In 2017, actor Rajesh Kumar made an unexpected career move: he stepped away from acting and returned to his hometown of Gaya, Bihar, to pursue farming. The decision surprised many, but for Rajesh, it was closely linked to his growing spiritual connection with Sadhguru.What followed was far from an easy transition. Over the next five years, Rajesh accumulated debt of nearly Rs 2 crore without a stable source of income. At one point, he even found himself selling vegetables outside his son’s school. Yet, despite the financial strain and repeated setbacks, Rajesh says he never allowed himself to become bitter or depressed—and refuses to describe the experience simply as “failure.”Rajesh opened up about what prompted him to leave the entertainment industry and take up horticulture. He said he was initially not convinced by Sadhguru’s teachings, but gradually became a follower and went on to host several events for the Isha Foundation.During Sadhguru’s Rally for Rivers campaign, one particular message stayed with Rajesh and eventually influenced the way he looked at his own life.“There was one thing which Sadhguru was constantly saying during the rally, ‘Give me 100 youth from your state and I will change the face of agriculture. But for three years, do not ask me, what about me?’ So when I reached my village, I suddenly happened to complete that line for myself, that the day you stop thinking about yourself, is the day you start thinking about others and the day you start thinking about others, others start thinking about you,” he said in an interview with The Mystic World.The actor said his growing awareness of agricultural practices and the problems confronting farmers made him realise that he needed to experience those challenges himself rather than simply advise farmers from the outside.“With all the information and the kind of education we are part of, I realised that it is better that instead of being on this side and asking the farmers to not put pesticides, I will have to jump on the other side and understand where the problem is. So I went on the other side and became a farmer myself. I tried horticulture and failed badly. But after being under Sadhguru’s grace, I won’t call it failure. Now it doesn’t bother me that because I do not want to label it under success or failure. There was so much learning that happened, which otherwise, I couldn’t have learnt.”Rajesh said it took him almost five years to gain a deeper understanding of farming, soil and farmland. But the learning process came with a series of severe setbacks.His first plantation was destroyed when the area experienced a flood after roughly 35 years.“It happened in such a way that I started, I did plantation, the flood happened in that area after 35 years, everything got washed away.”Rather than abandoning the project, Rajesh planted another 15,000 trees. His efforts, however, were soon interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. He made another attempt to rebuild his plantation, only to encounter yet another obstacle when the water table disappeared.“The last effort… And the money I had, I could only get drilled 500 feet for borewell, and there was not even a drop of water. All these things were happening simultaneously.”The repeated losses also came at a considerable financial cost, eventually leaving Rajesh with debt of around Rs 2 crore. Still, he said his spiritual outlook prevented the circumstances from overwhelming him emotionally.“Due to spirituality, I never went into any of anxiety, depression, frustration, anger, nothing bothered me. Nothing was happening and I was seeing it not happening. But my effort and process didn’t stop. That is what spirituality is.”For Rajesh, the experience ultimately became less about whether his farming venture succeeded or failed and more about what he learned along the way. Despite the financial crisis, he continued to view the period as an important phase of personal growth.His financial situation has since improved significantly. In April, Rajesh revealed that his outstanding debt had fallen to around Rs 20 lakh, meaning only a small fraction of his original debt remained.“I’m out of that financial cycle now. Only about 10–15% of the debt remains,” he told Bollywood Bubble.
