Memory

Is ordinary knowledge confined to the material level or to the abstract level?

Or is it partly material and partly abstract?

If this ordinary knowledge is partly material and partly abstract, is there any extraordinary (superconscious) knowledge which is totally unrelated to the material body and exclusively associated with the abstract level?

How one withdraws oneself from all worldly factors determines how the action of knowing takes place.

Wise persons:

• first merge their senses into their mindstuff
• then their mindstuff into ego
• Then ego into identity
• Then identity into unit consciousness
• Finally their unit consciousness into Supreme Consciousness

From Material to Mental Vibrations

A particular kind of vibration, be it of sound, touch, form, taste or smell, emitted from any material object, is carried to one of the senses.

Different parts of the tongue are sensitive to different types of taste.

• You taste tamarind, plums, and mango as sour, with differences.
• A vibration is created in your tongue.
• That vibration is then carried through the nervous system to the brain, where it leaves a kind of impression.

Up to this point, the whole process is related to the material level, but in a very subtle way.

The impression in the brain corresponds to a particular degree of sourness.

The 3 fruits created 3 different types of impressions, leading to 3 different vibrations in the mind.

If you eat a second plum, creating another vibration in the mind. This makes you remember a similar vibration when you ate tamarind.

From Mental Vibrations to Memory

Memory is the collective vibrations that were formulated in the brain, capable of being recreated later.

After eating the second plum you also have a similar experience.

• You remember eating plums, tamarind, pumpkin or hogplums.

Now you experience two vibrations, two similar impressions, but yet they are not exactly alike.

In this way, you form an idea about:

• plums
• their different varieties
• varying degrees of sourness.

Sometimes people recreate that vibration in their minds, drawing it from their memory, and enjoy its pleasurable effect.

So, one enjoys pleasure in 2 ways:

1. By eating the delicious things
2. By recollecting the pleasing vibrations enjoyed in the past while eating those very same delicacies.

The human mind has 2 contradictory inherent tendencies:

• acquisition
• sacrifice

The more one advances along the path of evolution, the more the spirit of sacrifice becomes prominent.

One wishes to share one’s mental pleasure with others.

• This is a very interesting aspect of human psychology.

There are gradations amongst sweets.

While eating different sweets, people experience delightful variations from one sweet to another.

• They perceive that the vibrations are similar but not identical.

The sweet-maker understands this trait of human psychology.

• So he invents new varieties of sweets accordingly.

Some vibrations created in the mind are abstract, some are material.

The action of knowing occurs through the medium of sound, touch, taste, smell and form.

Suppose one listens to something, say a sound representing ásoyárii rága.

It is imprinted in the mind.

Later that person listens to the same sound and is reminded of the similar vibrations previously experienced.

Comparing the one rága (musical notes) with the other, one concludes that the latter is indeed ásoyárii rága.

He or she may not know anything about music.

• But the mind already danced to that musical wave.

The musical vibrations of the notes reached the ear’s membrane and hit it.

• They are passed through the auricular nerves
• They reach the brain and leave their imprint.

So far the knowing process is confined to the material level.

But when that same vibration creates a ripple in the mind, it comes within the scope of mental vibrations.

There are certain notations, both in instrumental music and in vocal music, which are very rhythmic.

When these sounds strike the ear’s membrane they produce similar vibrations.

• Concordant rhythmic vibrations are experienced.

When an audience listens to rhythmic notes, whether from vocal or instrumental music, they move their legs unknowingly.

This is because the rhythmic vibration produced in the mind strikes the [efferent] nerves.

The vibration that made the mind dance is thus transmitted down to the nerves of the legs.

Consequently, the mind is unconsciously causing the legs to move.

This happens with everyone.

Some do it consciously, others unconsciously.

Those who do it unconsciously stop the movement of their legs the moment they are aware that others are watching them.

In the case of excessive joy or enthusiasm, the mind loses its control over the nerves.

For example, if you watch your favorite team score at a match, you will move your legs unconsciously.

Sometimes, football fans cry out in their dreams, “Goal! Goal!”

• They jerk their legs and kick those who are sleeping beside them.

A major part of the knowing process is material, and only a small part of it is abstract.

Basically, the mind performs 2 functions:

1. Thinking
2. Memorizing

Memorizing

What is the process of memorizing?

Suppose you heard a sound: that very sound leaves an imprint on your mind, and vibrates it.

Now, if at a later date you can recreate a similar vibration, a replica of the original one, that is your memory.

Anubhútaviśayásampramośah smrtih [“The re-creation of things already perceived by the mind is called memory”].

The exact mental reproduction of what has been previously perceived is called smrti or memory.

For instance, you once perceived an elephant by observing a real elephant and seeing its huge body, legs, eyes, ears, nose and trunk.

The physical form of the elephant struck the retina of your eyes creating a vibration in your optical fluid, and was ultimately imprinted in your mind as the image of the elephant.

Some time later when you see an animal with the same type of limbs as those of your previously-perceived elephant, you immediately conclude that this animal must also be an elephant.

Your conclusion is based on your previous perception. This is memory.

When the memory becomes established, unfailing and spontaneous, it is called dhruvásmrti, or constant memory.

Dhruvásmrti, or constant memory, is an essential prerequisite for spiritual samádhi or bliss.

4 May 1980, Calcutta