Realizing The Power Of Collective Action

Subah and Harshvardhan Saraf of Satvic Movement discuss the #SaveSoil movement with Sadhguru. Save Soil, a global movement envisioned by Sadhguru, seeks to bring about a concerted, conscious response to impending soil extinction. Action now to #SaveSoil. Sign up and become an #EarthBuddy: https://consciousplanet.org/action-now

Yogi, mystic and visionary, Sadhguru is a spiritual master with a difference. An arresting blend of profundity and pragmatism, his life and work serves as a reminder that

Transcript

I've never had any plan in my life.

I just hit the ball that comes to me.

This damage has been on for over hundred years.

We are on the verge of desertification.

This is a crime against humanity.

As you eat more and more nutritious food,

The need for supplement will come down.

If you don't do this now,

You will regret it in your life.

We will reach a place where if you want to revive this soil,

It will take hundred-and-fifty to two-hundred years.

God damn it,

This is our planet,

Right?

So,

Our work revolves quite… around food.

So some of the questions that we want to ask you to do with soil are also in connection with food.

So maybe first we can ask a little bit about the general scenario and then dive deep into how soil health is connected to the human body's health and our food's health.

That's what we were planning for today's conversation.

But if you have a different plan in mind,

You can suggest.

No,

I've never had any plan in my life.

Okay.

I just hit the ball that comes by me.

So,

Well,

Human body… see the biggest problem is,

Human beings think that they know something about ecology,

Environment,

This,

That.

The human beings' problem is they do not understand they are ecology,

They are environment,

And they're a little virulent ecology.

They are like… you know this land is full of microbes,

That's why there is life,

All right?

It's only because of microbial life,

There is life.

Otherwise the trees cannot be alive.

See,

Right now this tree is there.

Don't do anything,

Just rip off all the leaves,

Okay?

Don't damage the tree in any other way,

Just take away all the leaf.

Again it'll try to sprout,

Take it away,

Take it away on a daily basis.

Within six months,

One year,

The tree will die.

You know why?

Because it doesn't have cash to buy food from the microbes.

Unless it gives them carbon sugars,

They won't give him nourishment.

So he doesn't have money.

So right now,

In our country and in many other countries,

There is food.

But people still die of starvation because they don't have cash,

Isn't it?

But now we are talking about a situation where even if you have cash,

You don't have food.

This is different.

This is serious.

This is a grave situation.

You don't have cash,

Somebody can give you something,

You can either work or beg or steal,

Do something,

All right?

But there is food.

But when there is no food,

Your cash becomes meaningless.

So right now,

This tree is capturing carbon from the atmosphere,

Making it to carbon sugars,

Pumping it down and exchange is happening.

It's a very sophisticated marketplace down there,

Very.

But now the microbial life down there,

On an average,

The UNFAO says,

On an average,

About 27,

000 species of microbes are going extinct per year.

I'll repeat that.

It's not 20,

000 organisms.

27,

000 species are going extinct.

If it goes at this pace,

In another thirty to forty years,

We will reach a place where if you want to revive this soil,

It will take hundred-and-fifty to two-hundred years.

But today,

If we attempt,

We are at a cusp of time that if we act now,

In the next ten-fifteen years,

You can significantly turn this around.

So all sattvic stuff that you're trying to do is only possible… Essentially,

Sattva means it's rich with life,

All right?

Rich with life,

In a way,

It's conducive and supportive for our life.

Today,

You know,

Without the gut microbiome,

You cannot digest the food that you eat.

The same is true for the tree.

If the microbes don't cooperate,

It cannot live.

So this is why I was telling you about taking off the leaf.

Everything else is fine with the tree.

Just the leaf,

If you take it off,

Because there's no photosynthesis,

It has no cash to exchange.

Within a few months,

It'll start dying,

Because there's no way for it to survive.

It'll be malnourished for some time,

After that it will die.

