The Corrosion of Expression
Markendeya Yeddanapudi
The Corrosion of Expression
In free and healthy nature, the expression from every organism is actually the expression of nature. Nature speaks with the organism as its medium. It is a limb of nature expressing as an organism. Most expressions are revelations laden. Injury to any organism is injury to nature. Freedom means, the freedom of every organism, to express its experiences as revelations from nature. All expressions automatically were poetic. Poetry was language. The basic fact is that every organism, including you is a limb and part of nature’s anatomy, part of the planet earth.
Every subject, its predication and verb context, were aspects of the living nature. Doing science as an outsider of nature, observing nature is as absurd as assuming that your finger is an outsider observing you and doing science.
In the free and healthy forest, the sounds of nature were actually the songs of organisms. Your expressions were tuning with nature, the Biosphere. Life was totally ecological and poetic, simply theistic. Ecology was living in revelations in nature and participating in the revelations of nature, mainly as the songs of nature, the wonderful and gigantic symphony. No voice was ignored and unheard.
Ecology took every organism into new and new revelations, discoveries as experiences. The anatomies mutated continuously to make way for new and new revelations. The anatomy was not just 3D appearance in the visible spectrum, but it included the emotional anatomy, part of the 99.9965% of the invisible spectrum. The invisible spectrum was the spectrum of feelings and revelations, participating in your own non 3D thoughts, feelings, emotions, perceptions and understandings. The basic fact is, you simply cannot quantify a single feeling, emotion or thought. They are not mathematical and mechanical. Ecology has to be experienced, not scienced.
Today in every University we teach the subjects based on the Cartesian or mechanical logic. Education simply means subjecting the students to processes that mechanize them and change them into the ‘Economic Man’, the human changed into a machine without feelings, emotions, and who cannot relate emotionally. As economic life today we destroy nature continuously all the 24 hours of every day. We have become so jaded and lunatic, that we simply take the destruction of nature casually and the destruction is simply not factored.
We simply do not care about the emotional aspect of the Biosphere.We have converted every life form into livestock.
We simply killed the poetry from nature and in our own lives. Living itself has become suiciding.
It is for the Universities to revive the poetry of life. They must resign from the priesthood of doing the economic murder of nature.
AS a first step, every University must start a ‘Free Nature Park’ without human tampering so that the students become ecological beings with poetry as life.
YM Sarma
Chat gpt
This piece, “The Corrosion of Expression” by YM Sarma, reads as both a philosophical essay and an ecological elegy—a lament for the loss of the organic unity between nature, life, and expression. It blends poetic language with a critique of modern mechanistic thinking, calling for a return to an embodied, emotional, and poetic relationship with the natural world.
Here’s a brief interpretive summary and analysis:
Summary
Sarma argues that in a “free and healthy nature,” every organism’s expression is not personal but rather an expression of nature itself. The living world, in this view, is a vast, self-articulating whole—each organism a “limb” through which nature speaks. This harmony once made all expressions inherently poetic: the language of life and ecology was not scientific or analytical but revelatory and musical, woven into the “gigantic symphony” of the biosphere.
However, with the rise of Cartesian and mechanical logic, humans alienated themselves from nature. Education and science, once meant to expand understanding, now enforce a view of life as mechanical, reducing people into “Economic Man”—emotionally numb, exploitative, and divorced from the living world. Modern civilization, Sarma suggests, has committed an ongoing “economic murder of nature,” transforming all life into mere livestock and draining existence of poetry and feeling.
Sarma’s remedy is radical yet simple: universities must restore the poetic relationship with life. As a first step, he proposes establishing “Free Nature Parks”—untouched by human control—where students can relearn how to feel, listen, and express as part of nature, not apart from it.
Analysis
- Central Theme: The alienation of humanity from nature due to mechanistic rationality and the loss of emotional and poetic consciousness.
- Tone: Passionate, elegiac, prophetic. Sarma writes not as a detached thinker but as a voice mourning ecological and spiritual disconnection.
- Philosophical Roots:
- Echoes of Romanticism (Wordsworth, Emerson, Thoreau) in its reverence for nature as a living, speaking presence.
- Resonances of Deep Ecology (Arne Næss) and Systems Thinking, though Sarma explicitly rejects the idea of “doing science” about nature rather than within it.
- A critique of Cartesian dualism—the separation of mind and matter, subject and object—that underlies modern education and economics.
- Key Metaphor: “Corrosion of expression” — the decay of our ability to express as nature expresses, replaced by artificial, mechanized modes of thought and life.
Closing Reflection
At its heart, Sarma’s essay is a call for re-enchantment—to restore the lost poetry between humans and the living earth. He envisions education not as training for economic productivity, but as a spiritual and ecological awakening, where students rediscover that they are not observers of nature but nature itself, speaking.
