-- *Mar*Emotional Understanding-Vs-Mechanical Understanding
Emotional Understanding is the breathe based understanding, where an organism breathes,smells,senses,perceives,interacts,communicates reflexively, coordinates reflexively,…in symbiosis with every other organism of the Biosphere, when nature was free and lush and blooming. Adi Sankara was understood emotionally from Kerala to the Himalayas, when he walked through the forests, crossed great rivers…,because he breathed,smelt,sensed,perceived, coordinated with every other organism, from bacterium to elephant all of which also breathed,smelt,sensed and understood with him symbiotically. He did not speak, he sang, and nature was his orchestra. He sang as nature, and understanding was the wonderful breeze from him. He lived and made everyone else live along with him in symbiosis, as understanding was functioning geography. In the language of words, the vocabulary is very limited, as the names of things are restricted to what the eyes can see (and mislead).In that language, you struggle with words, struggle to explain by adding more words and ultimately fail to give complete understanding as long as the explanation does not touch the emotions which depend on breathing and sensing. Mechanical understanding is the outcome of muting nature continuously and when the emotional content of perception is removed. It consists of express or implied quantifications, where emotions have no place. It is reductionism and eliminationalism mathematically. It is based on the illusion of traceable causes and effects and not recognizing the basic fact that there are clusters or infinite causes and effects, where it is not possible to know clearly which the cause is and which its specific effect is. Suppose you are happily singing on the banks of a beautiful river surrounded by a beautiful forest. Can you trace the specific tune causes and tune effects of your spontaneous happy singing, the singing of Adi Sankara? When they are cutting away forests, when every organism is killed or robbed of habitat and food, when whole rivers are poisoned, when soil bacteria are killed and substituted by the by-products of the oil industry, when the land is littered with plastic, or mined with bombs that may explode at any time, MUSIC IS MADE EXITINCT FROM EARTH. Music is the outcome of spiritual symbiosis with nature, and the tunes sprout. We are today in such a sorry state, that we angrily refuse to agree that the meaning of air is spirit. It has to be the non emotional gas only. There is the gigantic invisible spectrum, 99.9963% of the totality, the great abstract and real arena. This is the arena of feelings which have no 3D material shape, which the eyes cannot see. In the name of avoiding bias, we are repudiating this whole universe, the abstract universe. The feeling content of things is repudiated and the subjects are put under mathematical reductionism. No wonder today we have landed in the economic life, where we destroy nature as day today economic life. YM Sarma Chat GPT In his reflection on *Emotional Understanding vs. Mechanical Understanding*, YM Sarma contrasts two modes of human perception and interaction: the symbiotic, emotional connection with nature and the reductionist, mechanical outlook that has come to dominate modern life. ### Key Themes: 1. **Emotional Understanding as Symbiosis**: - Sarma portrays emotional understanding as a deep, symbiotic connection with nature, driven by breath, smell, and sensory experiences. He uses the example of Adi Sankara, the revered philosopher-saint, to illustrate how emotional understanding emerges naturally when humans are in harmony with their environment. Adi Sankara’s ability to traverse the vast Indian subcontinent and be emotionally understood without mechanical aids symbolizes the power of this natural communication. His “song,” metaphorically, was in harmony with nature, and thus, all of nature understood him. - Emotional understanding transcends the limitations of language. While verbal communication is restricted to names and descriptions of things visible to the eyes, emotional communication taps into the infinite realm of sensory experience, intuition, and non-verbal cues. It relies on the vast unseen spectrum of life, which Sarma argues constitutes the majority of reality. 2. **Mechanical Understanding as Reductionism**: - In contrast, mechanical understanding is characterized by the quantification and analysis of life through a narrow, materialistic lens. Sarma criticizes the mechanical mindset for stripping away the emotional and spiritual dimensions of life, reducing everything to traceable causes and effects. This form of understanding ignores the complex, interconnected clusters of causes and effects that define life’s true dynamics. - The modern obsession with mechanical efficiency, according to Sarma, has led to the destruction of nature. He highlights the ecological crisis—deforestation, pollution, plastic waste, and the poisoning of rivers—as a consequence of humanity's detachment from emotional understanding. This mechanization of perception and life has resulted in a cold, lifeless worldview where spiritual music, or the symbiosis between humans and nature, is extinguished. 3. **The Loss of Music and Spirit**: - Sarma metaphorically connects music with spiritual symbiosis. He suggests that as humanity destroys nature, the spontaneous joy and creativity—the “music” of life—disappears. Without symbiosis with nature, emotional understanding gives way to the harshness of a mechanical world. The invisible spectrum that Sarma speaks of—the 99.9963% of reality beyond the visible—is where emotions and spiritual energies dwell. By focusing solely on the visible and the tangible, modern society has closed itself off from this vast, abstract universe of feelings. - He also critiques modern science for divorcing spirit from nature. For example, air, once associated with spirit in ancient understandings, is now regarded as merely a non-emotional gas. This shift exemplifies the broader problem of mechanical reductionism that has overtaken modern understanding. 4. **Consequences for Economic and Ecological Life**: - Sarma argues that the rejection of emotional understanding and the embrace of mechanical understanding have devastating consequences for both human life and the environment. The “economic life” of modern times, which revolves around the destruction of nature for short-term gain, is emblematic of this shift. The mechanization of perception has led humanity to treat nature as a resource to be exploited rather than as a living, symbiotic partner. ### Conclusion: YM Sarma's essay is a passionate call to re-embrace emotional understanding—a holistic, symbiotic way of relating to nature and the universe. He urges us to reject the mechanical, reductionist worldview that has led to environmental degradation and the loss of the deeper, spiritual dimensions of life. Instead, we should seek to reconnect with nature through our senses, emotions, and spirit, allowing for a more harmonious existence. -- 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CACDCHCJaEoqeuwzowk%3DFhX5Ski0YVEbFpcmvSwfX5ddFsr6gOA%40mail.gmail.com.