Same thing is happening with human beings.

Because without the necessary microbiome in your own system,

Neither can you maintain your physical health or mental health.

There is enough study today to show you how your mental health and nutritional values are directly related.

And there are microbiome,

You know,

Microbiome activity,

Which secre… you know,

Which helps secretion of serotonin,

Which manages human moods and emotions within themselves,

How you experience life.

Not just that,

If you go into something more fundamental,

See in your body,

Only forty percent is your parental genetics.

Sixty percent uses microbes.

That's what it is.

So when sixty percent of your physical content itself is this,

If you still don't understand that this is a part of this,

Even in evolutionary terms,

Your body is just a reflection of this soil.

This is just a consequence of what's happening in the soil.

That's how we have evolved into this.

This complex mechanism called human being has come… become a reality because of trillions of microbes,

Which are functioning in a certain way and creating a complex chemistry out of the whole thing.

Otherwise this cannot happen,

Whether it's plant life,

Animal life,

Everything.

You look at anything,

Whether it's a worm,

Insect,

Bird,

Animal,

Man,

Woman,

Tree,

Everything is just soil,

Isn't it?

Question is only,

Will we get it when we are alive or will we get it when somebody buries us down?

When we are buried,

We understand,

We are part of the soil.

A bit late,

That's all.

I'm just trying to see that it happens a little sooner than that.

Because if we… as a generation,

If we don't do it now,

We will regret this.

In another two decades,

We will have serious regret.

So there's lots of life which we can't see out in the soil?

Most of the life you cannot see.

And lots of life inside here,

Which decides how our health is?

Not just there,

It's everywhere,

Even in your brains.

Everywhere.

What is the relationship if we were to tangibly… does that directly affect this?

Very much.

How does that happen?

See food is one major way.

The very air that you breathe is full of microbes.

As people start living in more and more sanitized atmospheres,

Their systems will become weaker and weaker.

I don't want to make a statement because it'll be insulting for nations and cultures.

I don't want to do that.

But you look at it.

Rich nations are suffering most because of this pandemic.

Poorest countries are not suffering so much.

See richer countries,

Why?

Because they're living isolated from the soil.

They're living in lab-like atmosphere.

Temperature is always twenty-four degrees centigrade.

You live like that.

And you don't even want to walk on the ground.

Not just footwear,

You're on high heels.

Anybody here?

This girl?

When I say high heels,

I'm not giving a commentary on ladies' fashion.

I'm saying high heels means you're doing everything possible to live away from the earth.

Because somewhere your aspiration has become heaven.

Really,

This is a serious thing.

See if it comes to heaven,

Now different people,

Different groups of people,

Different religions,

Different cultures have their own different heavens.

All right?

But we all come from the same soil.

We don't know whether you go to heaven or not.

You will go back into the soil,

That much we're sure,

Isn't it?

So you can address your heaven according to your whims.

But this one thing we must do now.

Otherwise,

I want you to know,

Even if you're buried,

You won't even rot.

You understand?

In life and death,

It won't work without the microbes.

How is it happening?

Because you think you're separate,

That is the problem.

I'm telling you,

You're just an extension.

Right now you're sitting on this furniture,

So you don't understand.

If you sit on the floor,

On the ground,

You're just like a anthill sitting there,

Right?

Only thing is nature's magnanimity allowed to prance around.

If you're made like a tree,

If you're rooted into this soil,

You'd clearly understand you're a part of it.

Just because you have the privilege of mobility,

You've forgotten.

It's not that how does it affect.

You are soil,

You understand?

It's not that there is soil and there is you.

You are soil.

You're just an outcrop.

But you can roll around a little bit like a mud ball.

But see how complex life has become.

But it's as complex there,

Just in a different form.

Speaker 3 – Sadhguru,

You said 20,

000 species.

Sadhguru – 27.

Speaker 3 – 27,

000 species are disappearing every year.

