Only In Preserving The Quality Of The Soil, The Quality Of Life Will Endure: Sadhguru

A yogi, mystic, visionary, Sadhguru is ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India!

What is the 'Save Soil' Movement?

Sadhguru: We talk of many different issues. We talk of carbon emissions, pollution at various levels. Right now, there is a misunderstanding in the world where civic issues are being projected as environmental issues. If plastic bags are floating around in your city, this is not an ecological issue but a civic issue. This can be fixed with enforcement of law and a little bit of awareness. If our rivers are polluted, it can be fixed in one or two years if you set up the necessary purification plants and enforce the law. We are labelling our irresponsible activity in the world as ecological issues. The real ecological issue is soil.

When we say soil, we are largely talking about the topsoil. On an average, there are thirty-nine inches of topsoil in the world. Almost all life happens because of these thirty-nine inches. But since we started very mechanized and industrialized kind of agriculture, the organic content in the world’s soil has gone down significantly. For any soil to have agricultural potential, it must have a minimum of three to six percent organic content. But in large parts of the world, it is well below 1%. In sixty percent of India’s soil, it is below 0.5%. Our ability to grow food itself is going away because we are turning the land into a desert. We are turning soil into sand because there is no organic material anymore – there are no leaves or animal waste.

Soil is also a very significant carbon sink and the largest water soak on the planet. It is the basis of all life. If soil is rich, there will be water. If soil is rich and there is enough vegetation on it, the air will be purified. So, our attention has to shift to soil.

This is why we have taken up the Conscious Planet – Save Soil movement. As a part of the movement, we are trying to touch at least 3.5 billion citizens across the world, to impress upon all political parties and governments to take to long-term soil regeneration policies.

What struck you to go with this movement "as a mission"? 

Sadhguru: People have heard of dinosaurs and dodos going extinct. They are talking about how pandas and polar bears may go extinct. But right now, I'm using a term called “Soil Extinction”. Soil extinction is a new term, but soil extinction itself is not new. For the last 100-150 years, we have been unfolding this process, and now it has reached a cusp.

Half of the world’s topsoil has been lost. 74% of southern Europe has very low organic content in its soil – less than 2%. 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 to act after 50 years, it will take 100–150 years to turn the soil around. That means four or five generations will go through terrible states of life because of the weak condition of soil. That is why the urgency. 

Only in preserving the quality of the soil, the quality of life will endure. If we can ensure the soil is organically rich and healthy, the planet will be capable of regenerating itself, and we will be able to manage the other problems, to a large extent.

What are the key points that you are majorly focusing on for this mission? 

Sadhguru: The first thing that we want to change is the narrative in the world towards soil. We must recognize soil as a living entity, not a bunch of chemicals – which has been a predominant misconception. It is not about nitrogen or phosphorus – it is about living soil. Agricultural soil must have a minimum of 3–6% organic content. This should become a policy in every country.  

Secondly, 5.26 billion people in the world live in democracies. An elected government usually has a term of four to five years and would not be willing to invest in long-term soil policies of 15–20 years, unless citizens stand up and speak. That is why we are trying to move at least 3.5 billion people, or sixty percent of the world’s electorate, to speak for a soil health policy.

How did you begin with it? And also, what are the further plans related to this?

Sadhguru: I am not an environmentalist. I am a worm on this planet. I have crawled on this planet for sixty-five years now, so I know my life and everything that affects my life. People will naturally say, "Okay, everyone has lived on this planet." No, they have not lived on this planet, they have lived in their heads – all psychological stuff. I don't have anything in my head, so I live on this planet. What supports life and what does not support life is always visible. If I just walk on the land, I know what is happening there – whether it is alive or not. Land is generally screaming in most parts of the world but you do not hear it because your own noise is big. 

