“If you want to raise human consciousness, there has never been a better time.” Sadhguru says it twice in this short clip, and it frames everything in between: the state of the environment, what it would take to turn things around, and why he believes a real sense of connection makes rules about right and wrong almost unnecessary.
The clip was released in February 2020 alongside Reconnect, London Real’s fifth feature-length documentary. The film follows Brian Rose to Costa Rica and back home again as he looks for the connection he felt was missing from his life and from the wider world. Sadhguru, who sat down with Brian in 2019, is one of the voices heard in the film’s discussion of the climate strikes and in its closing call to action.
▶ Watch the full film: Reconnect – The Movie
A huge issue, but not a reason to worry
Sadhguru does not play down the environmental crisis. It is a huge issue right now, he says, and there is no question about that. But when asked whether he is worried, his answer is a calm no.
His reason is practical rather than optimistic. He has a plan, he says, and he is working to it. The point he wants to land is that the outcome depends on how many people share that commitment: “If all of us have the same plan, we can turn this around.” In the full film he pushes back when pressed for a prediction, turning the question back on the person asking: are you committed to the plan?
The trees and the breath
The heart of the clip is a simple image. What the trees breathe out, we breathe in, and what we breathe out, the trees breathe in. For Sadhguru, this is not a metaphor but a plain description of how life works. The line we draw around ourselves, between “me” and everything else, is in his view a boundary we have set up in our own minds.
It is a familiar theme in his teaching: that suffering and destruction come from experiencing ourselves as separate, and that a shift in experience, rather than a new set of beliefs, is what changes behaviour.
Do you need morality?
From there he makes a provocative claim. If you experience everything around you as part of yourself, he asks, do you still need morality? His answer is that you do not. “You don’t need any values, ethics, morals, nothing,” he says, because nobody needs a rule to stop them harming something they feel is part of them.
It is a challenging way to think about the environment. Instead of asking people to follow better rules, Sadhguru is asking them to feel differently about the world they live in, so that caring for it becomes as natural as caring for their own body.
Why now
The clip closes with urgency. “Heavens are collapsing. This is the time to change,” Sadhguru says, before returning to his opening line. Why is this the best time to raise human consciousness? His answer is short: because we are here. The responsibility, and the opportunity, belong to the people alive now.
That idea sits at the centre of Reconnect as a whole: that the stories which separate us from each other and from nature can be changed, by individuals first and then by our species.
Reconnect follows Brian Rose’s own experience with ayahuasca. It is a personal story, not medical advice.
Who is Sadhguru?
Sadhguru, born Jaggi Vasudev, is an Indian yogi, mystic and author. He founded the Isha Foundation, which runs yoga programmes around the world, and wrote the bestseller Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy. He has led large environmental campaigns in India, including Rally for Rivers, and was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honours, in 2017.
He spoke to Brian Rose in 2019 for the London Real episode Sadhguru – The Power Of Inner Engineering, and his words also feature in Reconnect, which you can watch free on London Real.
More on London Real
Transcript
Transcript: Sadhguru – Why There Has Never Been A Better Time To Raise Consciousness
0:00 Sadhguru: If you want to raise human consciousness, there has never been a better time.
0:17 Sadhguru: Environment is a huge issue right now, there’s no question. Am I worried about it? No. I have a plan and I’m working to the plan. If all of us have the same plan, we can turn this around.
0:32 Sadhguru: If you experience everything around you as myself, do you need morality? What the trees exhale, you’re inhaling. What you exhale, the trees are inhaling. Anything that you feel is a part of yourself, with that you don’t need any values, ethics, morals, nothing, because it’s a part of you.
0:49 Sadhguru: Heavens are collapsing. This is the time to change. If you want to raise human consciousness, there has never been a better time. Why is that? Because we are here.
