Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / Practical Applications for Solving the Existential Crisis of Humanity Through the Evolution of Consciousness
Transcript
- 0:01Welcome to the selfgrowth.com show.
- 0:04My name is David Ricklin and I'm the founder of selfgrowth.com.
- 0:08Today we'll be discussing an interesting topic, practical
- 0:11applications for solving the existential crisis of humanity
- 0:16through the evolution of consciousness.
- 0:19It's an interesting topic we'll be getting into in quite a bit.
- 0:22To help us understand this topic, I'm excited to interview
- 0:25Santosh Kinski, who's with me today.
- 0:28Make sure to listen closely. We're going to be sharing a lot
- 0:30of information today. Before we get started, I just
- 0:33want to share some information about his background and then
- 0:36we're going to jump in over here.
- 0:38So Santosh has been studying 3 Arabindos writing since 1971,
- 0:43has a daily blog and a podcast, is the author of 16 books, and
- 0:48he's the editor in chief at Lotus Press.
- 0:51He's the president of the Institute for Holistic
- 0:54Education, which is a nonprofit focus on integrating
- 0:57spirituality into daily life. He spent more than 48 years
- 1:01building and developing infrastructure, publishing,
- 1:04distributing and educating about the spiritual path of Sri
- 1:08Aravindo, as well as developing and guiding companies at the
- 1:12forefront of publishing books and distributing books and
- 1:14products to support the natural market as well as the
- 1:18metaphysical market in North America.
- 1:20Santosh, welcome to today's show.
- 1:23Well, thank you. I appreciate you inviting me.
- 1:26All right, let's jump right in. So I mentioned a few things.
- 1:30I mentioned existential crisis of humanity.
- 1:33Can you briefly describe, and I think a lot of people are
- 1:36feeling it already, that describe the existential crisis
- 1:40of humanity that you introduced in an earlier interview we did
- 1:43through selfgrowth.com? Sure.
- 1:46Basically, I mean, what people are feeling today is this whole
- 1:51COVID pandemic thing combined with all the Hurricanes and
- 1:56earthquakes and volcanoes and all of that stuff that's
- 2:00actually symptoms, but not the actual cause of what's taking
- 2:05place here. Humanity has, through its own
- 2:10actions, changed the climate model of the world, and that's
- 2:18having impacts that go far beyond any of these day-to-day
- 2:24events that we feel so intensely.
- 2:28We react to the day-to-day events, but we fail to respond
- 2:32to the longer term, slower, less visible changes that take place.
- 2:39And it's like that story of, you know, how to boil a frog.
- 2:44You know, you put a frog in cold water and slowly increase the
- 2:47temperature, and it won't react to that.
- 2:49Well, that's what we're doing to ourselves.
- 2:51We're boiling ourselves like that proverbial frog, and we're
- 2:58not paying attention to it. We're not turning down the heat.
- 3:02We're looking at breaking down the Gulf Stream in the ocean,
- 3:08and if we do, that climate will go totally haywire all over the
- 3:13world because there are these ocean currents that regulate the
- 3:19climate and everything else on this planet.
- 3:22In addition to that, we're polluting the world, we're
- 3:27poisoning the world. We have what scientists are
- 3:31calling the 6th planetary species die off.
- 3:36The fifth one for everyone's, you know, information was when
- 3:41the meteor hit the planet and killed off all the dinosaurs and
- 3:44a lot of other beings. But we're going through a larger
- 3:49extinction process today at a magnitude that is global.
- 3:54People have heard how we're decimating the pollinators, the
- 3:57bees, and it's going to impact the ability to even produce
- 4:03food. So we've got all these different
- 4:08factors that combined with climate, combined with the
- 4:12pollution, combined with overfishing and destroying the
- 4:17the ocean habitat. I mean, we're basically
- 4:22destroying the coral reefs, which are the incubators for the
- 4:27food chain of the entire ocean. Well, what will happen on this
- 4:30planet where so many people rely on fish for their food, when we
- 4:37destroy the fisheries, you're going to have billions of people
- 4:43who don't have a good food source because they've relied on
- 4:46that. Well, they're not going to sit
- 4:47there and take it. You're looking at wars, you're
- 4:50looking at mass migrations, you're looking at disease
- 4:54vectors happening. And so this is what I talk about
- 4:59as an existential crisis. It goes far beyond this, but
- 5:02that's a a brief intro to it. What's amazing, I love the frog
- 5:08analogy because we're in a situation where we're aware of
- 5:11it, Many people are aware of it. We're aware we're in the pot,
- 5:16we're aware we're the frog and and there's really two options
- 5:20for the frog to survive and we'll get into it.
