Soil - The Incredible Intelligence Beneath Our Feet

As we celebrate World Earth Day, we understand how critical it is to preserve soil, the most valuable resource on Earth. Partnering together with Sadhguru's 'Save the Soil' campaign, we set out to demonstrate the vital role soil plays in keeping life on E

Come and understand the importance of conserving soil and discover practical measures to protect this important ecosystem for the years to come. Sadhguru: In Tamil, we refer to the soil as Thai Mannu which means Mother Earth. This is because there is a deep understanding in the culture that it is from Mother Earth that we are born. Our biological mother is only a representative; the real mother is the soil that we carry as our body. But in the world today we have started referring to soil as dirt.

You may call soil dirt, but this soil is very intelligent. Did it ever so happen that you planted an apple seed and a pear came out by mistake? No, such a mistake never happened. It is the same soil that is turning into an apple; it is the same soil that is turning into a pear. So, do not underestimate the intelligence of life. Do not think the madness that is going on in your bone box is the only intelligence; that is the lowest form of intelligence. Everything else in existence is super intelligent.

It is time once again to heed the incredible intelligence beneath our feet.

These days if children put their hands in the soil, modern mothers say, “Your hands are dirty.” No, they are not dirty. They are touching the source of your life. When you mistake the source of your life for dirt, the chances of you putting your roots down, growing to your full size and capability, and bearing flowers and fruits are remote. If trees thought that their roots were getting dirty, there would be neither flowers nor fruit. When the tree sinks its roots into the earth, it knows that this is the source of its life. But we, the most intelligent species on the planet, are not able to feel this. This is a source of many problems that human beings are experiencing right now. Forget about enlightenment, and seeing other dimensions of life, people are not even able to be healthy.

Every creature can stay healthy quite effortlessly, but human beings are not able to do it because they cannot sync their roots into this earth as, somewhere in their minds, it has become dirt. If someone was ill, one of the things we used to do was bury them neck-deep in a certain type of soil for a few hours every day. Their whole system would reorganize itself beautifully and they would come out of their ailments. Today this burying is considered archaic, so we give them a mud bath with just a thin layer of earth. This is because your body is not any different from the planet itself. It is just a piece of the planet that has popped up.

There is enough scientific study today to tell you that how strong your body is, not just in terms of muscular strength but the essential strength of our existence, is determined not only by the kind of soil that you eat from but also by the kind of soil that you walk upon. If the soil gets weak, the genetic material in your system will get weak. One big problem with India's food crops right now is that their nutritional value has come down dramatically. It is said that in the last twenty-five years, it has come down by nearly thirty-nine percent.

Soil will be healthy only if we can put back leaves from the trees and animal waste. But all our trees are gone. On top of that, we are slaughtering our animals and exporting them to other countries. Without animals and trees, there is no way you can maintain soil quality. We have seriously neglected this in the last few decades and 25% of the country is headed towards becoming a desert, where nothing can be cultivated. With a population of 1.3 billion on our hands, we must think about what the state of this country will be when we cannot provide the needed water and food to people. So, protecting the soil and water for the future generations of this land is most important. Whatever we do for the environment today is neither service nor a great achievement; it is a matter of survival. It is not the planet that is in danger today; we are.

Ranked among 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.