So, when did this start? It has always been there in my life. Way back, in the mid ‘70s when I went into agriculture, I started living on farms. Then I wrote a document because I saw how the rural scape was in India and how heartbreaking it was for the farmers. They were moving from subsistence farming to cash farming, but the transition was happening slowly over a whole generation. When you want to transit from one system to another, you must quickly do it in a planned way. When it is not done like this, the pain of it is unbelievable. The farmers did not know what to do. They always used to grow what they wanted and eat from their land. But then, suddenly, they were supposed to grow just one crop and put it in the marketplace. They just did not know how to handle this monoculture. The farmer suicides are a reflection of the level of suffering that a farmer goes through.

Since then, I have been shouting about soil. It is not that we suddenly thought of the "Save Soil" movement. For the last 26–27 years, we have been working on this. In many ways, whether it was Project GreenHands, Rally for Rivers or Cauvery Calling, they are not different things – it has all been about soil. But we talked about water because people can relate to it much more easily. 

Now, for the last eight months, I have been talking to various heads of state, environmental ministers, and agricultural ministers across the world. I will be addressing the COP15 in May in the Ivory Coast, where 170 countries will be in attendance. We have prepared an elaborate soil policy which will be sent to every country.  We are also creating a scientific group of about twenty-five people post the 100-day motorcycle journey to handhold small countries, and guide them scientifically on exactly how they can implement policies in a way that is economically beneficial for the farmers and for the nation.

You are supposed to begin your bike journey from March 21. Please elaborate on it, how long is the blueprint of that bike journey? 

Sadhguru: The journey is from London on 21 March to Cauvery River basin in India, covering 30,000 km over 100 days. We are riding through northern Europe in late March and early April, when it may still be snowing, and roads could be icy. Then, we will be riding through Arabia in the month of May, where temperatures are between 36–40 degrees Celsius, good enough to thaw the snow that might have gathered in my head! And we will be hitting India right in the middle of the monsoon season. So, I am going to get the beating of my life!

At this stage of my life, at the age of sixty-five, 30,000 km is not a joyride – maybe it will be the end of me. But I want people to understand that someone is willing to invest their entire life into this, and that saving soil is that urgent.

How can a human be gentle and sensitive towards the environment? What is your opinion?

Sadhguru: It happened. On a certain day, a huge tusker was crossing a wooden bridge. A fly was perched on his left earlobe. After they got across, the fly said, “Hey, didn’t we really shake up that bridge?”

That sums up the human attitude today. Though we are a microscopic speck in the cosmic scale, we delude ourselves that we are the center of creation. We think the planet is in peril when only human existence and wellbeing are truly imperiled.

We are living in a time when we have to think of protecting the things that have always nurtured us. This is the first time in the history of humanity that we have to talk about protecting the planet. Never before did anyone have such an insane idea that they had to protect the planet. The planet always took care of us.

Preserving and nurturing this planet is not different from aspiring for a good life for ourselves, because there is no good life without a good planet. Right now, we are looking at ecological concerns as some kind of an obligation that we have to fulfill. It is not an obligation; it is our life.

What is your message for the general public in view of the Soil mission?

Sadhguru: Generally, most ecological movements are always against someone. "Hit the oil industry, hit the rich man, hit the corporations, hit the automobile industry," has been the way, though all of us are using all those things on a daily basis. All of us are driving, using electricity, and so on, but we want to hit them. It is not going to work like that. Soil is one thing which is beyond race, religion, caste, creed, nationality, political ideologies, professions, and economic status. All of us have to take care of soil because it concerns every one of us. It is not just me who is eating on this planet; it is also you and every other creature. So, we have to make sure that no one is against making the soil rich. Is the oil industry against it? Is the automobile industry against it? Is the nuclear industry against it? No one is against it. No government is against it. This is a good thing. The only thing is we have to get them to act.

We have written letters to 730 political parties from 192 countries around the world to institute a policy for soil revitalization in their country. We will be meeting heads of state during these 100 days, because we want soil ecology to become a part of political manifestos. Above all, for these 100 days, 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 of soil for 100 days.

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!