- 5:22One is turn the heat down. The others at least jump out of
- 5:24the pot. So it's, it's interesting and I
- 5:28want to get into kind of what humanity can do and what you're
- 5:33and different groups are actually working on on this and
- 5:35understand it's not like everybody's completely ignoring
- 5:38it. So that's a good thing.
- 5:39So what I want to jump into is what's the difference between
- 5:43this? We talked a little bit about a
- 5:45current state of consciousness of humanity.
- 5:48So where we are right now and then that kind of the next phase
- 5:52of evolutionary cycle. So we want to figure out all
- 5:55right, there's these issues and clearly major issues.
- 5:57It's it's, it's obvious to anybody watching the news for
- 6:00more than 10 minutes. Then right now there's world
- 6:04level issues that are going on this existential crisis.
- 6:07So let's take a look at kind of the start current state of
- 6:10consciousness of humanity and why is that important?
- 6:14And then what's the next phase of our evolutionary cycle?
- 6:17Let's jump in there. Well, sure.
- 6:20Humanity has basically built its civilization and its action on
- 6:24the planet based on what we might call the consciousness of
- 6:28the mind and the mental consciousness tends to be blink
- 6:35blinkered that it it is limited within its viewpoint.
- 6:41It sees One Direction. It sees things as black and
- 6:44white, either or and it doesn't take into account the global
- 6:51impacts, the holistic impacts of what we do.
- 6:54And so we say we're going to cure this disease by doing a
- 6:58certain thing. We don't understand that we've
- 7:01upset the biochemistry of the whole body and we're creating a
- 7:06worse crisis down line. This is the nature of the mind
- 7:11and this is what we've built our entire life and civilization on.
- 7:15And so it it then goes to how do we understand the world, how do
- 7:25we understand our relationship to the world, and what level and
- 7:30type of consciousness needs to come in to give us a different
- 7:35viewpoint. A really good example is one
- 7:40that up until just a few 100 years ago, humanity as a whole
- 7:45felt like the Earth is at the center of the universe.
- 7:49And the sun rose in the east and set in the West, and it
- 7:52obviously circled around us. And so we were the center of
- 7:55everything. And then scientists eventually
- 8:00discovered, and we've mostly now accepted, maybe there's a few
- 8:04flat earthers who don't, but we've most mostly now accepted
- 8:08the idea that the Earth rotates around the sun and it's on its
- 8:13own rotation. So that that's what creates the
- 8:16illusion of being at the center of the universe.
- 8:20The mind thinks it's at the center of the universe.
- 8:23And we make all of our decisions based upon we're at the center
- 8:28we control. And what we say goes, well, it
- 8:31doesn't work like that. And so the next level of
- 8:35consciousness needs to shift out of the limited framework of the
- 8:41mind and move towards a new vision that can see the
- 8:47interaction, the interconnectedness and the
- 8:50oneness within which we live. That these other forces of the
- 8:55universe, the galaxies, the solar system, the sun itself,
- 9:00actually control and develop what's going on.
- 9:04And if we can shift our viewpoint to something that's
- 9:08comprehensive and whole, we will make better decisions.
- 9:12And just like the mind has changed all life on Earth to the
- 9:17point that we've created the unintended consequence of this
- 9:21existential crisis, a holistic view, a global view of things
- 9:28can help us heal that and move us beyond the mental
- 9:32limitations. There's a few things I want to
- 9:35mention relative to things you said.
- 9:37So one of the things that comes to mind is the fact that we've
- 9:41been historically very individual centric.
- 9:44We're focused on are the world we see and not only two things
- 9:48that you mentioned that really struck me.
- 9:49One is we're focused on what we see right immediately around us,
- 9:53not the bigger impact. And also in terms of timing,
- 9:58we're looking at stuff that's impacting us today.
- 10:01So as a general rule and, and what's in what I find
- 10:04interesting is that has served us in terms of growth and
- 10:08technology and we're feeding a larger percentage of people and
- 10:11it's helped in many ways, but it, it's gotten to the point,
- 10:14the way I see it, it's gotten to the point where it's starting to
- 10:17cause a lot of damage that this kind of focus.
