There is no good life without a thriving planet

New Delhi,UPDATED: Apr 10, 2024 17:25 IST

On a certain day, a huge tusker was crossing a wooden bridge. A fly, perched on his left earlobe, asked him after they crossed over to the other side: "Hey, didn't we really shake up that bridge?"

That sums up the human attitude today. Though we are a microscopic speck on the cosmic scale, we delude ourselves that we are the centre of creation. People believe that their life will be wonderful if the stock market soars. No, our life will be wonderful if we eat nutritious food, drink clean water and breathe fresh air. For all of this, we need a rich ecosystem.

But if you look at the statistics, in the last fifty years, 70 per cent of the vertebrate population on the planet has been wiped out. 80 per cent of the insect biomass in the world is gone. This is really the death of life. "Okay, if the insects die, what's our problem? We, anyway, don't like insects!" This is the attitude of the urban population. What we need to understand is that if all the insects die tomorrow, in two-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years, all life on this planet will end. If all the worms die, you have approximately 18 to 30 months of time. If all the microbes die today, everything will end tomorrow. Suppose there is no microbial life in the soil, trees will not survive, none of the crops will come up.

Most of the life on this planet cannot be seen with your naked eye - it is microbial. There could be anywhere between 5 and 8 billion microorganisms in a handful of rich soil. It is this life which is the basis of who we are. But every year, on average, 27,000 species go extinct.

Soil, being alive with life, is the most important thing. This is because the strength of the soil determines the strength of the life that we are and every other life. You can clearly see this in the case of plant life. If the soil is weak, the plant is weak. If the plant is weak, what makes you think that you have not become weaker?

Studies show that nutrient depletion in food across the world is so significant, it is tragic. A study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States says that nearly all Americans are potassium deficient, 90 per cent are deficient in vitamin E, 70 per cent in vitamin K, 45 per cent in magnesium, 43 per cent in vitamin A and 39 per cent in vitamin C. And, this is in the most affluent nation! It simply means that even if you eat enough food, it does not have enough nutrients because soil has been destroyed.

We have forgotten that we are a part of the earth. The very body that you are is just the food that you have eaten. The food that you eat is just the earth. So, you are just a piece of earth or the earth is your larger body. Our attitude right now is that we will take care of our little fingers, but we will not care for our arms. With such an attitude, suffering is inevitable.

Unfortunately, modern education is constantly training people to think about themselves. It is about using everything for our comfort and well-being. Initially, we use the planet, the trees and plants, the animals, and then, of course, human beings also. This attitude of exploitation has been deeply set through formal education.

What we need immediately is a more inclusive world. The significance of yoga or spiritual process is that it brings this sense of inclusiveness. The ultimate goal of yoga is to come to a state where you experience the whole existence as a part of yourself. When there is an all-inclusive experience, caring about everything around you is very natural, because anyone who turns inward naturally realises that their existence and the outside existence are not different.

Human well-being and environmental care are not two different things. Preservation and nurturing of this planet is not different from aspiring for a good life for ourselves.

Last year, the slogan that India came up with for the G20 presidency was "One Earth, One Family, One Future." Creating a nation and a world that is inclusive in nature and works for everyone's well-being and creates the best possibility for every life on this planet – this is the way forward for this world. Let us make this happen.

(Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author. Sadhguru was conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service. He is also the founder of the world's largest people's movement, Conscious Planet – Save Soil, which has touched over 4 billion people)

(Views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author)