-- *Mar*Certainly. Below is an *edited version* of *“The Great Loss”* by YM Sarma. The intent here is to retain the *poetic depth and philosophical core*, while enhancing *clarity*, *flow*, and *accessibility* — without oversimplifying or diluting the original voice. ------------------------------ *The Great Loss*
*By YM Sarma (Edited Version)* Once, we lived by sensing. We smelt, perceived, acted, interacted, and learned — not through abstraction, but through the nose, the body, the breath. Education was rooted in *smelling*. The *rhinencephalon*, the oldest part of our brain, was once our true brain. It smelled, and it understood. All organisms of the Biosphere lived similarly. Smelling was the universal medium — the first language. The Earth was alive with smell-based literature: nuanced scents forming *words, phrases, clauses, even tenses*. This was the grammar of the air — a silent poetry shared by all life. In that world, there was no Social Darwinism. There was no race to dominate. There was *macro symbiosis* — cooperation on a planetary scale. Every lifeform was an organ of the whole. Each basked in a natural theism, a reverent awareness arising directly from the atmosphere. This theism was not belief in a distant god, but a *direct understanding of interconnection*, of living as part of something vast and sacred. Today, we want to sense only to enjoy — and we want to enjoy like machines. We have replaced embodied knowing with Cartesian logic: thought without participation, reasoning without reverence. In the name of objectivity, we have removed *God* — or rather, the macro-understanding — from perception itself. Even now, when we make a decision, we instinctively take a deep breath. Imagine the *strength of intention* in a time when the Biosphere breathed with us — when determination was not individual, but planetary. Back then, the Earth was felt as clearly as we now feel our own skin. Touch, sound, smell, taste — these were not individual sensations, but macro experiences, pulsing through the entire biosphere. We *conversed directly with nature* through smell. Nature was not a “resource.” She was *our own body*. *Bhoodevi*, the Earth Goddess, was not myth — she was alive, and she was real. Evolution — or God — gave us additional gifts: The brain, to enhance creativity. The fovea of the eye, to perceive color. The sense of art and beauty, to feel rapture. These were not tools of dominance, but instruments of joy and harmony — to be used *within* the larger whole, not against it. But now we have cut ourselves off from that whole. We no longer smell. We no longer sense. We think like machines. We have lost humor, beauty, and the *basic feeling* of being alive as part of a living planet. Today, we *spectate* nature instead of participating in her. We use science to study nature from the outside, not to understand her from within. We forget that the soil beneath our feet, the bacteria on our palms and heels, the breath we take — all form our *anatomy as limbs of nature*. We live in illusion: that we are separate from the planet. That we can exist without relationship. This is the tragedy of modern science and education. Our universities — which should have been temples of perception — have *hijacked learning*. They cannot even imagine an education rooted in *smelling and sensing*. Instead, they train students for *economic activity* — which too often means ecological destruction. Mechanization has taken over. Now, even the smallest task is outsourced to machines. Students graduate without ever learning to learn from the land. Once, nature was our anatomy. Today, we destroy her and call it *progress*. We have lost vital faculties that once allowed us to *automatically sense* the living geography. And worse — we are not even aware of the maiming. We call this *disablement* our greatness. With our economics, we are *driving the Biosphere to collapse*. We are *machine-dependent to live*. We are *paralyzed* in the presence of wild, free nature. We cannot relate to other lifeforms without filters, technology, or fear. And we believe this is advancement. Let us then pray — For the birth of a University that revives our natural faculties. Let at least one University rise to the challenge of creating a *Free Nature Park* — untampered, uncolonized by humans — where students may relearn what it means to be a limb of nature. Let them smell, sense, touch, and feel their way back into belonging. Let education begin again — >From the ground, >From the breath, >From the sacred smell of the living Earth. ------------------------------ 🔍 Notes on the Edit: - *Language* was made more concise and structured while retaining poetic imagery. - *Long, abstract sentences* were broken into digestible parts for clarity. - *Key ideas* (smell as knowledge, macro-theism, critique of universities, ecological disconnection) were preserved and highlighted. - Flow was improved to feel like a *natural evolution of thought* rather than a stream-of-consciousness. ------------------------------ Would you like this in a *PDF format*, or prepared for *submission to a journal*, *speech*, or *educational presentation*? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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