- 10:21I, I love this concept of almost a, a new consciousness that we
- 10:25need to develop that will enable us to see outside our, our kind
- 10:29of small circle that we're in. But one of the questions that I
- 10:32have for you, so as we're developing this new
- 10:35consciousness, this new development of consciousness and
- 10:37new awareness of seeing the world more as a completely
- 10:42interconnected, it's almost an interconnected Organism, that's
- 10:47it's not just us, we're connected to the whole planet.
- 10:50How does this new development consciousness help solve this
- 10:53crisis that we're talking about? So how do we go about doing?
- 10:56What are the kind of some practical steps associated with
- 10:59this? Well, I think the the first
- 11:01thing is when we begin to realize that what we
- 11:07individually want, what we as a society want from our normal
- 11:12limited mental viewpoint can be counterproductive.
- 11:17And, and I'll give you an example, OK, We think that we
- 11:23can cut down all the trees on the planet for our own purpose,
- 11:28to expand agriculture, to use wood, whatever it is we want to
- 11:35do, to create toilet paper, whatever we want to do with it,
- 11:39we want to cut down trees. Well, the reality is that
- 11:43without trees, we don't exist. People don't realize that the
- 11:48trees create the oxygen and breathe out the oxygen that we
- 11:53need to live, and similarly we breathe out the carbon dioxide
- 11:59that they need to live. So we're either symbiotic, 2
- 12:05separate organisms that are connected to each other
- 12:08integrally, or we're one being in two different organs, you
- 12:14could say. And either way, if we shift to
- 12:19that viewpoint, we take a whole different view of how we react
- 12:23and deal with nature, how we react and deal with each other,
- 12:27how we react and deal with the resources of the planet.
- 12:32We suddenly take the view that we can't keep spewing poison
- 12:37into the atmosphere and into the ground and kill off food chain
- 12:43species of of an enormous magnitude and still exist.
- 12:48And so that change of consciousness changes the very
- 12:52essence of who we think we are and how we relate to the world
- 12:57around us. And and that's the basis upon
- 13:01which we then can begin to develop balanced, harmonious and
- 13:09forward-looking ways of living on the planet sustainably.
- 13:15I want to delve a little bit deeper into some ways to can
- 13:20practically apply this, this kind of new consciousness.
- 13:23So and, and we'll get into a few things.
- 13:25I want to get into a few things with you.
- 13:27One is there, there are clearly people that I know that I'm
- 13:31aware of and, and I'm part of this group broadly that
- 13:35understands this global connection.
- 13:37So there's a this, there are people, not everybody and
- 13:40clearly not everybody. So relative to this kind of
- 13:44consciousness and awareness, I think we're getting where more
- 13:47and more people are gaining this level of consciousness.
- 13:50So what I want to spend some time talking to you about is a
- 13:53few things. One, what are some of the
- 13:55practical examples of how this new consciousness as it's
- 14:00growing can help solve this crisis we're talking about,
- 14:04which really an existential crisis because we're, we're
- 14:06destroying our habitat. We're, we're just, we're
- 14:09destroying ourselves slowly. Well, and then we need to really
- 14:14do something about it. So let's take a look at some
- 14:16practical applications. Sure.
- 14:18And, and you know, you're absolutely right, there are
- 14:22many, many thousands of people, 10s or even hundreds of
- 14:27thousands of people who are in their own way, understanding and
- 14:31acting and working on ways to solve these issues.
- 14:35Both in low tech ways and in high tech ways around the world.
- 14:41I absolutely am very encouraged by that.
- 14:46Although in in relation to 8 billion people who aren't doing
- 14:51that, it's, you know, it's hard to make the kind of impact with
- 14:56the speed that's needed. One of the issues that comes up
- 15:01is that particularly here in the West, we're very enamored of
- 15:06high tech. And so we think that we can
- 15:09solve everything with high tech. And we've done things like drop
- 15:15water and power generating projects into Africa at the cost
- 15:21of many billions of dollars only to find out that a few years
- 15:25later they're basically defunct and falling apart because the
- 15:31people there, we're not in a position, nor was the
- 15:35infrastructure in those areas ready to sustain that kind of
- 15:40high tech approach. And so while it's great that
- 15:45people are working on high tech solutions that may help at least
- 15:50the West do a better job of being more sustainable, the bulk
- 15:55of people on the planet and the resources that we rely on come
- 15:59from the developing world. And so someone needs to be
- 16:03working on solutions that actually can work in the
- 16:09developing world that are sustainable, that are
- 16:13reproducible and that are scalable so that people in
- 16:18Africa and Asia and South America and the Middle East in
- 16:24places where they don't have these high tech capacities can
- 16:29begin to meet their own aspirations of living a
- 16:36lifestyle. I mean, let let's look at it
- 16:38this way. We live a lifestyle that is
- 16:41unsustainable here in America or in Europe.
