Tomorrow, Today
Cosmic Intelligence & the Power of Flow | Peepal Baba on Purpose, Nature & True Success
20 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What inspired Peepal Baba to start planting trees at a young age?
January 26, 1977, you were age 11.
Yes.
And you decided to start planting the first tree in Pune. What did you hear that no child at that age heard? And what actually got you into this? I want to really hear the backstory.
Don't try to write your own story. The story is already written, darling. It is already written. You just play the part. Yes. Go with the flow.
When I was really expressing myself was when I did not have the burden to prove something to someone. Yes. And that actually gave me the escape velocity.
I call it CIA you know the cosmic intelligence has its own way of doing it it has its own algorithm I started going to this global CEO program with like a lot of like top CEOs of the world you know elected me as the president of the class and I had to go give a speech like to inspire these guys then what is the next evolution of leadership
never grow above 7.5. Why do you say that? Nature? Nature doesn't like imbalances and the species come. Human population has a restricted speed.
Welcome to today's show of Tomorrow Today with Shekhar Natarajan. I'm really excited to have a pioneer in environmentalism. People Baba. He's like a phenomenal soul in this universe. One that I really admire. I've watched a lot of videos, sir. And I have actually come to be inspired with all of your vision, the work that you've done. It's truly an honor to have you on the show.
And I'm sure that, you know, the audience are also going to really love what they're going to hear from you. Like some of your works, podcast and some of the shows have been so funny, so down to earth, so insightful.
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Chapter 2: How does Peepal Baba define success and ambition?
The insects will be happy. The beetles will be happy. And I used to catch a lot of these beetles and grasshoppers and put them in, you know, empty jam bottles and so would take them to the class. Our class teacher was also very proactive in these things. So basically, the world was a beautiful place. There was no stress. There was no, hardly there were any vehicles on the road.
We never use the keyword pollution. There was no smog. There was no smoke. I think we were born and we started on this path when everything was okay. So I have no reason to say it was a decision. It was a challenge and I took it up. And because I saw this and I saw that I had nothing to see in fact. Everything was okay.
But, you know, as they say, nature would have it, you know, so maybe God wanted me to start practicing at a very young age, because ultimately, maybe it was in his flowchart, it was in his, that maybe after 40 years, you know, his work would be needed. So this is how I look at it. It was not my decision. It was the ecosystem which pushed me.
Very interesting. Very interesting. I was seeing one of your interviews, Mrs. Williams. Yeah. was your teacher. And she had indicated that like if everyone planted 20 trees, world would be a better place. And you exceeded that number by many notches.
1.2 crores. That was people trees. People trees. Another crore of neem trees. Neem trees. Another 28 lakh jamun trees. And then ecological restoration of about 7 lakh acres of land.
It just happened. So, do you, like, was she wrong in the estimate or were you actually trying to exceed that expectation?
No, no, no. Again, I'm saying, That's the beauty of the whole thing. You know, when I write my diaries, I write my books, I write my paragraphs, I record my own life story, you know. So there was no decision. There was no, you know, we have to do this. We are going to do this. There was no plan that next six months I'm going to do this. You got into it.
It was like some, you know, some super energy. It hooks you on and drags you along. You don't want to do it. But you are doing it because you feel pleasant. You feel happy. You feel contented. You feel nice about yourself.
You feel good when your plants are growing and the flowers are coming, the fruiting takes place, the figs are coming, the monkeys come, the squirrels come, the birds are making nests on it. you just feel good about it. It's my happy song. You know, if you like singing songs, it doesn't mean you have to sing for the stage. You don't have to sing it for money.
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Chapter 3: What role does Cosmic Intelligence play in Peepal Baba's philosophy?
But it was very pure energy. And a lot of reading. A lot of good books.
Yeah.
One of the first books I read was Mahatma Gandhi's My Experiments with Truth. And there was a trunk, you know, there was this box and we had books on Vivekananda and then Dainan Saraswati and Aurobindo and then Acharya Rajneesh and all these books in Hindi and English lying around. And, you know, you could just pick up a book, read a few pages here, pick up this book, read it.
