 This is not going to look nice on the same soil poster. Don't read the textbooks, that's what I'm telling you. Must not. I was right in school. So climate change cannot be addressed without addressing the soil quality at all. But if all of us sit here and there's no food for four months, how we die is most terrible. Now we know about this, but what can we do? If we act now, in the next 10-15 years, we can turn this around. Soil is not our property. It's a legacy that we have received. We must pass it on that way to future generations. So, Sadhguru, I have heard you speak about it in a few videos that we actually watched in a few articles that I read. But the crux of it all was that everybody's talking about climate change, which is great, which is a newer conversation, but it's new. You say that a lot of these issues can actually be fixed with the right policies. But the one issue that cannot be is soil erosion. No. We're not talking about soil erosion. We're talking about soil extinction. Extinction, that's right. See, right now, here you are, you see the stream. When did it last rain in this place? More than two-and-a-half months. At least two-and-a-half months, am I correct? Yeah. How is it flowing? Where is it coming? Is there a snow cap sitting on top of the mountain? Do you see any snow cap mountains here? Nothing. So, where is the water coming from? This is soil. The soil up there is so rich. The rain that happened two-and-a-half months ago, it held that rain and now drop by drop, if you actually go up and if you have the patience to look, you will see it will be seeping drop by drop and those drops all gathered like this, like this from this mountain itself as you go from here. From here, if you travel five kilometers, there are four streams. These four streams go and join into what we call as the Noyal River. That Noyal River supposed to flow and join Kaveri, and fortunately these days some of the towns have stopped it. But this is how a tropical river happens, drop by drop. We receive rain, monsoon rains, only for seventy to ninety days in a year. These ninety days of rainwater must stay and flow for 365 days, unless you have very organically rich soil that will not happen. So, climate change cannot be addressed without addressing the soil quality at all. How did we get here, Sadhguru? What was it that first triggered this? Well, if we have to talk about the India story, it's happened worldwide. But India's story, because most people here may know certain, you know, facts about this. For example, we have had terrible famines till 1950. 1942, the Bengal famine took 3.2 million people, 3.2 million people in four months' time. See, when people die of famine, it's not like a war. If a bomb drops, all of us will evaporate right now. Well, that's not good, but it's okay, at least we just evaporated. But if all of us sit here and there's no food for four months, how we die is most terrible, okay? Most horrible ways of death, and that's what happens during famines. Right now, most people, at least the young people think famines happen only in Africa. No, it was happening in India till 1950. It has happened in every part of the world, including United States of America, famines have happened, all right? So just about everywhere famines have happened. Because of famines, many civilizations have collapsed, like the Mayan civilization, the Mesopotamian civilization, even the Roman city collapsed because of famines. So what is a famine? For some reason, we are not able to grow food where people need it. Well, today we have enormous capability to transport food from one place to another. Right now, this is happening. World Food Program is just… last year distributed $9 billion worth of food in Africa. This year, they need 15 billion. So it's getting worse. It's getting worse. So, how long will you be able to transport food and feed large populations? That is not a reality, okay? That is not a practical reality at all. So people have to grow food where they are, at least within reasonable distance, we have to grow food. If that has to happen, soil has to be rich, how did we get here? That's a question. Well, because these famines were happening, we went into what is called as today industrial level of farming. Or in this country, we call this green revolution. This green revolution was very needed at that moment because it was an emergency. People were dying and hundreds of thousands of people dying of lack of food. So they went in aggressively putting fertilizer, this, that. First three to eight years, it worked very well. With a burst of crop. Already the soil was reasonably rich and when you threw the extra chemicals into it, it just burst out like that. See, right now, you're eating good food and you're well, but you put some extra vitamins and proteins and this and that into your system, suddenly you will feel fantastic tomorrow morning, all right? This happened to the soil. But suppose because you felt so good taking these pills, tomorrow you stopped eating, no food. You just take handful of pills which a lot of people are beginning to do. Well, there is a price, that is the price we are paying. So we forgot that it's the organic content in the soil which makes this happen. See, right now, this is, this is called sand. Why has this become sand? If you put enough organic content into this, this will become soil. If you take away all the organic content from the soil, it will become sand. This is called as desertification. So you can't cultivate on it? No. Desertification is the most serious problem in the world right now. Large parts of the world are becoming like this. You flew in from Mumbai, right? Well, that is not so stark. But if you fly from here, from Coimbatore to