- 16:46We act as if there's three or four planet Earths when there's
- 16:49one. And if everybody on the planet
- 16:54had the same aspiration and said we're all equal, why can't we
- 16:58all have that level of existence?
- 17:02Well, you now wind up with either you're going to have a
- 17:06permanent aristocratic controlling class dominating and
- 17:11destroying the people who don't have that in order to maintain
- 17:17that aggressive lifestyle that we have, or you need to find new
- 17:22ways to allow people who don't have food, water, shelter,
- 17:29healthcare, et cetera, at the level we have it.
- 17:33We need to find ways for them to have their basic needs met, or
- 17:39we're gonna have global chaos. We're already starting to have
- 17:43global chaos. The mass migrations, the wars,
- 17:45everything comes from these disputes coming up where people
- 17:51want to have the lifestyle, but they're not getting access to
- 17:57the resources, nor are those resources there for everybody on
- 18:01the planet. So we need to make some
- 18:04adjustments here, but the rest of the world has to have the
- 18:09ability to increase its access to these resources in a
- 18:16sustainable way. And the type of projects that I
- 18:22look at are the ones that are being developed in the
- 18:25developing world using resources widely available there that are
- 18:30sustainable and scalable and reproducible, and thereby can
- 18:37begin to address the the larger issues.
- 18:41And at the same time, perhaps provide some examples for the
- 18:44West to shift away from its high tech is the only solution
- 18:51mindset and begin to adopt some of these methods for themselves
- 18:58to accomplish things that are done high tech but are
- 19:03counterproductive. An example of that is when it
- 19:08gets hot and it's getting hot and hotter.
- 19:11We all rely on air conditioning. But there are projects, for
- 19:18instance, in the the community of Oroville in South India,
- 19:22which is a pretty hot place, they don't rely on air
- 19:26conditioning. They rely on architectural
- 19:31design and materials in their building that help keep a
- 19:38temperate climate within the buildings without the use of the
- 19:44air conditioning. If we adopted that here in the
- 19:48West, enormous amounts of energy would be saved.
- 19:52People would still be comfortable, and we wouldn't be
- 19:55putting the chlorofluorocarbons up into the ozone layer.
- 20:00So, I mean, there's a lot of win, win options here if some of
- 20:06these projects succeed. Let's spend some time talking
- 20:10about Oroville. So you mentioned Oroville and I
- 20:12want to tie it back to what you were saying.
- 20:14So there's clearly people are identifying some practical
- 20:17applications of things that we can do even globally in terms of
- 20:23making an impact. And we clearly need to start
- 20:26implementing these. One of the things that really
- 20:28struck me that you're talking about is the fact that, you
- 20:30know, imagine of the seven, 8 billion people on the planet all
- 20:34try to live at the same lifestyle and carbon footprint
- 20:39that Americans live. You know, it, it would, it would
- 20:42bring about a, a global devastation very, very quickly.
- 20:46We, we can't sustain the, the lifestyle that we're living in
- 20:49America can't be sustained for 8 billion people on this planet
- 20:52right now. It's just, it's, it's not
- 20:54possible. So Oroville, I am going to ask
- 20:57you to spend some time talking a little bit more about it is
- 21:01what's considered an intentional community and it's designed to
- 21:06really help kind of bring about and identify different projects
- 21:09and things that are are working and then have applications.
- 21:12So can you that can help kind of solve this existential crisis?
- 21:16Can you tell us a little bit more about Oroville kind of take
- 21:20some background in it and what the kind of global purpose and
- 21:23and some of the projects? And, and one of the things I
- 21:26want to point out, I want folks to really pay attention to this
- 21:28because the town of Oroville, this community is doing some
- 21:33substantial things that can be taken, that the concepts and
- 21:37ideas that they're doing can be spread globally and have a big
- 21:40impact. And they're, they're almost
- 21:42testing, the way I see it, you can correct me if you feel
- 21:44differently. They're kind of testing out
- 21:46different methodologies and systems that could be used on a
- 21:50more widespread basis to have a, a global impact.
