Gandhi Before Gandhi

Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai

Page 139

GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI
come again to scribe No. 1 and dictate to him the second verse of the work on Grammar, without losing the thread of the plan of work. Following this system, he would compose forty works on forty different subjects in a few days. The voluminous works, some published, others in manuscript only, of this scholarly monk leave no doubt as to his capacities and the wonderful memory he possessed, in-days when there were no printed books, no system of spreading information and knowledge through the press and no convenient mode of transport.
a large number of people. He was taken to the platform and blindfolded. Some thirty or forty books, of various sizes were placed one by one in his hands and their titles mentioned. He was asked to remember them. Then a number of about ten figures were given to him of which he was to find the cube root without using pencil or paper. He was further asked, with his eyes open to play a game of cards with a gentleman on the platform. He was also asked to compose, while playing the game, small poem of about thirty lines, giving description of a certain place in India, the condition being that he should bring in the poem in certain stated lines the names of certain foreigners and foreign places that had nothing to do with the subject of the poem. Then a person who stood at the back of this gentleman at a distance of some twenty feet was to throw pebbles on his back, which he was to count while the game of cards was being played. Lastly, another person was to ring a bell while all this was going on and Mr. Raichand Ravji was to tell at the end of the game how many times the bell was rung
Raichand Ravji- Shrimad Rajchandra
Coming back to our own times, instances are not wanting of marvelous feats of memory demonstration by Raichand Ravji, in a public hall before
Then began the game which took about twenty minutes. At the end of the game, he recited his poem, bringing in the names of persons and places given to him. He found the cube root of the ten-figured number. He told the audience also the exact number of pebbles thrown at him, and also the number of times the bell was rung. He was then blindfolded again and the books which were placed in his hand, at the beginning of the demonstration, were again placed in his hands, but this time not in the same order as before; he gave the correct titles of all. What shall we call such a person: a giant or a genius? He claims that after reading an ordinary sized book only once he can repeat its contents without looking at it.
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