Delhi, every five minutes you look out of the window. You must get a window seat for that, okay? I always get a window seat. Otherwise you'll be looking at your neighbor. Oh, the aisle. So if you look out, you will see almost the entire country except western Ghat region and northeastern region. Almost the entire country looks like a brown desert. This is what we have done with industrial farming. What industrial farming means is, we just forgot that you have to keep the soil rich. What is richness of soil? What does soil rich mean? See, right now your textbooks told you, if you have nitrogen, phosphorus, this one and that one, crops will come. This is a complete misunderstanding of life. See, right now you may eat the best food. You cannot digest this food unless there is gut microbiome. Without the help of the microorganisms, you cannot digest the food that you eat. 60% of your body itself is microbes. Only 40% your parents own. So we have nothing. Nothing is of our own. You own the micro book, microbes. Well, that's fair, something. 40% of the genetic material has come from the parentage. Rest is all microorganisms. The same is true on a much bigger scale in the soil. If this tree has to get nourishment, it can't just take nitrogen, phosphorus, whatever it needs from the soil. It has to exchange with the microbes. The microbes are, you know, real traders. Their trading is so sophisticated. Only a little bit of study has happened to this, but whatever they have revealed is so absolutely spectacular business scene down there. It is more sophisticated and complex than any stock market in the world. It's okay. I mean, the tree is always trying to throw out more leaf. Why it is throwing out more leaf is because it wants to do photosynthesis. What photosynthesis means is it wants to use the perpetual energy of the sun to absorb carbon particles from the air and make carbon sugars out of it because that's the only currency these guys deal with. Without carbon sugars, they won't give any nutrient to the tree. So you can experiment, don't do this, I'm just telling you, because it'll be cruel. You, let's say this tree is very healthy and nice. Just make sure every leaf you just remove, okay, don't allow the leaves to be there for one year. You'll see the tree will die. Even though it's well-rooted, there is a stream passing next by, it cannot survive because if it doesn't exchange carbon, it doesn't have cash. That's what it means. You don't have cash, now you don't have food to eat. That's what happens to the tree if you take away. It's ability to do photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is one of the most phenomenal things that have happened in the universe because nobody else in this universe says it happened. It only happened here. From simple microorganisms to algae and fungi that came up, only when photosynthesis began to happen, began to happen, that is when life started bursting out because now you are powered by perpetual energy from the sun. At that time, whatever a billion years ago, whatever the time, the oxygen content... There's much more. No, oxygen content in the atmosphere was less than two percent. Oh? Yes. Today it is twenty-one percent. Don't read the textbooks, that's what I'm telling you. Must not. I was right in school. I... I'm sorry. I don't know why they called me an influencer, honestly. So, it was less than two percent. Today it's twenty-one percent. So, it's conducive for you and me to live. Yeah. If it goes down below fifteen percent, we can't live here. Okay? So, how is this happening? This is happening only because of photosynthesis. Right now... How the reduction or the increase? The increase in oxygen is happening only because of photosynthesis. If... If you just look at the surface of the planet, how much photosynthesis was happening, let's say a thousand years ago or even five hundred years ago and how much is happening now, it's come down significantly, okay? Because nearly seventy-one percent of the world's land is cloud right now. And another two to three percent is paved. In India, eighty-four percent of the land is cloud. So, all this, only when the crop is on, there is a minor amount of photosynthesis. When the crop is gone, there's no photosynthesis there. But, Sadhguru, I remember you saying why plowing is killing the soil is because then the microorganisms are left open for the sun and then that's where they get destroyed. But if not plowing, then how else does farming go around? See, what does the farm need? What does it need? What does it take for any vegetative matter to grow? Do you see all the vegetation here is really bursting out? Yeah. You think they've been plowing here? But then how do the farmers get around the... No, I come to that. They're not plowing here, right? Yeah. So, what is needed is humus. Why plowing? First of all, why plowing? Plowing is to oxygenate the soil. You want to open it up. If it's hard packed, you want to open it up like that. If you want to open it up, the best way to do it is when the organic content is high, the level of micro activity is such that it becomes very porous. That's why it is holding the water. Okay. But okay, if you look at a soil particle, it's like sponge, it just opens up and it absorbs water. It can hold 800% more water than all the rivers on the planet put together. That is the capacity of the soil. Right now, because of, you know, we've done many mistakes. One biggest mistake is major dams in the world. Today, United States has decommissioned 900 major dams in USA because they realized it's wrong. But we are still building dams because population is demanding, my field wants water, your field wants water. See, if you raise the organic content in the soil, right