Sadhguru – The Man Who Might Persuade the World to “Save Soil”

There are noble men and women, including spiritual leaders who have talked about and worked for lofty ideals like world peace. Nobel Peace Prize list has, unfortunately, the names of many such leaders who have brought more war and misery to this unfortunate planet than many leaders defined as mad hatters by liberal lobby. The urge to bring peace to the world is so noble and so enticing that thousands of hours are spent on lecturing about it and allied activities like flag waving, taking oath for peace etc.

 

 

Well-meaning world bodies with world leaders have talked in salubrious climates and comforts of rich countries about Climate Change/ Global Warming for years nay decades, without any action on the ground. The rich believe that they have higher rights than the poor countries on resources. They need not take care to nurture nature and control consumption, but poor must. While leaders argue and produce reams of papers, we have witnessed the disastrous climate change all round us.

 

Then a spiritual master, dismissed derisively by liberals as a ‘Godman’ and questioned on every count since he began talking about Bharat – our ancient nation and supporting Modi; decides to take up something unglamourous but very important for managing climate change and save environment. Sadhguru, the man of the hour, says that it has been on his mind for 30 years, but he has picked it up in right earnest now when he is ready with required resources and reach with his thousands of the followers. He picked up the critical component of the environment without which the entire talk of climate control becomes mere hot air.

 

 

If mother earth loses its soil cover which is just 15-16 inches of the top layer of the earth, water can’t be conserved, you cannot grow food, you can’t provide nutrition to billions of human beings, forget preserving the other living beings from microbes to elephants. We are staring at hunger and deaths at a level if we don’t change. He offers simple solutions like agro-forestry, planting more trees, bushes and maintaining green cover that holds the soil and lowers its temperature. These steps save billions of microbes in the soil that provide nutrients to our food. He has already done pilot projects including famous Save Cauvery.

 

 

 

The primary objective of the Save Soil Movement is to urge all nations of the world to mandate a minimum of 3-6% organic content in agricultural soils through urgent policy reforms. Without this minimum organic content, soil scientists have warned of the imminent death of soil, a phenomenon they are terming as ‘soil extinction.’

I attended the “Save Soil” movement yesterday in Mumbai. He made highly impassioned and articulate plea for saving the soil. He presented scientific facts to tell the audience the status of soil today, where we will be if we don’t stop the degradation further. He didn’t criticise anyone severely though he could have. He didn’t blame others but us, as a society for the disaster we are facing as humanity. The beauty of his Bharatiya approach was to look within for solutions not blame others – not create anger but generate positivity. Audience was with him throughout.

 

This is the strength of Sadhguru. He can carry people with him with his laughter and ease of communication. He can talk to the commoner, the elite; he can talk to the senior government officials and heads of the state.

 

 

Logistics of what he has achieved over last 100 days are mind boggling. I should have taken notes, but going by memory, he travelled around 25000 km on motorcycle across 26 countries. Made about 46 stop overs addressing over 200 rallies and meetings. To keep his appointments, he drove even at night. He hinted that there were some close shaves too. He will complete 30000 km by the time he reaches back his HQ in Coimbatore. I am not amazed at his energy at 65 years. Afterall, he is a yoga practitioner. But I am amazed at the meticulous planning. Afterall, he is not running an MNC. His ability to reach out to so many governments and get them on the table for this issue, sign memorandums during the given period is stunning. His and his team’s professionalism can be gauged from the fact that the team made 190 documents for 190 countries with many common themes but specific solutions for the respective countries understanding that the farmers will take up the cause only if it fits into their farming traditions.

 

I must confess that I am not a disciple of Sadhguru. I have visited his Coimbatore ashram when it was still taking shape. It is a spiritual experience to sit in the Shiva temple. I have heard his lectures too. I have tried my hand at Shambhavi but abandoned it after one day due to some personal reasons and completed a short course of Sudarshan kriya too. But I am sceptic of the Gurus who harness Hindu philosophy to create their own following, but refuse to acknowledge the roots. I have observed many Hindu philosophy based spiritual movements from Swami Chinmayananda, Iskcon, Sri Sri etc. I feel closest to Chinmaya Mission for its unapologetic enunciation of Hindu philosophy. However, I respect all those Sants, Acharyas and Gurus who spread positivity in these times of self-created stress.

 

Thus, I went to the program with a positive frame of mind. I saw mostly young and a few older volunteers waving flags of Save Soil cheerfully with broad smiles near the venue. Ok. I went into the huge auditorium and saw enthusiastic people with Save Soil posters, all smiles, all pumped up. I thought ok. As Isha volunteer’s orchestra came on stage, some girls dressed in traditional attires started dancing, so also the audience. I thought ok. Good atmospherics being created. A short documentary of Sadhguru’s Save Soil journey so far was shown and exactly at 7 pm the documentary closed and in drove Sadhguru on his bike to a resounding roar. This is meticulous planning. Not a single goof up all through. No technical glitches. Everything like clock-work. Very rare in India.

 

 

My doubts began melting away. I must say, I was simply spellbound the way Sadhguru bonds with his disciples. He is a rock-star in every sense. He has fans from my age to the young teenagers, quite an achievement. He had their ears, their eyes and their hearts. He was their Guru and a friend with ready laughter with whom they could laugh and joke too. Only leader who comes close to him in this close communion with his audience is PM Narendra Modi. Sadhguru’s harnessing of Bharatiya music, ancient art and craft to attract the youth and creating a dedicated band of youth imbibing the best Bharatiya knowledge system can be a great learning for many. There is fusion with western music, but not a senseless copy of the west. Organisation and its members remain firmly rooted in Bharatiya sanskriti which is visible everywhere in Isha. He doesn’t criticise technology, but persuades people to harness it for the good cause. He told his audience to spread the message of “Save Soil” or “Mitti Bachao” to their friends and spread the movement. This synthesis of rational world view and spirituality is Isha Foundation’s strength.

 

Watching the awesome program and hearing Sadhguru yesterday, I feel that this is the man who might shake up people’s apathy globally to their environment and make them own up their responsibility to save the soil, our planet and ourselves. We should all wish him success.