." So,
if you could say that line, that would be great (Overlapping conversation).
Sadhguru: Main Hindi bolta nahi (Referring to Hindi – I don't speak Hindi.) (Both laugh).
Well, that is the reason we need to make it happen. Let's make it happen.
Abhi: Okay.
Niyu: Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for your time.
Sadhguru: Thank you very much. Thank you.
Sounds of Isha music – Soil Song Lalale Lale Lale...