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The Jaina Philosophy
to tell at the end of the game how many times the bell was rung. 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-figure-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.
Here is another case of the wonderful cultivation of memory. Pandit Gattulalji who died only a few years ago was born blind. In his early days, there being no system or institution for teaching the blind to read, he never had that training. What he learned was through reading by others. But his memory was so wonderful that after hearing a passage once, he could reproduce it at any time. He became the head of the Vaishnava community in Bombay and received the highest respect from his co-religionists all over India. He gave many public demonstrations of what his memory could perform. He is the author of several works on the Vaishnava faith.
There a number of such persons in India whose feats of memory are as wonderful as those related above. What is the secret in regard to the uncommon faculty of such persons? The following is the most rational explanation that can be offered.
The phenomena of memory obey the law of the indestructibility of force, of the conservation of energy, which is one of the most important laws of the universe. Nothing is lost; nothing is annihilated; nothing that exists can ever cease to be. In Natural Philosophy this is an admitted fact.
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