Life of Shrimad Rajchandra

Author(s): Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

Page 38

Prof. Ravji Devraj had asked whether it was possible to memorize 100 verses in an hour and had sought advice about his intention to go to Käshi for further study of logic. The reply given by Shrimad at the age of 18 is worth pondering over and is given below.
"Ravjibhai Devräj, the Jewel of the Crown,
Please accept the loving regard of Räychand Ravjibhai Mehta from Vavänia. I am happy here by the grace of religion and wish you hale and hearty. I am in receipt of your letter filled with divine affection and that has given me the waves of delightful joy. Supreme regard has arisen for you by noticing your divine affection. It is requested that such letters be frequently received and it is in your hand to grant that request. Hence there is nothing to worry about it. Now I beg your permission for giving replies to your questions. Introduction:- What you have written is correct. One would hesitate to present his own picture. But I think that it would occur, if it contains self-admiration; otherwise, surely not. Self-admiration means to portrait one's undue importance; that is termed as self-flattery. But true description cannot be termed that way. If right description is termed as self-praise, how can great men come to light? Therefore I have not hesitated here to lay my true portrait as desired by you and reasonably speaking I am not at fault in doing that. A: You might have read about the mnemonic performance of Pundit Läläji of Bombay. It is known in the country that he is performing eight Avadhäns. This writer has once publicly performed 52 Avadhäns and has been successful therein. They are as under.
1 Playing Chopät with three persons 2 Playing cards with three persons 3 Playing chess with one person 4 Counting the rings of a bell 5 Mentally calculating addition, subtraction, multiplication & division 6 Looking at turning of beads and counting the same 7 Solving about eight new puzzles 8 Preparing 16 compositions on the required subjects and of the required rhymes 16 9 Receiving at random 400 words of 16 languages like Greek, English, Sanskrit, Arabic, Latin, Urdu, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Maru and Jadeji
16 10 Explaining to a student 11 Figures of speech Total
........52
Here is finished the description of 52 Avadhäns
These 52 tasks have to be simultaneously kept in mind. The disorderly words of the unlearnt languages have to be put in order. Let me tell you in short that everything simply remains in the memory. (Nothing has escaped so far.) There still remains something significant to be explained. I am, however, sorry that it requires actual presence. Hence it would be in vain to relate it here. Just consider, how much dexterity does it show within an hour? To cut short, does it not show that 52 verses were memorized within the span of an hour? In view of the activities pertaining to 16 new subjects, 8 puzzles, the letters at random belonging to 16 languages and 12 other tasks, one learned man had concluded that 500 verses could be memorized within an hour. Now let us stop to this matter here.
B: OOn account of the physical and mental problems during the last 13 months, some of the capabilities have been virtually kept buried (100 Avadhäns on the line of those 52 can be performed even now.); otherwise this writer had the capacity to remember 100 verses of any language by listening only once and to repeat them in the same order. For that and for performing Avadhäns, he has been honored with the title of Saraswatino Avatär (the incarnation of the goddess of learning). My experience has indicated to me that Avadhän is a function of spiritual capability. You have raised the question whether 100 verses can be remembered within an hour. I