Is this a recent phenomena that it started?

If yes,

What started it?

Sadhguru – See,

It started in the last hundred years of industrial agriculture.

But I would say in the last thirty-five to forty years,

This industrial level of agriculture has become universal across the world.

Earlier it was only in segments in certain countries,

But now it's spread everywhere.

When I say industrial level of agriculture,

Whether it's yielding in that scale or not is not a question.

See,

Right now the organisms here,

The only food they can eat is organic content.

Where will the organic content come from?

Here you see all these leaves,

Dry leaves falling down.

We won't pick it up nor sweep it away.

We leave it like that.

It'll become part of the soil.

It is only the green litter from the trees and other,

Whether it's grass or bushes,

Whatever,

Or the animal waste,

Which can put organic content into the soil.

Do one thing,

Fly from Coimbatore to Delhi,

Every five minutes you look out of the window.

Just tell me how much greenery is left in the country.

Except western Ghats and northeastern part of the country,

The whole country looks like a brown desert.

So where is the organic content?

Well unfortunately city people are talking,

You know I'm doing compost.

City my vegetable compost is very rich.

We know that,

But is that a solution?

It's very cute of you,

You're doing.

There's a machine,

Little machine in your kitchen which can turn vegetable waste into compost in whatever in a day or so,

Very cute,

But it's not a solution.

It may be a solution for your flower garden.

It's not a solution for world's agricultural lands,

Isn't it?

In every land,

There must be enough organic content being generated.

This was naturally happening because every farm had trees and animals always.

No trees,

No animals,

Only tractors.

Tractors are blowing anywhere between twelve to fourteen inches deep.

And most of the life,

Eighty-seven percent of the life on this planet depends upon fifteen inches of topsoil,

It all comes from that.

So we're plowing it like this and leaving it open to kill them.

So that's why this is happening.

You need organic content,

That means you need trees and you need animal wastes to happen.

So this moment we started almost twenty-four,

Twenty-five,

Twenty-five years ago now,

That we started encouraging the local farmers to convert ten percent of their land into trees.

Oh,

Ten percent of land will go waste,

It will not go waste.

They will also yield something.

Apart from that,

Your remaining ninety percent will become very enriched because of the trees.

But I remember this when fertilizers first came,

I was living on farms at that time.

When the fertilizers first came thirty-five,

Forty years ago,

The company sales manager coming and explaining to the farmers in the village where I was,

How these trees must be taken out.

Because if you put fertilizer in the field and you have a tree in the farm,

It has aggressive root system,

It'll take away all the fertilizer,

So cut the trees.

Millions and millions of trees across Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh were taken out at that time because everybody thought it's eating up the fertilizer.

But they did not understand it is fertilizing the soil all the time.

It is loosening the soil structure all the time with its root system.

So we are paying the price for this.

This damage has been on for over hundred years in many parts of the world.

In India,

It is I would say thirty-five to forty years old.

In forty years we have come to this place where we are,

Where our organic content is less than point-five percent in sixty… sixty-two percent of the land,

When the minimum set for calling soil as soil is three percent.

We are less than point-five percent.

We are on the verge of desertification.

Already the soil… I mean the agricultural input costs are just going up.

I'm telling you,

Fertilizers have subsidy,

Electricity have subsidy,

Everything.

If you just take away the subsidy,

Look at agriculture as a commercial activity,

It will fail tomorrow morning,

Everything will close up,

You understand?

No farmer will be able to manage his farm without subsidized fertilizers,

Subsidized electricity,

Subsidized this and that,

Minimum price,

Whatever else,

You know.

It's all free doles being given.

So as a commercial activity,

It is already a failure.

If you take away these supports,

It's gone.

This is not just here.

In United States,

Fifty percent of the farmers have not seen a single dollar of profit in the last twelve years,

Fifty percent.

The highest number of suicides among any profession in United States is in the farming community.

So it's not just here.