now it's in 62% of India's land, it's less than 0.5%. If you raise it to 8% to 10%, your irrigation requirement will come down to 30% of what it is right now. If you don't understand what I'm saying, let's walk down, it's been two and a half months, it's rained. Just with our hands, if you dig in this forest, it'll be wet. That's all the tree needs or that's all the crop needs. The plant needs damp soil because only in damp soil microbes thrive because they will multiply into billions and billions. Making the soil richer. Yes, that richness is what the plant wants. But right now we are irrigating and irrigating. If you raise the organic content to 12% to 15%, your irrigation requirement will come down to 10% to 15%. Instead of 100 liters, you would use 15 liters. Would it make a difference to the world? Definitely. You can at least brush your teeth twice a day. That's true. Because a lot of people are claiming they stop brushing their teeth because of water shortage. I think that's just a lame excuse more than water shortage. That is climate change. That is climate change. Bad breaths is causing oxygen depletion. But Sadhguru, tell me something. You say that if we don't plow and we let… and we follow nature's way of farming. Don't call it all those names. The important thing is what does a plant need? A given plant. Different plants may need slightly different requirements. Because it's a phenomenal thing. See, let us say this species of trees which is here, if you study the soil right beneath it, there will be, let us say, a billion varieties of microorganisms all concentrated there. But if you find another species and go to the root, those species are very different. So I'm saying they all deal with each other in a different way according to their needs. Who provides them what they need? Accordingly, the market place is going on there. So somebody goes to subji market, somebody goes to the grain market, somebody goes to the fish market, it's their choice. That is how sophisticated and complex it is. So for a given plant what needs to come, you don't have to decide, you just have to create humus. What humus means is there is enough organic material, substance for microorganisms to thrive. In fact, the word human comes from the word humus, all right? So what we call as our body is just the very soil that we work upon. How rich it is, is how rich our body will be. Because of this, the nutritional drop in the world is actually a basmum. It is so terrible right now. For example, in United States, I'm taking United States as an example because that's the only place where the studies have happened elaborately. Also it's a very influential... That is one thing but in other countries that level of studies have not happened, yeah. It's fashionable to eat salads, people are eating lettuce and this and that, okay? Let's take a leaf of lettuce. What it used to have in early 20th century, let's say 1920 and what it has today is only 10% of the nourishment what it had a century ago. So you're getting only 10%. So you have to eat 10 times more, is it practical to do that? If you ate one orange in 1920, in 2022 you must eat eight oranges to get the same stuff. See, that's playing up. In every other country, generally pandemic is, you know, in India with such concentration of population, generally it's under control, still unfortunately some people are dying but generally under control, even though the concentration is such, even today in United States, the daily deaths are around 2000. Yeah. The most richest country in the world with the highest level of medical infrastructure on the planet, but nothing... But variety of nourishment available, but it's not happening, one important reason is lack of nourishment in the food that you're eating. You're eating food, but what is needed is not there. It's all pumped up food, all right? So it is, it is not some rocket science. If you ask any, maybe these children will know, but if you ask any doctor, not some expert, a simple doctor if you ask him, if you have to resist upper respiratory tract infections, you must have vitamin E, A, D, B, B6, B12, iron, foliate, magnesium, zinc, these things are needed in the food that you eat and in the body. If these things are not there, you become very susceptible to this. Today, the studies show that 43% of American population lacks vitamin C. 40% lacks calcium, some 37% lacks magnesium, 90% lacks vitamin E. So when there is no nourishment, you become susceptible to everything. But somewhere else, see in Africa, I don't think they've delivered vaccines to everybody except in the urban centers. Nobody is dying there because they're living in the land. So our resistance levels are coming down. We will become more and more susceptible. How long will we run this population only with vaccines and medicines endlessly? That's not the way to conduct life. We need to strengthen the life. And top of it, if something comes, yes, we have to take medicine or vaccine or whatever it takes to get rid of that. But fundamentally to make the life stronger, to make the internal stuff of the life strong, strong does not mean just biceps. So people think today strong means a lot of muscle like this. That is not the strength of life. The strength of life is in just the richness of the microbial activity that's happening in your system without damaging your system. Well, people can also ask even viruses, microbe, what is the problem? Yes, if we had all the other guys ready, they would handle him. But we don't have. So that is why it's become a problem. You know, Sadhguru, a lot of times when there's conversations around save the soil or there's conversations around climate change, and I only speak for my audience, which is between