- 21:53So with that said, can you take us through Oroville, the
- 21:56community? What's it about and what and
- 21:58what are they trying to do? Great.
- 22:01Well, first, let me preface by saying they're not the only
- 22:07people or community around the world working on different forms
- 22:11of solution. But the uniqueness that I found
- 22:15in looking at the Oroville project is that it's pretty
- 22:21ambitious. I mean, they want to have a city
- 22:23of 50,000 eventually. They've got about 3200 or 3300
- 22:28residents there right now so that they can show the viability
- 22:35of a sustainable urban environment, which is how the
- 22:40world lives to a great degree. And that's where the crux of the
- 22:45problem is. Urbanization has accentuated a
- 22:50lot of the problems we're talking about, and so they need
- 22:53to find a sustainable urban solution.
- 22:57Oroville was founded in 1968 and basically the idea was to create
- 23:05a place that would belong to humanity as a whole, would not
- 23:10be owned by anyone, group or country.
- 23:15Although it's located in India and subject to the laws of
- 23:18India, but it's got its own little carved out position
- 23:23there. You could say they've got people
- 23:28from over 70 countries living there and with different
- 23:33languages, different cultures, different backgrounds, different
- 23:36education, different expectations and different
- 23:39aspirations. And so it's it's sort of a mini
- 23:43experiment for human unity. And of course, you know, you
- 23:48wind up with all the normal human egoistic reactions and
- 23:52then you wind up with how they go about trying to work past
- 23:57that. And through that, because we
- 23:59need to learn how to live together despite and sort of
- 24:03even in favor of our differences.
- 24:05So we don't make everybody uniform, but we learn how to
- 24:09live peacefully together and find solutions together.
- 24:13And then what also has happened is they're bringing together
- 24:17people who have each their own unique skill set, interests and
- 24:24ideas about creating projects to try to solve some of the major
- 24:30issues that we as humanity face on a sustainable level.
- 24:34And they've got something like somewhere over 55 projects going
- 24:39right now. It's amazing the diversity of
- 24:44focus that these different subgroups of residents there
- 24:49have taken up everything from reclamation of badly eroded land
- 24:56to reforestation, to creating sustainable buildings and
- 25:05architecture, which I mentioned earlier.
- 25:08The idea of tackling food, clean water, creating protein sources
- 25:18that are sustainable and not reliant on the world's
- 25:23fisheries, I mean it, it's, it's amazing all the things they're
- 25:29doing and all of the various directions that they're taking.
- 25:35And, and that's what I found interesting.
- 25:37I don't know of any other place where this type of intensive,
- 25:43multi dimensional, multi directional focus is taking
- 25:48place. And all of it starting from what
- 25:52is sustainable within the environment and not relying on
- 25:56some kind of magical high tech solution.
- 25:59So they may use wind energy, but they're creating wind turbines
- 26:03and generation, for instance, that can be done anywhere in the
- 26:08world. They're they're reproducible.
- 26:13There's a few things I want to mention that came to mind as you
- 26:15were talking. One is it sounds incorrect if
- 26:19I'm wrong that the people of Oroville are looking to develop
- 26:24kind of SIM in some cases, what I describe as more practical
- 26:27solutions that everybody can implement.
- 26:30So I, I think about what other folks and I've listened to, for
- 26:34example, Bill Gates talk about how there's some high tech
- 26:38solutions and, and kind of his vision and he's on board with
- 26:43the concept that we absolutely need to, to do something that
- 26:46we're using up resources. He's on board with it, but he's
- 26:49coming from a high tech approach.
- 26:53And what's interesting about Oroville is people are coming
- 26:56from a practical community, almost a lifestyle approach of,
- 27:01of what kind of lifestyle is sustainable first on a small
- 27:06scale and then on much larger scale for for humanity.
- 27:10So they're almost testing out what can be used.
- 27:12And I like the concept that you said they're they're looking to
- 27:15test it out in an urban level as they're growing the size of
- 27:18Oroville. And the reason being most people
- 27:21right now, we've moved into cities, we're very, very much
- 27:23urban life focused. So I want you to delve a little
- 27:27bit more deeply. You started talking about it is
- 27:29that, yeah, how the projects of Oroville differ.
