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of Immortality where there is no memory to maintain ser"
But ne nory is useful in preserving our experlences and wisdom It is also useful for promating virtu' and streagthening the love of the present on the basis of the past However, the past could help the present in these aspects without the aid of memory and the absence of memory need not destruy the chance of improvement spreading over many lives 27
6 Loss of memory is a blessing in disguise it would have been a painful trag dy to have carried the burden of past lives and their mainorles. depressing and pleasant lo that case life would have been a burden Very often to forget is a boon, perhaps it is in our nature that for smooth working of life and for the preservation and promotion of values of life it is necessary that we forget a large portion of our owe experiences even in the present life Freud, 10 bis Psychopathology of Everyday Life, has discussed the various motivation of forgetting Forgetting 13 a defence mechanism in some cases Unpleasant experieaces are forgotten or else they would be an unbearable burden on the mind and would distort the personality traits He gives copious instances of box in everyday life people forget unpleasant experiences Therfore if forgetting 13 useful 10 everyday life, it is much more useful in the case of transition from one lite to the other As Radhakrishnan puts it "If we did not lose memory it might turn out a positive nuisance Oor relations with our fellow men are sufficiently complex without adding to them reminiscences of past lives"
(6) If the theory of rebith 18 wellgrounded otherwise, the question of lapse of memory does not touch it Memory may be necessary for a retribulive theory of the universe, but not for moral continuity Death may destroy memory of our decds but not their effects on us Loss of memory does not obliterate cherything. Every experience leaves behind some traces which become the foundation of personality development Such dispositions and memory traces become the spring-board for the development of personality What we are today is largely due to the dispositions and traces that we have acquired The nature of cach individual is moulded by the experiences of the past. Every state is conditioned by the prior and leads on to another
(111) Morcover the purpose of memory is to enable us to be wiser by experience, and virtuous by effort The facts we learn may be forgotten but the cultivated mind will remain All our experiences consolidate themselves in forming our personality and that is what is important Therefore
26 Pringle-Pattison The idea of Immortality P 126 27. Mc l'aggart Some Dogmas of Religion, p 132