the age of say 13 to 25, most of them. A common question that comes to me is, okay, great, now we know about this. But what can we do? I mean, if we talk about the soil, then from childhood we have been taught that the farmers are working on land and they are responsible and they know how to take care. They have direct contact with the soil. How can we sitting in our cities or towns back home in front of our laptops or at all in any way, make a difference which actually adds on to this? We'll take Indian farmers. How many Indian farmers have a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection? I do not know. What do you think? Out of 65% of the population is in farming. How many do you think actually have? Not many. Not many at all, 10%, 15%, maybe 20% at the most. So who is to give them a voice? They're just doing what they've been told because things suddenly changed 40, 50 years ago and they've still not figured out. They still don't know what is nitrogen, what is potash, what is this and that, all right? I'm saying a guy who's selling the fertilizer says, I put 50 kilograms means he'll put 50 kilograms. Put 150 kilograms means he'll put 150 kilograms. So I'm saying that is his level of knowledge. Now we are not against fertilizer or insecticide or anything, but it must be done in a doctored way. Right now you're healthy, you're eating good food but we checked your blood and we found your iron is little weak. I will give you a pill for two months to bridge that. Just to bridge that situation. Now you don't eat anything, you just eat those pills, that's not going to work. Now schoolgirls are here, suppose they got lice in their hair, we'll put little poison into their head, all right? But... Or as we call it the internet sometimes. So you can't do that all the time, dip them in poison and take them out, all right? So I'm saying all these things, as it is doctored for a human being, it needs to be doctored for the land because that is the basis of who we are. Right now we are doing, we are plastering the land with chemicals. That is the damage that's happening. So what can these young people do? See, this is the first time in the history of humanity. That we can sit here and talk to the entire world, all right? Many great beings have come, but when they spoke, hardly ten people could hear them. This is the first time. When you have this privilege that you can actually talk to the world, why don't you talk some sense, I'm asking? Why don't you talk something that will matter to your life tomorrow because every responsible scientist in the world is clearly pointing out by 2045, we will be producing 40% less food and our population will be over nine billion. Is that a world that you want to live in? I can just die ten years early and go. All right, I've done my life. But the young people, do they want to live in that world? Do we want to leave our children in that world? Food shortages are not a joke. Once food shortages come, your entire civilization will collapse, okay? Just imagine Coimbatore City, let's say 30-40% of the people don't have food to eat. Three days, you think that city will maintain any civilized behavior? Yeah. Many UN agencies are predicting by 2035 there will be dozens of civil wars across the country, food fights, food rights happening everywhere. We don't want the world to go in that direction. There is an opportunity to turn this around and especially now it's important because this is the cusp of time. If we act now, in the next 10-15 years, we can turn this around significantly. But if you let it go for another 30-40 years, the biodiversity loss is at a pace where on an average 27,000 species of microbes are going extinct per year. Per year. Per year. If you go at this pace in 40 years time, you'll reach a place. If you want to turn the soil around, it'll take 150 to 200 years. Don't push the world there, that's all I'm saying. And you have the power of just picking up your phone and reaching hundred people. Please do that. Just do that. You don't have to go and fix the soil. Right now the most important thing is to change the policy. Why policy? See right now, this place is good. This is attached to our yoga center. We will make sure it is like this. It will be written into the policy of the yoga center. No matter what happens after 100 years, 200 years, we have what kind of pressure you get, we can only build that much. For example, in United States, we have nearly 20,000 acres of forest. In Tennessee. Yeah. We have committed 70% to conservation. It is written into the constitution of the foundation. We will never use the 70%. It'll always remain forest. Only 30% we will build. It's a financial sacrifice. All right? But you need to do that. But we are an organization. But now the governments need to do that. The nations need to do that. That you have to set a policy. We are not even talking about land usage. We are just talking about this. If you're doing agriculture on a given land, there must be minimum three to six percent organic content. Because soil is not our property. It's a legacy that we have received. We must pass it on that way to future generations. Otherwise, what kind of people are we, all right? So this is something you can do for policy change in a democracy, you must understand. There are only two things which are most important. Your vote and your voice. Well, if you're 13, you still don't have a vote. But you have a loud voice, right? And Wi-Fi. That's what I'm saying. That's a loud voice. That's a loud voice. That is, if I sit here and shout, only till there it'll be heard. If you shout in front of with your Wi-Fi on, it'll be heard across the world. So please do that. Because we want to move at least three to 3.5 