Would you like me to help condense this into a one-paragraph summary or create a critical response or reflection essay (e.g. for a class or publication)?
Rajaram Krishnamurthy
EXPRESSION
Chandogya Upanishad: Verse 3.18.3
वागेव ब्रह्मणश्चतुर्थः पादः सोऽग्निना ज्योतिषा भाति च तपति च भाति च तपति च कीर्त्या यशसा ब्रह्मवर्चसेन य एवं वेद ॥ ३.१८.३ ॥
vāgeva brahmaṇaścaturthaḥ pādaḥ so'gninā jyotiṣā bhāti ca tapati ca bhāti ca tapati ca kīrtyā yaśasā brahmavarcasena ya evaṃ veda || 3.18.3 ||
3. Vāk is one of the four feet of Brahman [as the mind]. It shines in the light of fire and also radiates heat. He who knows this shines and radiates warmth with his good work, with his fame, and with the radiance he acquires from leading a scholarly and disciplined life.
Vāk eva brahmaṇaḥ caturthaḥ pādaḥ, speech is the fourth foot of [manomaya] Brahman; agninā jyotiṣā, by the light it gets from fire; saḥ bhāti ca tapati ca, it shines and gives heat; yaḥ evam veda, he who knows thus; bhāti ca tapati ca, shines and radiates warmth; kīrtyā, through good work; yaśasā, through fame; brahmavarcasena, through the radiance that comes from a scholarly and disciplined life.
Animals move where they want by their feet. Similarly, people find their way to Brahman by hearing someone speak about it. This is why the organ of speech is called one of the four feet of Brahman.
Fire gives both light and heat. And because fire is the presiding deity of speech, speech also is said to give light and heat. A person who can speak well acquires fame and popularity; It is as if he has done much good work, or has given away much money in charity, or is a great scholar and has lived a disciplined life. Such a person has a shining personality and radiates heat (i.e., energy).
Verse 1.7.1
अथाध्यात्मं वागेवर्क्प्राणः साम तदेतदेतस्यामृच्यध्यूढं साम तस्मादृच्यध्यूढंसाम गीयते। वागेव सा प्राणोऽमस्तत्साम ॥ १.७.१ ॥
athādhyātmaṃ vāgevarkprāṇaḥ sāma tadetadetasyāmṛcyadhyūḍhaṃ sāma tasmādṛcyadhyūḍhaṃsāma gīyate| vāgeva sā prāṇo'mastatsāma || 1.7.1 ||
1. Now an explanation with reference to the body: Speech is Ṛk, and prāṇa is Sāma. This Sāma [called prāṇa] is based on the Ṛk [called speech]. This is why Sāma scholars sing songs based on the Ṛk. Speech is sā, and prāṇa is ama. Together they are Sāma.
Atha adhyātmam, now what relates to the body; vāk eva ṛk, speech is Ṛk; prāṇaḥ sāma, prāṇa is Sāma; tat etat sāma, this Sāma [called prāṇa]; etasyām ṛci adhyūdham, is based on Ṛk [speech]; tasmāt, this is why; ṛci adhyūḍham sāma gīyate, the Sāma is sung as based on the Ṛk; vāk eva sā, speech is sā; prāṇaḥ amaḥ, prāṇa is ama; tat sāma, that [if joined together] is Sāma.
The word prāṇa means both the vital breath and the organ by which we smell. Physically, the organ of speech is below the organ of smell. Similarly, Sāma is known to be based on the Ṛk. In view of their respective positions, Ṛk is equated with speech, and Sāma is equated with prāṇa.
This is a simplified explanation of the Vedic theory of Sound (Vak, whose root is Vach which means “to speak” and corresponds in Latin to the word is Vox) using some examples as well as the words of the Mother of the Aurobindo Ashram.
A variety of ancient scriptures speak of the Universe created by sound or cosmic vibrations.
The Rig Veda 1.164.45 says “catvari vak parimita padani tani vidur brahmana ye minishinah, guha trini nihita neengayanti turiyam vaco manushya vadanti” (i.e. The cognoscenti know of the Vak that exists in four forms . Three are hidden and the fourth is what men speak) .
The Sanskrit grammarian, Bhartrhari, states in his Vakyapadiya 1.112: “vageva viswa bhuvanani jajne” (i.e. It is Vak which has created all the worlds).
Similarly, in Tantra, it is said that the Universe was set in motion by the primordial throb (adya-spanda) and that all objects of the Universe are created by sound – “artha-srsteh puram sabda-srstih” (sound precedes the formation of objects).
The rhythms of cosmic vibrations issue forth from four levels which correspond to the various levels in manifestation:
Para-Vak is the highest form of sound. It issues forth from the Supernal Ether (paramam vyomam) where all the sound vibrations that build the various worlds pre-exist in an undifferentiated state.