I was very happy reading books, sitting in my garden, watching the trees, listening to the birds. I thought this is life. I didn't want to be a doctor. I didn't want to be an engineer. I had no ambition in life. I had no competition in life. In school when they used to say that, you know, I was in the football team in one of one or two schools in which
So I used to play football because I loved football. And they would say, no, you have to run fast. You have to put it out with goal. And, you know, once or twice when I did score, I felt bad. Why? I felt bad, you know, because they were looking so sad, you know. I said, I don't want to play to hurt anybody, you know. So that spirit of...
competition and you know getting ahead in life it was never there because that's the way my grandparents taught me that's the way now I didn't know it was happening over that time but now when I write my diaries and all that now I realize you know they used to always say no no no why why do you have to get ahead in life where will you reach in life what will happen even if you get ahead in life even if you are number one in the class
You know, so I had this thing that I used to fear that I would get the highest marks. I was very happy being third, fourth, second in the class. So you can call it a psychological disorder or whatever it is. But there was no competition. There was nothing, you know, I want to be this. I want to have to do that. I was very happy reading books. I read a lot.
At a very, very young age, I read books on anthropology, on sociology. I read on psychology, political history, social history. History was my favorite subject. I read on literature. I read poets. I wrote a lot of prose fiction. I wrote a lot of prose from good essays and William Blake and a lot. There was a lot of reading in my life, I think. Lot of books.
And probably that blunted my competitive spirit, that blunted my... Because I felt that life is so beautiful. Like, why do you have to spoil it by getting ahead of anybody? Because somehow, I don't know when it happened. I actually used to romanticize about being a good backbencher. Me too. So I thought when you are a backbencher, nobody expects anything from you. First, the expectations go up.
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Chapter 4: How does Peepal Baba connect nature with consciousness?
10% maybe I will do some 20% livelihood. Ultimately, how much do I have? I'll have only 650 days left with me. In 650 days, I have to do reading, I have to do my hobbies. I want to watch some good movies also. And I want to do some good work also. So time is very less. Time is very very very very very very less. So be careful what you want to do in life.
That's what my grandparents used to always say. And my grandparents, they were such happy souls. No competition, nothing. In fact, my grandparents, they were very successful farmers for the sheer reason that there was no competition. They never worked on cash crops. You know, they were mainly on vegetables and fruit farming and mango orchards and my...
Even my paternal grandfather, you know, like it was basically land which he rented out to smaller farmers. He was very compassionate and we had buffaloes and dairy and milk and it was very easygoing, very nice and whatever could happen, you do. If you find it very difficult, don't do it. You know, that's it. So that was the programming that those were the codes I picked up from my life also.
Very beautiful.
So you touched a little bit on Osho a little bit, I know. So
you were like you know the reason why they call you baba is because like you were swami, prem, parivartan no no you did not do that people baba happened much before that even before that even before that it was during my college days and I used to I had been planting over 10 to 15 years I had been
Even during my DAV college days and my Allahabad University days, my Pune University days, when I did my post graduation. So I used to plant these people trees. My main thing, when I learned about afforestation, I learned about soil, I learned about biodiversity, about bees and insects and everything was through people trees.
My grandmother would say, you pick up one tree, pick up one plant, pick up one species, start planting them and the species will teach you. So the tree will teach you and pick up that species which nobody is planting. So people tree was something with the PWD, the CPWD, the government departments, the botany department, the horticulture department, nobody planted it.
They said, no, if it grows naturally, the birds, you know, they... it would come up. So Nani would say no. The population of people trees is coming down because of development works and widening of roads and everything. So she would insist that this ficus species, you know, the people tree, the banyan tree, the pilkhan tree and the gula tree. Okay. So you should plant these trees.
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Chapter 5: What insights does Peepal Baba share about meditation and inner peace?
So that was the point of attraction. And obviously, I got into the trap when I started reading his books. And I started listening to him, you know. And Pune Ashram is just about where we are sitting. It's just about eight kilometers from here. So I was doing a post-graduation over here. I started... So that interactions were there with the other sannyasis also.