billion people. Because 3.5 billion people means 60% of the world's electorate. We have written to 730 political parties in the world because we want them to make soil and ecology part of their political manifestos. But for this to happen, people should raise their voice. Because people have not said anything profound. People have not said any commitment. People have not expressed their commitment for long-term well-being of their nations or the world. Only somewhere in the Tea Party they're talking, that's not enough. Raise your voice for 100 days. From March 21st, 100 days, every day talk soil, something, say something. Sadguru, my last question. Are there any immediate lifestyle changes that you can make? Because like you said, the soil goes into the food, the food goes into us, and that is what has been affecting us for many, many years now. Are there any immediate lifestyle changes that you can make to kind of do our bit in the whole process? There are. There are many things you could do. I'm not even asking that from people right now. Because even the smallest sacrifice, if you ask, people scream as if something is being taken away. I'm saying, do your life the way you want. Just raise your voice. Let's make the policy changes. You've been working on this for last two years now. In the last eight months, we've worked with various governments, almost every government and leaders that I've spoken to, they're all willing, but people have not spoken. See, you must understand for any administration, if they have to invest some money into something, something else will be forsaken, right? Because resource is always scarce, whether it's an individual or a nation, that is the same situation. For this, people have to speak and say, we want long-term investment. We will go through this. So right now that is the lifestyle change. When they make the policy changes, if government has to invest in enhancing the organic content, it's not any big money, nothing real big change will happen in your lifestyle. But small things, if they happen, take that, no? It's a beauty, using nylon clothes, use some cotton, silk, linen, whatever, you know? Some organic clothing you use, this is a simple change you can make. Fair enough. And we hear that there is a bike ride, a rally where you are going to go across nations, cities, borders, talking about soil and its importance. Please tell us about it. Well, we're starting from London on 21st of March, lone motorcycle. Just one. Just one motorcycle. Just one. Riding from London through Europe down to Arabia and going through entire Arabia and entering India, we touch Delhi in seventy-five days because it's India seventy-five. So I'm also carrying an India seventy-five flag with me. So that is being done and we will do certain things related to that. And then we're coming down to Kaveri and we're reaching here, the yoga center on 21st of June, which is the International Yoga Day. See how calendar it is organized. That is what I'm saying. And anyway, fifth of June, seventy-five days when I reach Delhi, it's a World Environment Day. And the day I start on 21st of March is World Forest Day. How's this? It's God's plan. But, Sadhguru, it's always a pleasure talking to you. So why going through these nations, everything is, one must understand that when it comes to ecology, there is no nation. Planet and the life on the planet does not recognize your nationhood, your race, religion, whatever you belong to because these are all fancy things you've made up in your head. Here in the soil, it's just life and life. For life, there is no borders. So trying to manifest that in many ways. And above all, we're meeting many heads of state, environment ministers, agriculture ministers. We have written a policy document which we will take to each one of these nations, specific documents for every nation separately. It's taken a lot of effort with our scientific team to do this. So we will be presenting this and a larger document which is a soft document will be available to everybody to see what this document is, is hundreds of ways in which you can regenerate the soil. Do it whichever way, depending on your latitudinal position, the regions in which you are, the soil types that you have, economic conditions of a given nation. And of course, the agricultural traditions of that nation because you cannot change agricultural traditions overnight. It doesn't matter. Even if you come up with a genius idea, it won't change unless it syncs with the existing traditions. So looking at all these, we have done hundreds of ways in which you... Make easier transitions. And we're also setting up a committee which will handhold small nations. So we're assigning MOUs with many nations. Already about eleven, fourteen nations I think are coming through already. Others will come through. That is amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. And it has been lovely... Don't say thank you. Say let us make it happen. Let's make it happen. Yeah. Let's do it. In this generation, if we don't do it, we'll regret. Okay, so this was... Wow, it felt like two minutes but it was quite some time. This has been a sane conversation. It has been a sane conversation. This has been sane. Every now and then I find reasons to talk to you. So then I can put the sane in the mostly sane. It makes sense then. Thank you, Satguru. Thank you so much. Wonderful talking to you. Thank you, Satguru. Thank you so much. This is not going to look nice on the same soil poster. That's good, huh? How passionate is that? No, when I talk about soil, I'll tear up naturally. Oh no. So even you are doing it, that's good. That means you're passionate about it. Not just talking about it. Your heart should beat for soil.