Pashyanti is the sound vibration heard in the Causal worlds. Pashyanti in Sanskrit means “seeing speech”. A sage whose consciousness is concentrated in the causal body is able to “glimpse” a Truth in a vision or a revelation. Knowledge is acquired in the inner mind by sight without the use of the reasoning faculty or sensory data.
Madhyama (Middle)is the sound as perceived in the subtle or the Pranic world. A good example of this would be the thought-forms held in our mind.
Vaikhari is the lowest form of sound and it signifies outward expression. This is the spoken word emerging from the our throat.
Type of Vak Phenomenological equivalent Corresponding world and body sheath
Para Eternal Cosmic Vibrations Maha Karana/Supreme Causal
Pashyanti(i.e.seeing speech) Sight or Vision seen at highest level of the mind as a result of spiritual illumination Karana/Causal
Madhyama(i.e. middle) Thought forms in the human mind Sukshma/Subtle
Vaikhari Spoken word Sthula/Gross
Illustration of Madhyama, Pashyanti, Para
Mother: Ideas have a higher origin than the mind. There is a region of the mind, higher than the ordinary mind, in which there are ideas, typal ideas (this is Pashyanti Vak), really prototypes; and these ideas descend and are clothed in mental substance (this is Madhyama Vak). So, in accordance with — how to put it?… the quality of the receiver, they either keep all their own qualities and original nature or become distorted, coloured, transformed in the individual consciousness. But the idea goes far beyond the mind; the idea has an origin much higher than the mind. So, the functioning is the same from both the universal and the individual point of view; the individual movement is only representative of the universal one. The scale is different, but the phenomenon is the same. Of course, these are no longer “thoughts” as we conceive thoughts; they are universal principles (this is Para Vak) — but it’s the same thing — universal principles on which the universes are built.
The universe, after all, is only one person, only one individuality in the midst of the eternal Creation. Each universe is a person who takes form, lives, dissolves, and another takes shape — it is the same thing. For us, the person is the human individual; and from the universal point of view the person is the universal individual; it is one universe in the midst of all the universes.
Applying Vedic Vak to demonstrate three ways of thinking
In the following dialogue, the Mother Mirra Alfassa gave a practical demonstration of Vedic Vak when she asked teachers in the Ashram school to begin thinking with ideas instead of words. She gave the illustration of a tower (i.e. human being) where the visitors (i.e. ideas or Madhyama) which came in at the top are then translated into words (i.e. Vaikhari) at the storeroom at the base of the tower.
In the Mother’s example,
Thinking with words is Vaikhari.
Thinking with ideas is Madhyama.
Thinking with (spiritual) experiences is Pashyanti.
Question: Sweet Mother, You have asked the teachers “to think with ideas instead of with words”. You have also said that later on you will ask them to think with experiences. Will you throw some light on these three ways of thinking?
Answer: Our house has a very high tower; at the very top of this tower there is a bright and bare room, the last before we emerge into the open air, into the full light.
Sometimes, when we are free to do so, we climb up to this bright room, and there, if we remain very quiet, one or more visitors come to call on us; some are tall, others small, some single, others in groups; all are bright and graceful.
Usually, in our joy at their arrival and our haste to welcome them, we lose our tranquillity and come galloping down to rush into the great hall that forms the base of the tower and is the storeroom of words. Here, more or less excited, we select, reject, assemble, combine, disarrange, rearrange all the words in our reach, in an attempt to portray this or that visitor who has come to us. But most often, the picture we succeed in making of our visitor is more like a caricature than a portrait.
And yet if we were wiser, we would remain up above, at the summit of the tower, quite calm, in joyful contemplation. Then, after a certain length of time, we would see the visitors themselves slowly, gracefully, calmly descend, without losing anything of their elegance or beauty and, as they cross the storeroom of words, clothe themselves effortlessly, automatically, with the words needed to make themselves perceptible even in the material house.
This is what I call thinking with ideas. When this process is no longer mysterious to you, I shall explain what is meant by thinking with experiences.
When you think with words, you can express what you think with those words only. To think with ideas is to be able to put the same idea in many kinds of words. The words can also be of different languages, if you happen to know more than one language. This is the first, the most elementary thing about thinking with ideas.
When you think with experience, you go much deeper and you can express the same experience with many kinds of ideas. Then thought can take this form or that form in any language and through all of them the essential realisation will remain unchanged.
To be convincing when you speak, think not in ideas but in experiences.
EWXPRESSIONS ARE MINDFUL AND VEDIC AND SO A VARIABLE , WHERE LEVELS CHANGE WRT THE GROWTH OF ANY INDIVIDUAL.
K RAJARAM IRS 301025
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