Suicide business is not just here.

So people who give us food,

They want to kill themselves.

Why?

I'm asking you,

If you were a farmer,

It doesn't matter how much bank loan you have,

What troubles you have in your life.

But if your land was rich,

And you could grow food for yourself and your family at least,

If not commercially,

Would you kill yourself,

I'm asking?

Hmm?

No.

But nobody is addressing this.

People are explaining to,

Oh,

This is because of the bank loan,

Because if the loan shark,

Yes,

They may further push it.

But the fundamental thing is,

Soil is not rich.

If we don't turn this around,

It simply shows that,

You know,

Some of you guys calling it,

You call yourself Generation Z.

Are you?

We don't say that,

But others do.

See,

Generation Z means it's the last generation.

Don't let them say it to you.

Hello?

Are you the last generation?

But that's what it means.

Don't do this.

You're not Generation Z.

There should never be a Generation Z,

Isn't it?

We must always think how the next generation can flourish,

Do better than how we have done.

That should always be the intent,

Isn't it?

Today,

The food that we are eating right now,

In terms of soil,

In terms of soil,

We are eating up the food that belongs to the unborn child already.

This is a crime against humanity.

It's not a simple thing.

So,

Sadhguru,

You spoke of turning this around.

We as people living in cities,

What can we do that can practically turn the situation around?

See,

If this needs to turn around,

Right now,

We've kept the ashram like this.

Right next door is the Isha Home School.

Some sixty,

Seventy acres of land,

Only three-hundred-and-forty children we take,

No matter what,

We don't increase that number.

It's a commitment.

In United States,

We have our center,

Isha Institute for Inner Sciences is twenty-thousand acres.

I've committed seventy percent for conservation.

Only thirty percent we will build.

Here also we are maintaining reasonably that kind of proportion.

Now I'm doing all this.

This generation may come and do mining here,

All right?

Can you stop them?

Can I stop them after I'm gone?

So it has to be written into the constitution.

This is how it will be.

Whatever happens,

This is how you keep it.

The same thing has to go into the country,

Isn't it?

If it's not in the law,

Then we don't know what they will do tomorrow.

That's what we have done,

Isn't it?

From previous generation to this generation,

In one generation we've ruined it because there was no law.

If there was a law,

Minimum agriculture content should be… organic content should be there in it.

We would have kept it that way.

So first and foremost thing is to bring the law.

To bring the law,

What is needed?

Right now,

People have not spoken.

This is the problem.

See,

Everybody is asking,

What can I do?

I'll roll up my sleeves and go into my garden.

See,

This is… you must decide in your life,

Are you doing things for your personal satisfaction or are you doing things to find a solution?

This much we must decide.

If it was satisfaction,

Go every day,

Meddle with your garden and grow two brinjals in your garden and bring it and show,

Oh my grew brinjals,

Farm fresh,

Organic,

You know,

People are doing this.

I'm not trying to discourage that.

It's wonderful.

As I said,

It's cute.

But it's not a solution.

Solution means seventy-one percent of the world's land is under agriculture.

Change must happen there.

Then it is a solution.

People are talking climate change,

Climate change.

Right now the sun is going down.

Let's say at twelve o'clock you stood out there for one hour,

If I make you stand there and then let you come under the tree,

You understand what is climate change.

Oof!

Yes or no?

Yeah.

If more land was covered by this leaf which is doing photosynthesis,

Which is the most phenomenal thing that's happening on this planet right now,

Because we are living because of photosynthesis in the sense… I know you're not green.

No,

I mean to say your skin is not green,

I understand that.

But in this planet,

Before photosynthesis started,

There was only oxygen in the atmosphere,

Only little over one percent,

One point two,

One point three percentage.

Today it's twenty-one percent.

It is because of this,

A complex mechanism like you and me can breathe and exist,

All the mammals can exist,

Many higher life forms can exist,

Only because of twenty-one percent of them.

