Will Isha's Charities expand beyond India? - Sadhguru answers

http://www.ishafoundation.org/
http://www.ishaoutreach.org

A woman from Kenya asks Sadhguru about the charitable work he's doing and whether or not he'll expand into other countries like Africa, South America.

(TO31) Distributed by Tubemogul.

(Questioner): I have seen what you are doing with the Isha Foundation,

do you think you can reproduce this

or do this also in other parts of the word?

Because seeing what you have done

I come from Kenya and seeing

what you have done in the villages

I something in me came out,

that I would like also to do something similar there

to help the suffering people.

But Im wondering

are you seeing a vision where you are going to repeat this

from India to other parts of the country,

like Africa or South America

or other places where theres a need?

(Sadhguru): Its a big world. (Laughs)

When you look at it, its a small world.

When you want to work it, its quite a big world, you know?

Even in India

we are not doing the whole of India,

we have just taken one state.

My whole work and life I have restrained to one state.

Even in India,

I dont even go to any of the other cities,

except Bombay and Delhi.

I have been there only for the last three-four years.

Even to cities as close as Bangalore,

I come from that place

but still I dont go there.

No work there as such.

Mainly we have stuck to Tamil Nadu

which is little over 60 million people

and we started with big cities

and went to smaller towns and smaller towns.

Now, we are down to remotest part of Tamil Nadu.

Even there we have not reached full scale yet.

I prepared over quarter million volunteers,

spending over 13 years

before I launched these projects.

We have very disciplined, focused volunteer groups,

that they can put things in place very effectively.

So, we thought,

there are 52 000 villages in Tamil Nadu, ok?

Right now, we are just working in about close to 3000 villages.

3000 looks like a large number.

It is a large number to work but

there are 52 000 villages in Tamil Nadu itself.

There are over 700,000 villages in India as a whole.

So,

I thought,

I always thought

that if we have sufficient dedicated people

and do good enough work,

money should not be a problem.

I was wrong on that.

If I had focused on money,

we would have lot of money by now,

because Im capable of doing those things,

its not a problem for me, you know?

When I want something I always get it. (Laughs)

I didnt focus on money;

I thought financial thing is not the thing for Isha Foundation.

The thing is to create dedicated people

and we have created a very, very uniquely,

phenomenally dedicated group of people.

The kind of work that they are doing is incredible.

There are a quarter million or right now over 300-350 (million)

350,000 volunteers part-time

and we have about 1400 full time volunteers.

All of them are volunteers,

most of them highly educated¸

nobody is paid anything.

They are working 365 days,

7 days of the week,

almost 18-20 hours a day.

Thats how our schedule goes everyday.

Doing all this,

quite a lot of work has been done but

its still a drop in the ocean.

The volume of problem that exists,

on what we are doing is so small.

So, our intention was basically to set up a module,

a working module on a large scale module.

60 million is not a small module,

a large scale module

so that people will take it up everywhere else and do it.

But

many people are trying to do little, little things but

I dont see this kind of thing happening

unless you have a large dedicated group of volunteers

to make it happen.

The medical part of it, we could do it everywhere.

Maybe even education we could do it everywhere.

But the other aspects of changing peoples lives,

what we are trying to do,

that is not possible on large scale.

It takes lots of trained people to do it.

So, the medical and educational part,

we are trying to take it to other places right now

but Tamil Nadu we have worked in a very different way.

Even today the whole projects are going only on small individual donations.

There is no one big,

you know,

big corporation or any big foundation

making a big donation or

any kind of aid like that.

It is all happening only individual things.

Even today I have children who walk one way

from the school,

save five to eight Rupees per month and

they give those eight Rupees to me.

Thats very precious to me that they still do such things

and thats how the whole foundation is functioning, even today.

But scaling it up beyond a certain point is not possible

unless big money comes in.

Its not possible,

thats very, very clear to us.

We can keep it at this level,

maybe go up a little bit in small steps but

really if you want to scale it up nationwide or worldwide,

without big money coming in,

its just not possible.

Wherever I go I see that

when they see the nature of work thats been done,

its presented in many different ways these days.

I see lots of hands clapping,

they say, this is fantastic, this is fantastic.

But still it has not converted itself into signing cheques or whatever. (Laughs)

It has not.

Im meeting all the top corporates in the world

in different conferences that I go;

everybody says, What you are doing is great.

But what they are willing to do about it is still

they say yes

and then we send our people.

They negotiate and negotiate and negotiate and negotiate.

You cant negotiate with human life, you know,

but they negotiate too much.

They negotiate to such a point that

then what you are doing becomes utterly meaningless,

if it is done the way they want it to be done.

So, many offers we have dropped

because in the end what they are trying to extract out of it is so totally,

you know

I would say its inhuman but thats how they operate.

But many people are looking towards doing something,

especially the Green Hands Project is looking like

it will get the support,

the needed support.

Right now,

there is a particular foundation,

a small foundation with a certain amount of money,

who is asking us to come and do it in Sierra Leone.

Sometime this year we are planning to send somebody

and maybe I will make a days visit to Sierra Leone

just to see how the conditions are.

I heard the conditions are very bad.

Swami Vivekananda,

you heard of him?

Hum?

