Solutions for a Sustainable Future 

By Sadhguru 

The reason why I see that ecological concerns have not become everybody’s concern is simply because we have always pitched economy versus ecology. That’s a fundamental thing that I wanted to change in India by officiating the marriage between economy and ecology which we did through the Rally for Rivers movement. The basic message that needs to go out is that we need not destroy businesses – we just have to transform businesses. And the necessary time, room and policy support is needed to transform businesses. Our idea of what is profit, what is a successful business, has to go through some transformation. Today, a whole lot of businesses are looking at how they can impact ecological sustainability. 

Only when there is policy change, there will be budget reallocations and a sustained movement towards what we want to achieve. If major populations in the world like United States, Europe, China, India, make the right policies in the next few years, within the next three to five years, the rest of the world will follow.  

Ecology is not an academic subject. Ecology is the basis of our existence. To bring this experience to people large-scale is very, very important. Because you can teach as much as you want, you can campaign as much as you want, but people shape their lives according to their experience of life. Especially those people who hold positions of responsibility and power, who can make a difference in the world, their experience of life has to become much more inclusive than the way it is right now. Inclusiveness has to become a living experience for everybody – only then, there will be sustainability. 

Ecological sustainability is mostly understood as pollution coming from cities and industries or whatever. But the biggest disaster on the planet is actually agriculture. It’s the degradation of soil which is the real issue. Everything else can be attended to and reversed in a matter of a few decades. The degradation of soil across the planet is not something that you can turn back easily; it will take fifty to a hundred years. There are only two ways to regenerate the soil: leaves from the trees and the animal waste and the human waste. You cannot enrich the soil with bags of fertilizer. 

The next twenty-five years is going to be very crucial in terms of what kind of corrections we make. If we take care of the soil, rivers, forests, agriculture, human health – everything will be taken care of. If we do all the right things in the next ten to fifteen years, I believe, in thirty to forty years, major change will happen in a positive way. 

Fundamentally, human beings have lost connection with what is life and everything that nourishes life and sustains life around us. This is the disaster we are manifesting in the form of ecological destruction. We have become psychological beings not living beings. We have to transform people into living beings. 

Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.