And this happened only because of photosynthesis.

Just go by the simple thing,

How much photosynthesis was happening on this planet five-hundred years ago,

How much is happening today?

You stripped the land bare,

It's either plowed or paved.

No,

More photosynthesis should happen,

Whatever,

Whether it's grasses,

Bushes,

Trees,

Something green and alive,

Not green paint,

Because some people will think,

Shall we paint the earth green,

You know?

No,

No,

There are all kinds of people,

I'm meeting all kinds of people every day,

That's why I'm saying.

If photosynthesis covers the planet in many ways,

The soil will become alive,

Because this exchange of carbon sugars and nutrients,

This is a carbon chain.

See the word carbon,

Lot of people who just,

You know,

Either they're online warriors or they're textbook people,

They're thinking carbon is some kind of poison.

Hey,

We're all carbon life.

Hello?

Maybe not carbon copies,

But we're carbon life,

Isn't it?

So this is a carbon cycle,

What you call as life and death is a carbon cycle that is going on.

The nature of any chain is such,

If you break one link,

The chain will collapse,

Right?

You ever rode a motorcycle?

Yes,

A scootie.

That's all.

If you rode a motorcycle with a chain,

You would understand when the chain breaks,

You have a powerful engine means nothing.

Boom,

It'll spin on the same place.

So once the chain breaks,

It doesn't matter what else is happening,

Nothing will work.

So right now,

This is what we're doing,

The chain,

Where a important part of it is soil microbeomes,

There we are trying to break it.

If we weaken it and break it,

We'll break the life cycle on this planet.

It's not like tomorrow morning,

One day everybody will die,

Boom,

Like that.

It's not a bomb.

It'll slide.

When things slide,

See,

If you just die,

Unfortunate,

But you're dead.

But if we slide your life down slowly,

You know what miseries you'll go through?

That's called torture,

Isn't it?

That's what will happen.

When food shortages happen,

People are not going to just fall dead like that.

They will become weaker and weaker and weaker and suffer immensely and die.

This is not some doomsday prediction I'm doing.

Just before 1950s,

We had so many famines in this country,

Where some of the famines took millions of people.

But we've just forgotten because we ate well for fifty years,

We just forgot.

We just simply forgotten,

Sixty,

Seventy years we ate well.

So we've forgotten about the famines that this country went through,

The famines that every nation has gone through at some point or the other.

So we are once again looking at such situations by 2035,

2040.

This is not very far away.

2040 is not too far away.

This year itself,

The World Food Program,

Which is in partnership with us,

Is expecting famines at a almost fifty percent higher than last year in Africa and South America.

So last year they distributed food worth… worth nine billion dollars.

This year they want fifteen billion dollars because they clearly see there are going to be many more famines in various countries.

How long will you provide food like this?

If people cannot grow food around where they live,

In one way or the other,

In their own countries,

In their own communities,

If they can't grow food,

You can never sustain a population by bringing food from somewhere.

And people who give you food for free,

You think they will just give you and forget about it?

They'll exploit you in a thousand different ways,

Isn't it?

Questioner 2 – So if the solution to this is to drive policy change,

What can we as people who don't have power in our hands do to drive that policy change?

Sadhguru – Ah,

Now that is a issue.

See this is a democracy.

Where you guys from?

Mumbai,

Emily.

Questioner 3 – From Gurgaon,

Closer Delhi.

Sadhguru – Okay.

In here,

In Tamil Nadu,

The word for democracy is Jananayakam.

That means people are the power.

It's people's power.

That's what it means.

So there are two very powerful things in your hands right now.

One is your oat,

Another is your microphone.

Hello?

That means your voice.

Enhanced voice.

Microphone is just enhanced voice.

If you don't have a voice,

What do you do with a microphone?

So oat,

That you do only once in five years or whatever.

But voice you have.

And today everybody's voice is enhanced like never before,

Isn't it?

