17 Dec 2011 - QA 14

Guruji, can you give us an insight on what is happening to our planet, to our environment, to our nature? I get worried everyday inspite of my trying to make myself a better person.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t be disheartened. Nature is intelligent.
It has given the will to many people today to plant more trees, to be more aware of the lakes and rivers and people are much more environment conscious today than before.
So we are moving in the right direction.
The Art of Living itself has pledged to plant 59.5 million trees. Our volunteers have done a lot of work.
We need people like you who feel the pain for the planet. We want you to come up and the youngsters also to come up. Give one year of your life to this nation or to any nation you are in. One year to make it better.
Keep aside your job and other commitments, take a one year sabbatical.
‘One year of my life I am going to donate to my nation and for the sake of my environment. For eliminating poverty, for elevating human values and for a stress-free, violence-free world.’
With that determination, if you come along and spend one year for the society, at least one year, it can make a big difference.
Today, hundreds and thousands of Art of Living teachers are engaged and selflessly are working for society. What do they need? Simple food and a simple place to live. Simple things, and that is all being met. That is why there is an organization who takes care of the basic needs and so they have no other demands. And they are working day and night.
We have so many full time teachers here. They have dedicated their lives for the sake of humanity, to bring a smile on everyone’s face, to bring happiness in the lives of people. That in turn gives them so much happiness.
When you spread joy and happiness in another's life, that brings so much more inner satisfaction, and you cannot buy this satisfaction. Nothing can give you that job satisfaction that our teachers have. That is very good.
So we need to work more. All of you who have this intention to do something for the society, come along and we can do something great. Alone you cannot achieve much. One man cannot clean Delhi or Jamuna. But thousands everyday joined hands to clean Jamuna and Delhi, and the project became successful.