- 27:32So we're kind of contrasting them to these high tech and in
- 27:35many cases high cost approaches. What what's kind of the main
- 27:39difference? How do you differentiate what
- 27:41they're doing with these people that are looking to solve it
- 27:44literally with technology? Well, that that's a a really
- 27:48good question actually. What, what I look at there is
- 27:53that when you look at high tech, OK, you're looking at needing
- 27:57rare earth resources, OK, these minerals that are very, very
- 28:03scarce basically, and are being controlled by, in some cases,
- 28:09specific countries for their own political and economic
- 28:14domination games. So there's a, a limit to that.
- 28:19But then they create poisons that that pollute the planet.
- 28:25I mean, you can't dispose of batteries or cell phones or
- 28:29things in a normal waste dump because they tell you they're
- 28:34toxic. They're going to, they're going
- 28:35to pollute things. They need special handling.
- 28:38And we're building up this trash and nobody thinks about it.
- 28:42OK, what are we going to do when we're buried under mountains of
- 28:45toxic trash? We're already getting there.
- 28:48How many people have a dozen pieces of technology in their
- 28:52own homes that they don't know how to get rid of and can't get
- 28:55rid of? And if they get rid of it, what
- 28:57happens to it? It used to be that some of that
- 29:01got recycled, but that got overwhelmed and they've had
- 29:05barges with filled with toxic technology running around the
- 29:10oceans with nowhere to land. It can't go on.
- 29:14That approach has reached its limits.
- 29:18That's the mental approach of we can solve it with what we've
- 29:22done in the past with high tech and industrialization on the
- 29:27other side. I'll give you the example that
- 29:31that I think is is most salient in Oroville.
- 29:34And that's their reforestation program.
- 29:36When they got to the place where the community started in 1968,
- 29:41it was bare, eroded, badly destroyed landscape.
- 29:48I mean, it looked like a moonscape, OK.
- 29:51And actually I was there in the 1970s and 1973 and I almost got
- 29:57heat stroke. Actually, I did get heat stroke
- 30:01walking around out there. There were no trees.
- 30:03There was a beating sun. It was in the mid 90s.
- 30:06And I mean, it was terrible, terrible environment.
- 30:12So they started doing things like controlling the monsoon
- 30:16rain run offs and changing the way water flowed.
- 30:21And then they said, OK, let's look at reforestation.
- 30:24Now in the West, reforestation means that you go in there and
- 30:29you dump, you know, you get maybe in an airplane and dump a
- 30:33million seedlings of trees into an area and you're lucky if you
- 30:37get 15 or 20% of them to take. And that's considered the
- 30:42successful reforestation. They followed a different
- 30:46approach. First of all, they looked at
- 30:49what the natural flora and fauna of that area of South India that
- 30:57climate was. They went to parks and other
- 31:01areas where those species were growing and saw how they grew
- 31:07and how they interrelated. And they planted trees and
- 31:11bushes and plants that would actually fit that environment.
- 31:17And then they started bringing in sort of companion plants that
- 31:23also came from that environment. So they would create a complete
- 31:28eco structure, if you will, in that local area.
- 31:33Over time, that all took root and became a full forest, if you
- 31:40will. I mean, if you look at Oroville
- 31:42today from above, it's green. I mean, you don't see the
- 31:47denuded landscape that you saw 50 years ago.
- 31:53It's incredible. And they saw that the native
- 31:57insects, the native animal species all migrated there.
- 32:02Well, how did they do that? They not only used intelligence
- 32:06to bring in the right mix of appropriate plants and trees,
- 32:13they also cared for them. They planted them individually.
- 32:17They learned how to because water was scarce, how to use a
- 32:22drop irrigation that they provided directly to the roots
- 32:27of these seedlings and nurtured them for years.
- 32:30Now wood is a very valuable resource and they're living
- 32:34amidst local communities, villages.
- 32:41And so they had to bring in the local villagers and explain to
- 32:45them why it was they wanted to do this and make sure that they
- 32:51appreciated, cooperated and supported it and got benefit
- 32:55from it. And so they actually created a,
- 32:59a symbiotic relationship with the local villages that are
- 33:03interspersed throughout Oroville.
- 33:06And everyone was supporting the reforestation program.
- 33:09And there weren't people coming in and saying, Oh my God, I want
- 33:12to survive. And they cut down the, the
- 33:15saplings, you know, so, so a lot of that took place.