You can sit here and talk to millions of people.

When was it possible?

Many great beings have come.

When they spoke,

Hardly ten people heard.

But today we can sit here and speak to the entire world if we wish.

When we have such a power,

You should not say this,

What can I do,

What can I do?

You can do a lot.

Because moving the people,

We have arrangements with social media platforms that for one hundred days,

From March 21st onwards,

For one hundred days,

We want the whole world to talk about soil,

Who I don't know what to say.

When you say save soil,

You don't know how to say save soil.

Say,

Save a soil,

Soil,

Save a,

Save whatever you want.

Say something soil,

Say let's make it happen.

Or if you want more,

You want to speak more knowledgeably,

We are posting enormous amount of content on our website,

Including the policy documents for different nation.

All this will happen in the next few… couple of weeks,

All this will go.

Already there is something but much more will go on it.

Take whatever you want and use it.

You don't have to support me.

Just make sure yourself and everybody around you,

Everybody in touch with you,

Speaks about soil every day for five to ten minutes,

Something about soil.

If you write a message to somebody,

Close it with save soil.

Yes.

And don't think this is my moment.

This goddamn it,

This is our planet,

Right?

If we don't do this now,

This will not be good.

All I have to die,

All I have to do is,

By 2045,

There's going to be very severe food shortage.

Maybe I just have to die ten,

Fifteen years early,

No problem for me,

I lived my life.

What about all of you young people?

What about the children?

What are we doing to them?

Even the unborn child,

We are torturing them already.

We have set up the torture mechanism for them.

Because by 2050,

It is expected the population will be anywhere between 9.

8 to 10 billion people and forty,

Forty-five percent less food.

Oh,

I don't wish to see it even with my eyes.

Forget about my food.

Wherever I go,

Somebody will feed me,

All right?

But I don't want to see that with my eyes.

That's not what you want to see.

War is bad.

Famine is worse.

Just know this.

At least in war somebody shoots you and you're dead.

Famine is not like that.

It slowly fades your life.

So most torturous way to die is famine,

Always.

Questioner 2 – So Sadhguru,

You talk about policy change,

But the.

.

.

In India,

Such a big country,

Is it possible for.

.

.

How will the farmers take it up as their mission?

Will one policy change inspire them to plant more trees?

Sadhguru – No,

No.

Policy change involves budget.

Policy change involves certain incentives.

See,

Right now,

We.

.

.

After seven,

Seven-and-a-half years of pushing it around,

We got what is called as a tree-based.

.

.

Growth-based subsidy for the trees in Karnataka.

So one-hundred-and-twenty-five rupees subsidy per tree,

But spread over four years.

Why this is,

Is when you do tree-based agriculture,

First three,

Four years,

You lose some income.

So,

He gets that.

That income is actually better than his crop,

What he is losing.

What he is losing,

Little more than that he is getting.

But it's growth-based.

He has to take pictures of that every year and post it.

Then only the money goes to his bank account,

Otherwise it will not go.

So now he makes sure the tree is taken care of,

The tree is growing.

Last year if the tree was this much,

He has to show the trees that much,

Okay?

So growth-based subsidy is there.

Like this,

Incentives are needed.

For cover crops,

Some incentives are needed to.

.

.

Suppose I rest my land and regenerate.

Right now,

Let us say,

My land has one percent organic content.

If I show three percent in whatever amount of time,

If I am doing that work,

Give me some money,

Because I'm foregoing something to start with.

But after a couple of years,

That land will yield so much.

With the farmer,

We are never talking about ecology.

We are never talking about the planetary situation.

We are not talking about saving the world.

It's cruel and obscene to even talk to him about it.

With farmer,

It's always an economic policy,

How it'll benefit him.

Once he realizes it benefits him economically,

That is the policy.

Policy is not about,

Oh,

Everybody do it,

Save the world.

You can't tell a farmer who's struggling for daily bread to save the world.

