UAE: I never had the time to get old, says Sadhguru

Man with a plan? Man with a vision? Man with an uber cool swagger? However you may want to characterise him, the man in question will seldom be satisfied. Labelling oneself or being labelled isn’t Sadhguru’s style. Jagadish ‘Jaggi’ Vasudev, better known as Sadhguru, doesn’t believe in labels because labels can be limiting. And being limited, in any way, isn’t something the 64-year-old yogi and mystic, who recently embarked on a motorcycle journey of 30,000km across 27 nations, is keen on.

As an active mode of self-preservation, Sadhguru has been riding from country to country in hopes of awakening the citizens of the world to rise to the occasion and ‘Save Soil’. “What’s ticking away is not the clock. What’s ticking away is our life,” announces Sadhguru as he stands before a room full of people gathered together for his first talk upon his arrival in the UAE, organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India’s (ICAI) Abu Dhabi chapter.

Settling down after his whirlwind on-road journey battling clouds of sand from Bahrain to the UAE, we sit down with the yogi, mystic and visionary to hear more about his masterplan. In an exclusive conversation with Khaleej Times., Sadhguru talks about various factors — from ego to technology, eroding urban consciousness and how soil is the one unifying factor that can bring humanity together. “Let’s make it happen,” says Sadhguru.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

I’m sure it’s been a long journey. How are you feeling?

Sadhguru: How am I feeling right now? I’m feeling like sandpaper because there are particles of sand in every pore of my body (laughs). Within the last 24 hours, we’ve covered nearly 930km and almost all the way, there’s been a sandstorm.

Do you feel exhausted at all?

Sadhguru: Do I look exhausted?

No, but as a fellow human being, I must ask this question.

Sadhguru: I’m also human only. This is what my whole life is about, to make people realise they don’t have to be superhuman. Being human itself is super. But people are always using the word human in terms of their inabilities and weaknesses. Even in the evolutionary sense, humans are on top of the pile, isn’t it? Yet, people never say ‘I’m human’ with pride. They say ‘I’m only human’. Why is that? You are the number one species right now in terms of capability, competence and intelligence. But you say ‘I’m only human’, you must say ‘I’m human’ with lots of pride.

You’ve been rallying across the globe, spreading awareness on why saving our soil from extinction is the need of the hour. But how can one, at an individual level, take inspired action to help Save Soil?

Sadhguru: When it comes to soil ecology, our national boundaries mean nothing. This is a human problem. What we set up as pieces of geography in the form of nations — mainly for administrative purposes and political purposes — we’ve started thinking of it as an absolute. We think the planet is some kind of a cake that we can cut into pieces and each take a piece and walk away. You cannot take it anywhere.

Life on this planet is happening as one. Well, we can administer it separately. We can manage it separately, we can enjoy it separately. But we can’t take it away because life is happening as one. The microbial life in the soil is happening as one massive phenomena. The moment you disturb that, life starts dying. On an average, 27,000 species are going extinct per year. At this pace, 35-40 years later, it’s going to be a very serious problem but we’ll start facing the pain within the next 15-20 years.

You often mention our existence is not independent of the sources that created us. Does this irreverence towards our planet stem out of an inflated sense of ego?

Sadhguru: I’m sorry, I’ll say something which is not a commentary on women’s fashion. I call this the high heel life. It’s not about the physical high heels but I say this in a sense that everybody is above the ground. They don’t realise the very body that we carry and the soil that we walk upon are not two different things. It’s the same thing. We don’t even think we belong to this planet.

Everybody thinks they belong elsewhere. Nobody seems to belong here. It’s very important we understand we come from the soil, we thrive off the soil and when we die, we go back to the soil. We need to recognise soil as a living entity. We are still treating it as an inert substance. In many societies, they call it dirt. If that is dirt, you and I are dirt bags, isn’t it? (laughs)

As a society, how can we be more conscious and selfless?

Sadhguru: No need to become selfless because that is just an empty ideal. The only way a human being can relate to life is through the self. How can you be selfless? Only if you’re dead, can you be selfless. I am saying you’re selfish anyway, so why are you stingy about your selfishness? At least be selfish in a total way. Right now, what is it that we call selfishness? It’s when we say we want to live well. It’s there in you and in every human being and in every life for that matter.

Why don’t you expand a little bit and say, ‘I want everything and everyone to live well’. When you’re alone, you think ‘I want to live’. When you get married, you say, ‘Me and my husband should live well’. If you have three children, you will say, ‘Me and my family should live well.’ So you’re capable of expanding your intent for wellness, isn’t it? So why don’t you extend it for all life and say, ‘I want every life to live well here.’ That’s all I’m asking for. At least in selfishness, don’t be kanjoos (stingy). Be generous in your selfishness.

As our digital lives become more connected than ever, there’s an ironic sense of disconnect that has permeated our off-screen lives, where we feel detached from our surroundings. How do we forge a better relationship with our environment?

Sadhguru: That’s happened at various levels, you can’t reverse that. We have gotten used to the comforts of four walls. Developing a connection with nature right now is a very romantic idea. It’s nice, it’s wonderful. You putting your hands into the soil and doing something in your kitchen garden are very cute. But it’s not a solution. Even if I’m doing something reasonably big, it’s nice. But it’s not a solution.

somya@khaleejtimes.com