- 33:21What they then did, one of the projects actually went out and
- 33:27reproduced itself in the country of Kenya.
- 33:31There's a project there and they brought in local people from
- 33:34that area and educated them on their insight, understanding and
- 33:41methodology. They went back and did similar
- 33:45research and have a successful reforestation there.
- 33:50They then went to Haiti and Haiti is a great example because
- 33:54there were both high tech solutions of reforestation after
- 34:00the big hurricanes destroyed everything.
- 34:04And there was this small project and while the 15 or 20% was
- 34:10considered successful in the high tech approach, they had
- 34:14something like 80% survival rate of their trees with that
- 34:21approach. It was unprecedented as to the
- 34:25type of results they get using this method versus the normal
- 34:31Western approach to this. They've also been reproducing it
- 34:35in certain parts of India. So they're now sort of exporting
- 34:41the insight, the understanding of this new sort of oneness
- 34:48consciousness we were talking about in the way they develop
- 34:53the reforestation programs. Now this is 1 little example
- 34:58because you know, the world is destroying forests faster than
- 35:03it's replanting them and it's destroying the oceans where we
- 35:07get more oxygen than we get from trees.
- 35:12We all think it's the trees and the plants on the ground that
- 35:15create the most oxygen, but over 50% comes out of the oceans and
- 35:20we're destroying the ocean food chain.
- 35:22So what they're now working on in other projects is OK, how do
- 35:28we develop like an algae based, reproducible, sustainable food
- 35:35source? How do we create options so that
- 35:42people don't have to destroy the oceans in order to survive?
- 35:47And hopefully you know some of these solutions begin to get
- 35:53some traction real soon. I love a lot of the concepts and
- 35:58one of the things I want to explore with you just a little
- 36:00bit. We've been focusing and talking
- 36:02about Oroville. So for folks who want to check
- 36:05it out, it's a URO Ville Ville Oroville and Santosh.
- 36:12Can you step us through a little bit of information?
- 36:15How can people find out more about Oroville?
- 36:17What's the best place to go? And one of the things I want to
- 36:20point out in terms of what you're saying is this, this
- 36:24community is doing a lot of things to really set up
- 36:28potential avenues, not only for them, but for the whole world to
- 36:32implement new systems out that will help the whole community,
- 36:35not only their local community, but a broader their country, the
- 36:39world that and really provide, and I love the concept something
- 36:42sustainable and reproducible. The, the real goal is to create
- 36:46something that's sustainable and reproducible to help humanity.
- 36:50Oroville seems like that's their clear mission.
- 36:53So tell us a little bit, where can they find out more
- 36:55information about Oroville? And for folks who like this
- 36:59mission, how can they support this mission and what could they
- 37:02do locally? So let's let's spend a couple
- 37:05minutes talking about that. Sure.
- 37:07Well, first of all, I would say they can find out more
- 37:12immediately from a a website calledaviusa.com or sorry.org.
- 37:19And there's a back slash flourish, FLOURISH that outlines
- 37:27some of these 55 or more projects that we're talking
- 37:30about. There's videos there, there's
- 37:32interviews there. I mean, there's a lot of
- 37:34information so people can see what's going on and they can
- 37:39find out more generally about Oroville by going to a VIU
- 37:43sa.org/orovilleso. I mean, that's, that certainly
- 37:50is one place where they can go get more informed about what's
- 37:56going on and what the projects are and how they're developing
- 38:00and where they're trying to go and, and even ways they can
- 38:03support it. I mean, people think that
- 38:06they're helpless or distant somehow.
- 38:10But, and, and in some cases they say, well, I don't have a lot of
- 38:15money. I can't just donate a lot of
- 38:17money. Well, if you've got money and
- 38:19you can put it in, that's great. It can be always used.
- 38:22But the reality is that there's a lot of things that can be
- 38:27done. They want to have, for instance,
- 38:30an Oroville TV station that is able to put this information out
- 38:36for the whole world using social media, whatever, to get the word
- 38:41out. Well, if you've got skill sets
- 38:44in that area, contribute them. If you've got your own ideas and
- 38:50projects about how to build sustainable, scalable and
- 38:54reproducible things, and you can't do it with Oroville, well,
- 38:58do it wherever you are. I mean, all of us have both an
- 39:04opportunity and a responsibility as citizens of the planet to do
- 39:09what we can wherever we are. And you know, I mean, if you can
- 39:15live more sustainably where you are, even here in the West,
- 39:19well, try to do it. We just moved into a new house
- 39:23and we're looking at, well, how do we go solar 'cause they, it
- 39:27wasn't a solar house. Well, every little bit helps in
- 39:33that regard. And solar energy, wind energy,
- 39:38ocean wave therapy, you know, whatever you can do, these are
- 39:44areas where energy can be generated and and then
- 39:48contribute ideas even to the high tech solutions.