It's obscene to even put up such an idea.

For him,

It's an economic policy.

Right now,

The tree-based agriculture with which we have,

You know,

Included hundreds of thousands of people,

Many of them,

Their incomes have gone up anywhere between three to eight.

.

.

Three to eight times or three hundred to eight hundred percent,

All right?

And in those who are doing tree-based agriculture,

Every twelve years,

They can cut the trees and sell it.

The money that they get is what they would get if they sold the land.

You understand?

Like if you sold the land,

Let's say you're going to get fifty lakhs or one crore,

That money you get now and you still keep the land.

Now people will want to do agriculture,

Isn't it?

Some people want to go back into agriculture in some parts where they're seeing and you know,

They can earn much more than being a doctor or an engineer,

They're going for it.

But right now,

We've done some,

You know,

Basic kind of survey.

But if you really talk to the farmers across the country,

Not even two percent of the farmers want their children to become farmers.

I'm asking in twenty-five years when all these old people die,

Who's going to grow food for you?

Don't think farming is… just because they look illiterate,

Don't think it's a simple thing.

I'll give you a very fertile plot of five-ten acres.

Just grow three different varieties of crops for me,

Let me see.

Doesn't matter how intelligent you think you are,

Maybe you're an engineer,

Maybe you're something,

You will goof up completely because it needs some meticulous attention to things,

Otherwise it won't happen.

So in this country,

We have an agricultural tradition of over 12,

000 years and even today sixty-five percent of the population is in agriculture.

If you don't fix it now,

As people move out,

Then they will not even be interested in organic content,

They want you to make it real estate and go away,

All right?

When that happens,

Already it's happening around the cities,

But when that happens large scale,

Then there'll be no revival.

Once you lose your ability to grow food,

Then food doesn't come from the store,

It comes from the land.

All those people who are living in the lab,

They need to come to the land.

So what can I do is a good question.

But right now I am saying don't do anything.

If you like to compost your vegetable waste and grow a flower pot in your house,

Do it.

Is good and very cute,

But it is not a solution.

Solution is only by moving the policy and policy is not as simple as just telling people okay increase organic content,

Save the world.

No,

It is an economic policy.

Speaker 3 So Sadhguru,

Going back to the question as to what we can do as people,

Do you think that we can also make certain dietary changes that can contribute to conserving our soil?

Sadhguru Very much.

If you eat local and all that stuff,

There are many things you can do.

I will come to those things later.

Why means because right now the most important thing is it should get enshrined in the policy.

Otherwise,

Once again,

We will end up with minimalistic activity.

You will change your diet.

You think all of them will change?

No.

You will require ten more people to change,

But there will be hundred that you cannot inspire.

Yes or no?

This is the reality of the world.

We have also been changing people's diets for nearly forty years.

Millions of people have changed,

But millions still don't make the world,

Isn't it?

So yes,

Those things are important.

Those are later things.

Right now in these hundred days,

We want to raise people to a place where three to four billion people speak of soil.

We aggregate those numbers.

Using that,

We will make the governments,

Make the policies in a one hundred and ninety-two governments which are democratically elected.

If this happens,

Then there is a whole lot of things which we will come to you for sattvic food.

Speaker 3 Would this policy also include not allowing fertilizers and pesticides?

Sadhguru No.

See how a farmer,

Individual farmer does his farming is his business.

People sitting in the city will say organic,

Organic because they just read it in a magazine,

Not even a book usually,

All right?

Everything in the world is organic only,

But chemical usage is doing certain things.

It is like you're eating good food,

You're healthy,

But suppose we take your blood test,

We may find your calcium is not good enough,

Maybe her iron is not good enough,

Something.

What do we do?

We give one pill to her,

One pill to you.

For how long?

Two months,

Three months,

Six months maybe as it's needed.

I'm saying it is doctored,

All right?

Something is lacking,

So we put some kind of supplement.

