 It is your birthday in four days on the third of September and I am very excited about it. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I could gift you, but in vain. Can you please guide me on what I could do for you this birthday? See, excitement about birthday is probably when you're sixteen or eighteen because maybe you get your driving license, you're on your own. Because you turned eighteen, your mother can't ask, where did you go? Where were you all this time? Because I'm eighteen. So those were exciting birthdays. Maybe at that time I didn't even notice which day is my birthday because I would be somewhere and I wouldn't even know. Now, birthday is beyond a certain age is like a countdown for you to take off. So what will you do? Anyway, let me make use of it because you want to do something. I'm interested in people who want to do something, not for me, but you're interested in doing something now that you're asking. Is this from India or here? I don't know. Okay. Well, what you could do is the third of September, we are seeing how to make this the river revitalization day. Raleigh for Rivers was flagged off on 3rd September, that was, you know, this was my plan to avoid birthday parties. Kaveri Calling was flagged off on 3rd September and Kaveri Calling, as if you have followed as you would know, I was soaked to the bone every day because of heavy rains and motorcycle. So my birthday was a really soaking birthday last time because we were in Kurg and the monsoon peaked out at that time. And those of you who have not seen monsoon in the western Ghats, you must someday see it's like sheets of rain, like literally like, you know, the word downpour, most appropriate in that situation is not like rain drops coming down, it's like sheets of rain coming down and we were riding in those conditions. It was like back to my early twenties time when I was constantly riding in those kind of conditions. Anyway, so this year we are pushing towards this to slowly establish this as the river revitalization day. As a part of this, we have a conversation, a live conversation with the Ministry of Environment in the federal government of India, central government. Why this is because Kaveri Calling has been a massive success in spite of the pandemic. We lowered our goals a little bit thinking the pandemic may affect us but our fantastic volunteers, their dedication and commitment, the enthusiasm of the local farmers and above all the support that the state government offered in the form of subsidies for the farmers and the Karnataka State Forest Department provided massive amount of saplings. So, eleven million saplings are being planted this year in private lands, you must understand this. Farmers are taking high value timber trees and taking it on their land. That means for sure they will survive because for every surviving tree over a period of four years, there is a subsidy, there is a certain financial assistance. Having said that, I gave a call to the youth in India that three years of your life, if you dedicate for this cause, we will revive the rivers. That was a big thing to say. So a little over three hundred youth, many of them resigned well-paying jobs. Some of them dropped their PhD pursuits halfway, some of them anywhere dropouts. They were not fitting into the university, they were looking for a universe for themselves. So over three hundred of them dedicated their lives for this cause for three years. Now I have the responsibility and onus not only not to disappoint the farmers and above all Kaveri and many world bodies which are all looking at this project with great hope because never before anything like this has been done. Repeatedly many leaders in the world bodies have told me, Sadhguru, if you pull this off successfully, this will be a game changer for the tropical world and in turn for the entire world. Because if you do not know this, a tree planted in tropical land is about six to eight times more effective in terms of carbon sequestering and fixing of that climate change than when it is planted above thirty-three degrees latitude. So they are seeing this as a game changer. So we don't want to fail, we want to win the game because this is not about us, this is not about a few of us or a few hundred of us who are working on this and as you know the contributions for Kaveri calling for this forty-two rupees per sapling call when it was given came from one hundred and twenty-two countries and over eighty-two percent of them had nothing to do with Asia as an organization, these are just people. So that is the level of enthusiasm and trust that they have placed in us above all the farmers because their lives in the last fifty years has not been good at all. That is, in the last twenty-two years over three hundred thousand farmers have committed suicide. People have been asking me, Sadhguru, why did you take up this cause? Why so much involvement? I said if three hundred thousand lives committing suicide doesn't get you into action, I don't know what. I don't know what else we are waiting for. Maybe we have a way of getting used to every kind of tragedy. Please understand this. Getting used