smell of cow dung

I've just passed through an area where cows must have been grazing recently. There was a smell of fresh cow dung in the air, as I cycled past.

And smelling this, it reminded me of something from my childhood. My grandmother used to say, that smell of cow dung makes you grow. As a boy, I thought that rather absurd, that she was just saying that as a compensation, to make me feel good in a situation when otherwise I might be going yuck. So I didn't believe it at all.

Today, though, as I smelled this cow dung, it made some sense: the cow dung was smelling rather luxuriant. In the warmth of the noonday tropical sun, the smell was rich. It wasn't yucky at all. It seemed to convey the healthy, organic naturalness, that is one of the key features of Auroville, here in the south of India. The cows, too, are living a healthy lifestyle, munching healthy grass, that has not been treated with chemicals. And all of this carries through into the smell of their dung. It was a happy smell, the smell of healthy living. And breathing in the smell of this cow dung, I too felt invigorated. I felt its healthiness entering me. Just breathing it in was enough. I was nourished by this smell. As my grandmother used to say, it made me grow: perhaps not physically at my age, but emotionally and spiritually, that was the effect.

The smell of cow dung: at least in the right parts of the world, it does make you grow.