Fertilizer is a supplement like that.

If something is lacking today for the crop that I want to grow,

Little supplement.

But what happened was for you,

You took calcium and you felt really nice tomorrow morning.

Then you decided all this food is trash,

I'll just eat calcium tablets.

That's what is happening to the soil.

That's what we're doing to the soil.

So we are not saying no fertilizer,

No pesticide.

These are all impractical things right now.

They will not work.

Tomorrow morning if you stop all fertilizer and pesticide in the country,

You will be producing twenty-five percent of the food that you're producing right now.

That's a disaster.

That's not the way to go.

As you increase the organic content,

The need for fertilizer will come down.

As you eat more and more nutritious food,

The need for supplement will come down,

Isn't it?

Just like that.

You have to doctor the soil,

Not a philosophy.

Agriculture is not a philosophy,

Agriculture is not a religion.

It's a practical activity,

Needs to be conducted sensibly.

Last question,

Sadhguru.

Somehow you said we've become very… Did you always let him have the last word?

Okay.

You never know.

It's my last question.

How have we become so disconnected with soil,

Even though we come from soil?

Why do we feel someone else's responsibility is to fix it and we will… we don't need to do something?

Where is this mindset come from?

See,

Most human beings are looking at how to live less because they think they will go to heaven and live well.

Everything that you wish to do,

You must do it in this life,

Isn't it?

How you got disconnected,

Because I said… It's a wrong word because ladies may get offended.

I am using the word high heel not as footwear.

I am using the word high heel.

Let's see,

Right now we are sitting on high heels,

All right?

We could be sitting down.

But I don't know if you can cross your legs and sit down on the ground,

So we have to put furniture.

Without furniture,

Most people cannot sit and they think they became civilized.

No,

They got crippled.

Suppose you cannot walk without a crutch,

You're crippled,

Isn't it?

If you cannot sit without a chair,

Are you crippled?

Yes.

So,

This crippling is called civilization.

Now people are living in conditions where everything is managed.

Temperature is always twenty-four degree centigrade,

Everything is managed like this.

They have become like lab rats.

We have to move them from lab to land.

That's a long process,

We don't know when they will move.

But at least let us save the soil for our generation and future generations.

Keep it alive.

What kind of nonsense you do with your life is up to you.

But the fundamental life-making material,

Please keep it alive.

This is a fundamental responsibility.

Everybody,

All the people who are with you,

We're calling them earth buddies.

Make them into earth buddies that they dedicate five to ten minutes a day to be on social media platform or stand on top of the roof and shout or go on the street and give out a… you print your own little pamphlet and give it to people.

Please do this.

If you don't do this now,

Believe me,

You will regret it in your life.

This is not… I am not a doomsayer.

I am not a negative person who is thinking of terrible things will happen.

This is happening already.

This is not going to happen.

This is already happening.

Look at the amount of mental illnesses that you have.

WHO is talking about mental panda… mental illness pandemic.

You know what mental illness pandemic means?

There was a coronavirus pandemic.

What does it mean?

If you sit here,

You may just catch it.

All right?

If you breathe,

You may catch it.

That's what it means.

That's what mental illness pandemic means.

If you go to work,

You may become mentally ill.

If you stay at home,

You may become mentally ill.

If you walk on the street,

You may become mentally ill.

It's going in that direction.

Your nutritional aspect,

Lack of microbiome is a serious matter in this whole issue.

Physical health is another thing.

Let's make it happen.

Safe soil,

Let's make it happen.

Say it,

Hmm?

Participants – Safe soil,

Let's make it happen.

That's the last word.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Reviews

Yes.

Save soil. Great informative talk. Shame that so many governments put profit before people & don't consider the long term effect of their policies.

Inspired to go out and plant some potatoes.

SaveSoil. I want to raise my voice in this way. Enshrine soil protection into our laws.
Let’s make it happen.