National Volunteer Month: 400,000 Plant Trees In India With Isha Foundation

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is a powerful character -- but wholly unintimidating. He frequently cracks jokes upon meeting a new group of people and his BlackBerry seems quite anachronistic given his appearance. To someone who's barely left Los Angeles in several years, he looks more like a character from an ancient epic film than a world-renowned speaker and guru.

He was at our office in L.A. to talk to me about the Isha Foundation, his nonprofit that provides free medical care to rural areas in India, promotes environmental activism, and constructs yoga schools throughout the world.

For today's Volunteer Spotlight (and since Earth Day is just a week away), we want to recognize the incredible achievement of the Isha Foundation, who organized over 400,000 volunteers to plant two million trees on a mountain in India in just 25 days. This group of volunteers also set the record for most tree seeds (850,000) planted in a single day (a record they plan to continually break in the years ahead).

Sadhguru seemed surprised when I asked him about how to encourage people to volunteer their time. He replied that people should be even more selfish than they already are; after all, taking care of our environment and others helps improve our own lives.

"We're not saving the planet," he told me. "We're saving ourselves."

WATCH a segment of our interview with Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev:

Sadhguru does not believe that this volunteer effort should be the work of a select group of activists.

"It's everybody's work. All of us breathe, all of us eat, all of us walk on this planet. This is not somebody's work, it's everybody's work. Unless we get it into people's minds that this is everybody's work, you will not accomplish much on this planet."

The Isha Foundation's primary goal is to address "all aspects of human wellbeing." This includes yoga programs, and extends to humanitarian efforts. In addition to the wildly successful environmental initiative, known as Project GreenHands, Isha's Action for Rural Rejuvenation works to address economic, agricultural and social mobility problems in rural India.

Learn more about Project GreenHands:

Get involved with Project GreenHands or make a donation to one of the Isha Foundation's projects to help them continue their work.

Comments

[Lpeter]

07:03 PM on 06/03/2010

WOW!! What an inspiratio­n.

I have been planting trees on my property. Lots of fruit trees. So rewarding. Peace

[wassilij]

12:46 PM on 04/20/2010

R.I.P. Jack Herer...Yo­u'll be greatly missed...p­rayers and condolence­s to the Family.

http://www­.salem-new­s.com/arti­cles/april­202010/jac­k_herer_eu­logy_bk.ph­p

[bexband]

04:47 AM on 04/19/2010

I encourage you to watch the video to see how volunteers involved in this initiative are committed to take care of the trees. The survival rate is around 90%. Monitoring of sapling developmen­t is also done.

[Tulka2]

09:13 PM on 04/16/2010

If you plant ten trees, St. Peter doesn't look at your sins. Free pass through the pearly gates.

[fredgladys]

08:29 PM on 04/15/2010

I totally agree with tree planting programs, however, my query is who will give follow up care to the trees. I realise that in many circumstan­ces this is hard or even impossible to do, but for smaller, local programs there should be a process to ensure that, at least most of the trees survive.

Sorry to sound jaded, but our local school has had a tree planting ceremony every year for about fifteen years. The process is, schoolchil­dren are gathered, a politician plants a tree, applause all round, photo opportunit­y. A couple of years later, most if not all of the trees are dead. Similar photo opportunit­ies are held in parks around the area.

On a personal level my neighbours and I have planted trees and more importantl­y we nurture them to ensure their survival. Maybe there should be more emphasis on the follow up.

[alysheba 3]

06:39 PM on 04/15/2010

This is fabulous. More people need to do this.

And as a Scout Leader I am proud to say that each year hundreds of thousands of Scouting members (youth and adults) go out to plant millions of trees. Last weekend my group of 12 youth planted 350 trees. Google "Scout trees" to see how you can help.

Support your local youth as they work to help save our environmen­t.

[Tulka2]

09:16 PM on 04/16/2010

Sigh. I applaud you for teaching the boys to plant trees. Now..... if the Boy Scouts only taught tolerance for people unlike themselves­. Perfectly admirable people who happen to be gays and atheists.

[alysheba 3]

11:44 AM on 04/17/2010

I'm in Canada. Boys and GIRLS. 8)

And here at Scouts Canada we have no bias against gays, atheists, people of different cultures or languages, people with disabiliti­es,.......­.........

I have yet to find any Scouting group here in Canada that demonstrat­es the biases displayed by the Boy Scouts of America.

[MamaontheGo]

01:20 PM on 04/15/2010

Wow, this is awesome! Great news.

[AntiRethuglican]

03:29 AM on 04/15/2010

Shanti Om~ॐ

[SilentSolidarity]

02:17 AM on 04/15/2010

We all know that it would have an amazing impact if this article as on the main. Jsut imagine the numebr of trees that could be planted through donations from HuffPost readers. It is possible!

[DoctorDirector]

04:57 PM on 04/15/2010

Not at all to disrespect your comment, but - imagine the number of trees that could ACTUALLY BE PLANTED by HuffPost readers. Plant a tree. How hard could it be?

[BJU]

06:35 PM on 04/15/2010

Plant 2 as was suggested. I have.