You heard of Vivekananda?

No?

He didnt come to Russia,

he came to Chicago.

You are in Chicago, right?

Ok.

So, he was the first yogi to come to United States in 1893,

am I right?

In 1893 he came to Chicago for the Parliament of Religions meeting and

he created lots of waves in United States in those days.

He was the first yogi who came to United States.

So, Vivekananda said

When I was just 14 years of age,

I just happened to read this somewhere that he said,

Give me 100 committed people.

I will change the face of India, he said.

I thought, what is this nonsense?

Cant we create 100 people?

Vivekananda is not an ordinary -

he is not just another man.

He is a phenomenon.

When a man like him is here,

arent there 100 people in this whole country?

But there werent.

He couldnt find those 100 people.

Then I thought, you know,

at least to,

so that he doesnt roll in his grave,

we must produce those 100 people.

Today I can very proudly say,

I have more than 100 people who are willing to die

for what they are doing.

But he was wrong.

100 committed people can do miraculous things,

they are doing it.

But still its not enough to change todays world.

It takes a lot more.

Phenomenal things are happening in the village,

wonderful things

but still if you look at the volume of problem that exists in the world,

what we are doing is just a tiny, tiny drop, you know?

It takes a lot more to do this.

I would say,

for example here in United States

people have been asking me,

What are we going to do here?

I mean, again I am repeating that,

Im saying,

see, United States is easy to change

because it doesnt have really very strong cultural ethos.

People are a little loose¸

easy to change them actually

because they dont have very strong cultural rootings.

They are just trying to make Elvis Presley their culture,

you know, Beatles As their culture.

These are all desperate ways to hang on to something

that comes your way,

to make - to find some cultural mooring for yourself.

So, it will be a very easy culture to change

compared to India

because India is steeped in culture.

Changing that is not easy.

Not at all but we are making a marked difference in the Indian village

which is very, very difficult, you know?

Because the cultural rooting is so strong

in that country,

any small change is so very difficult for the people.

Here people will change very easily.

Again Im saying the same thing:

100 committed teachers in United States,

in 10 to 12 years time we can make a huge difference in this country,

huge.

And its important because

in many ways United States has worked itself

whichever way,

with all kinds of means maybe,

to become the most powerful nation on the planet.

Once power comes,

it needs to come with a certain sensitivity and gentleness and

awareness of

everybody elses everything.

See, if you are just an ant,

you can crawl wherever you want¸

you can climb on anybody and

do whatever you want.

Now, you have become an elephant;

now where you put your foot is very, very important, isnt it?

Now, this nation has become a giant,

its extremely important what they do.

But we dont see that kind of sense and responsibility,

you know?

As a nation it is not showing that sense of responsibility

and sensitivity to everything around them.

Very easily,

if this countrys people and leadership,

if they make some basic changes in them,

they can change the world just like that,

they have the power to do it.

They have the means to do it but

they are just using their power and means in completely wrong directions,

completely wrong directions.

What they are investing on all kinds of life

negative things in terms of,

you know, arms and armament,

that investment if they make properly,

you will be the most loved nation on the planet.

Right now, you are the most hated nation on the planet unfortunately,

you know?

Whatever, just what has been spent in the last four years in Iraq,

if that much money was invested,

lets say in Middle East itself

to change peoples lives,

the whole of Middle East would be sold out

to United States, isnt it?

You dont have to fight a war.

Really.

What have you spent, 100 billion?

Hum? How much?

300 billion dollars

if you spent on Middle East

for the well-being of the people,

all the countries would be (bought), you know,

totally sold out to United States.

Isnt it so?

Instead of sending 150,000 soldiers,

if you sent 150,000 volunteers who went and did something,

everything would change

and this would be real power. Isnt it so?

Yes?

This would be absolute power,

that people have fallen in love with you is

always the greatest power. Isnt it so?

Yes?

You hold people with stick,

thats not power.

People have just fallen in love with you,

thats power, isnt it?

Easily if that change happens in this country,

very easily

they can change the whole world.

Its a great privilege that a nation has risen to

such sense of power and influence

but I think its just being wasted,

completely wrong attitudes.

People may think,

Oh, this is not so.

You dont know the international politics.

This will happen.

Nothing will happen.

All this international politics is nonsense.

You dont know human nature.

If you know human nature

you could have used it in such a way

that it would be well-being

for everybody and well-being for you also.

Are you ok for a joke?

Hum?

Ok for national jokes?

They sent out a certain

they wanted to make a survey about

what people feel about, you know,

food and nutrition shortages around the world,

in the rest of the world.

So, so this many questions,

there it said,

Please give your opinion

as to what you think about

the food and nourishment shortages

around the world or rest of the world.

So, this form went around,

it went to South America.

People did not know what is, Please.

This survey was a complete failure

because it went to South America,

people did not understand what is a,

Please.

It went to Eastern Europe; they did not know whats an, opinion.

It went to Africa; they did not know what is, nourishment.

It went to Europe;

they did not know what is, shortage.

It came to America; they did not know

what is, rest of the world. (Laughter & applause)

It can be done if the necessary funding is there,

even if we dont do it ourselves,

we could easily go and organize things for them for a

in the beginning and let it happen.