So you were bearing a saffron?
Sometimes. Sometimes. And because I've always been a very modern person. You know, my old ritualistic and this thing, my grandparents never liked it that way. My parents also, you know, as being an army officer's son. So they always wanted me to be prim and proper. And I liked it that way. I liked it simple, nice, you know.
But I realized that, you know, what he is saying, from within, I am also a sanyasi at heart. I felt that. I felt that. So naturally, then that intensity, you come into that magnetic field. You know, you start this thing. Now, of course, I came in touch with a few people and then, of course, the synastoc place and everything. I don't go into the details of it, but it affected me a lot.
Now, a very significant thing. Here was a gentleman, here was a Zen master, here was an enlightened or a realized human being who was talking ecology. He was talking trees, he was talking about bamboo, he was talking about grasses, he was talking like Prakriti hi Paramatma hai.
nature is god god is nature no this really struck me so i said no no no here is a gentleman who's making a lot of sense and whatever i am doing in action and whatever i have been reading you know he's summarizing it very well for me for me So I see him as one of the greatest environmentalists on the planet. Oh, sure. Because I've been to most of his ashrams in India, mostly Chalo, about 50-60%.
And I've seen that the way they've constructed the ashram, they've never cut down a tree. They've never harmed the river flowing, the Nala or any kind of rivulet or the brook flowing through it. I have never seen any boulders being moved out. So he would always say, whatever you want to build, build around it. So that was a very beautiful thing.
And what happens is you want to fall in love with a person. And it stuck. He is very gentle. He is so pleasant. He never harms anybody. He's got an opinion of his own about the world. That's fine. And even I think that way. I may not be that expressive. I don't have that strength and that courage to go out in the society and tell people on the face. But he is, whatever he says is making sense.
That was it. And so parents, grandparents, teachers, I'm very lucky, the ecosystem, army life, and then finally Acharya Rajneesh. I think that sealed my fate. So as I've always believed the first 20 years of your life decide the next 60. So the first 20 years were damned for me. And then I couldn't escape. It was all set for me.
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Chapter 6: How does spirituality fit into everyday life according to Peepal Baba?
Okay, you thought so Swami. I said, Baba, I didn't plan for anything. I didn't think about anything. It just kept happening. I just enjoyed what was happening.
So, so you were following Osho and when people do that, like, um, you know, I was, I was hearing a lot about like, um, him and, uh, because I was researching on you, um, So people would run away from things to get into, like, become his disciple, right? But you did not, like, run towards him. You actually ran away as well from him. So what made you, like, reverse that course?
It was neither running towards him nor running away from him. Because he never said anything like that. He never said, come join. You know, people, see, people who run away from things, I think that's escapism. Your house is not making sense. You are having fights with your wife and you can't get along with your parents. You can't take on the responsibility of your kids.
So you leave everything and you go to the ashram. That's how I used to see how things happen. It happens even today. If you go to ashrams in Ichikesh and Haridwar and you go to these pilgrimages, you will find a lot of that population coming over there. Right. For me, it was seeking.
No, but everyone says that attachment is the biggest problem. So you have to give up attachment so you could seek wisdom in life.
I think attachment is a beautiful thing. Why? Why do you have to be detached? I think it's so stressful to be detached. And if you are, maybe if you are attached with things and you are seeking, you know, you're getting joy and pleasantness out of it, you will not get obsessive with it. It will help to nourish you. And nourishment is not obsessiveness. You know, so I thought...
I think Osho was one of the most balanced person and he made so much sense to me. And you know, everything, one beautiful thing about him. He would always say, keep the human in the center. Because this is the acme of civilization. This is the acme of evolution. This 1100 grams of brain, this is the acme of evolution. Keep Whatever you want to do in life, it should be human centric. Okay.
The other day, some people were talking about artificial intelligence and everything. So I said only one sentence. Keep human in the center. Then whatever you think is good for the human being, do it. We'll get to that topic. Whether it's economic policies, you talk about GDP, you talk about wealth, you talk about health, you talk about wellness, you talk about where is the human in it? Yes.