- 39:51If that's where you are. You know, there are places that
- 39:55are putting sort of generating ribbons into roads so that
- 40:05electric cars can recharge themselves while they're
- 40:07driving. I mean.
- 40:12We need to get away from the internal combustion model,
- 40:15obviously, and all the hydrocarbons that we develop and
- 40:20the gas stations and all that stuff.
- 40:22It's going to change our lives, but we need to also do it
- 40:26intelligently. If we just use electricity and
- 40:30use coal and natural gas to generate it, we're still
- 40:33hydrocarbon reliant. So, you know, finding ways to
- 40:38generate energy from friction across the road or through solar
- 40:43collectors or through wind energy, whatever it might be, if
- 40:50that's where you are in your life and you can't go to
- 40:53Oroville and and do it at that level, do it some other way.
- 40:59I like the concept. I'm going to give out the
- 41:01website one more time. It's Avi for I guess, Oroville
- 41:07International. AVIU sa.org.
- 41:11So make sure you jot that down. Check out what they're doing.
- 41:13It's a very powerful group. They're making an impact.
- 41:16And AVIU sa.org/flourish to get some of the details in the
- 41:21program. And one of the things I just
- 41:23want to spend a couple minutes at before we wrap up is you
- 41:26mentioned earlier and I mentioned in my intro that
- 41:29you've been following the work of Sri Arbindo, who was inspired
- 41:33also the the founding of this project.
- 41:37How could folks find out more information about Sri Aurobindo
- 41:40and, and what's the what's the overall tie in?
- 41:43Sure. Well, Sri Aurobindo basically
- 41:48understood that the world is going through an evolutionary
- 41:52development of consciousness. And Darwin, you know, only saw
- 41:58the physical development, but didn't understand basically the
- 42:03the connecting thread that it was this evolution of
- 42:06consciousness that led to the evolution of species.
- 42:10And after the physical material consciousness, the next level
- 42:14was the vital consciousness that came through in the plants and
- 42:18then animals enhanced upon that and began to manifest the mental
- 42:23consciousness. Humanity has those earlier
- 42:27levels plus the mental capacities, and Trioro Bindo
- 42:31said evolution is not finished. And so the next level he called
- 42:37supra mental, which means beyond the mind.
- 42:41And he worked on finding ways through what he calls the
- 42:46integral yoga to begin to develop the receptivity in
- 42:53humanity to this next level of evolutionary development of
- 42:57consciousness that led to the development of Oroville and the
- 43:02kinds of things we've spoken about here.
- 43:05And basically, I guess the easiest place to go and, and get
- 43:11connected to information would be to go to orobindo.net, a
- 43:15UROBIND o.net. And there are links there.
- 43:21I do a daily blog that I post out there and, and there's a
- 43:26link to that blog and I do a daily podcast and in fact I try
- 43:32to post daily to selfgrowth.com so that people visiting
- 43:37selfgrowth.com can can find a lot of this material as well
- 43:42all. Right, sounds good.
- 43:44Well, I want to thank you very much for sharing all this
- 43:47information today. We really need to pull together
- 43:50and there are people that are making a big impact.
- 43:53Check out Oroville and exactly all the things they're doing.
- 43:56Santosh, thank you for your time.
- 43:59Any final words before you finish up?
- 44:02Well, I think we've really covered a lot of ground here,
- 44:04David, and I very much appreciate your efforts and and
- 44:09the support and efforts of all those people who are connected
- 44:14with us through what you're doing.
- 44:18And I want to thank everybody for, you know, spending some
- 44:22time with us today. All right.
- 44:24Thanks again, Santosh. Thanks for joining us.
- 44:27I want to thank everybody for listening.
- 44:29And I think we need to really pull together to to make
- 44:32changes, to make real change in the world.
- 44:34Thanks again. We'll see everybody soon.
- 44:36OK, thank you. Bye.
- 44:37Bye now. Bye bye.