to a horrible situation is not transformation, is not freedom, it's just lethargy of life. You've got used to people dying all around you, it's okay they die. This is not in any way that you are spiritually evolved and nothing touches you. No, nothing touches you because life has not touched you. Life should touch you. You say, you call it a birthday, all right? Birth means life touched you, that is birth. Only because life touched you, birth happened. Now that it's happened and you believe in celebrating that every year, let's put it a good use, Kaveri calling. In spite of the pandemic, with great enthusiasm it's been on the ground. I'm putting these young people's lives to risks. Risk, though we are maintaining strict protocols but still they're out there traveling and doing things. Fortunately not one of them has come down with infection. Nobody has tested positive yet but the way it is spreading, who knows? But they are putting their life to risk and make things happen. So the onus is also on me to ensure these young people who are dedicating three years of their life, their three years does not go waste unless we are able to make them do something more wonderful than what they would have done by themselves. We have no right to call for anybody's lives. So in this context, now I have found you who wants to do something for my birthday. There's a lot to be done. How much of it can you swallow? Please that much you swallow. Because yesterday night I had a late night call with the Kaveri calling panel. All of them are trying to do their best but I want you to understand the scale of this project. It's 83,000 square kilometers of land, 5.2 million farmers and various struggles and thresholds to cross. This needs a continuous throttle on kind of situation and the time that it gives you to raise, to plan and to plant is a very challenging process. Raising saplings takes a minimum of eight months, minimum eight months up to ten, eleven months. Planting needs to happen within two months span of monsoons. Another smaller monsoon happens, which is called as the northeast, little later in the year. But the real thing is only July, August, September already 8.3 million saplings have been taken by the farmers. This time the monsoon has been little late. So this were eleven million saplings will go away very soon. We could have done more but we were concerned with the pandemic on whether we will be able to you know really inspire people to take this on because we could not physically go to many villages as we had planned. There was supposed to be an inspiring tour that I was supposed to make in the villages of these two states, which I did not make. Largely using technology and WhatsApp groups and things like that, they're inspiring the farmers which is not a easy thing to do. But it is being done wonderfully well. Now, every one of you who have some concern for life, when you celebrate a birthday, this means you have some sense of celebration about life. If you have some sense of celebration for what life is, then you must do this to whatever extent you can. It's not for me to tell you do this much or that much, but this must happen in a recurring way. Every one of you who are with us right now on this darshan, you do something. One tree a month, five trees, ten trees, hundred trees, whatever your capacity, but do it in a recurring manner, not one time and forget because one thing is it must be on your consciousness. This is very important. Forty-two rupees. In United States you can't buy nothing for that, sixty cents. I don't think even the beggar will take sixty cents from you. He also puts up a board, five dollars. Yes. Even in India, forty-two rupees doesn't even buy your coffee anymore. So money is not the issue. What has been missing is human concern and care. As a generation of people, let's show that if you're concerned about celebrating my birthday, you must understand it is the birthday which is important. Birthday means beginning of life. If you are so inspired about the nature of life because that's all we have, you may think you have many, many things. You have your lumps of gold. Carry it on your head now. You have wealth, you have bank balance, you have billions of dollars. No, no. Only thing you have is life. Because you have life, you're pretending to have all these things. The only thing and really the only and only thing you have is life. We'll do one thing. If you don't understand what I am saying, let's take your life out, then enjoy the billions and the lump of gold on your head. That's the only thing we have. So, Cauvery Calling is a committed celebration of life because without water, without soil, there is no life. That's make it happen. If you want to use my birthday as an inspiration, I'm fine. I don't mind celebrating birthday every day of the year. Hello? Really, why just September 3rd? If you want, I will do it 4th also, 5th also, December 3rd also. I'm okay. I'm willing, I'm saying. If you're willing, please let's make this happen. This is very important. This is not my work. This is not Isha Foundation's work. This is a generational work. We must make this happen. It's very important.