Where is the human in it? And this is something which, you know, he would always talk about. So he would always say that this is the peak of consciousness. This is the peak of... It's never been so refined, you know, the human consciousness the way it is right now. Don't spoil it. Don't spoil it with wealth. Don't spoil it with... And he was...
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of community involvement in environmental work?
How much do you meditate every day?
I used to meditate a lot, honestly, till the age of 36. Yes. And then I understood that no, work is meditation. You don't need to like practice anything different. Because your work becomes meditation. Work is my vacation. Work is my enjoyment. Work is my celebration. Even my family members, they said, okay, now you should take a break. Where will I take a break? I work with the forest.
I work with the mountains. When I go to the mountains, I have the clouds around me. I work with the monsoon. Where can you send me? What is vacation? This is vacation. I'm on vacation 365 days a year. Yeah. Where will you send me? Where will you send me? You know? No, no, no, no, no. Where you don't have to work. Then I'll get, you know, I'll get more worried because I need to water my plants.
I need to look after my plants. I'll just leave it. I'm very happy with the way I'm doing. I'm very happy the way things are. I don't need any improvement in my life. I'm happy the way. I'm always on vacation.
So, you're a literature major. Yeah. So, you must have read Keats, you must have read Shelley, you must have read everyone. So, who has defined... ...the tree in the most beautiful way?
I think all the romantic poets... ...they... ...Keith Shelley... ...and then... ...even for that matter... ...Woodsworth and... ...Woodsworth was... ...he was too good with that... ...and... ...they are talking about flowers... ...and they are talking about rivers... ...they are talking about the sky... ...and the blue sky... ...everybody... ...I think... ...no... ...not... ...anybody... ...in particular... ...in particular...
But like what caught your attention more like you know who's who's description like has sat with you like you know you mentioned Osho.
No, if you talk about the tree then we have Indian writing in English main S.M. Ezekiel Professor S.M. Ezekiel in fact he taught us American literature in Pune University used to come from Bombay University and he was a he used to on killing a
tree used to teach us by Jeev Patel and you know how a tree you just can't chop a tree and say that it's dead you know the whole process it's a complete poem by itself. I would not you know say that this particular poet or that particular poet Trees, in fact, they were invoking the trees, they were invoking nature, they were invoking the forest to write their own poetry, right?
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Chapter 8: How does Peepal Baba view the future of humanity and technology?
You know, the ministry, the ministry of corporate... Are they helping or hurting you? No, no, no. Nobody hurts us. Nobody can hurt us because we are with nature. Nobody can hurt the forest. You know, they think they are hurting the forest. They can't. that's a different algorithm I'll talk about. But people think they will be able to eliminate Aravali. That is not the story.
The story is, you need to think about what Aravali is going to do to you.
Yes. Nature has a way to take back control.
So you think, you know, we cleared this forest. Now, darling, now the story begins. What this land is going to do to you?
so it's the other way around we humans actually we humans have such a super ego we think we are doing it actually you are doing nothing man you are just playing into the hands of nature which is uploading something so that the human population can remain under seven and a half billion I can discuss that later. So we will never grow over 7.5 billion. Never, never, never, never.
All this talk of 8 billion, this thing. No, we can never, never, never, never. You do a headcount right now. We will be anything between 7 billion to 7.5 billion. Human population will never grow above 7.5 billion. Why do you say that? Nature. Nature doesn't like imbalances in the species count. This is like, you know, 49 years of working with multiple species.
Even when the pigeon population takes place, when the crow population, when this population, that population, even the reptiles and the amphibians and everything, we've seen it happening.
They get out of control... And they come back in control... It's nature at play... Now... This is a very deep thing... You know... Like... You need to be working out there... For years and years together... To understand...
how this program plays out how this software plays out what explain what you see is hardware outcome the south the software that is going on you know you there are very subtle things that are going on to to develop that understanding so many people say oh iran you know the us and then just see what happened this thing gaza palestinians No, no, no. You are looking at it as an economic battle.
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