520. Variations of Memory

Memory is an interesting topic that can engage a group of people in spellbound attention when discussed at several levels. Napoleon was known for it. When he visited some insignificant place and saw three cannons, he said, "There were four cannons here when I last came here twelve years ago." While young, a person is overflowing with energy. It expresses as enthusiasm. He has no inclination in life for memory or anything. He simply enjoys life. His memory is geared towards what he enjoys and how he can get more of it. After forty or fifty years, memory acquires a premium. Its expressions vary. One who has not thought of an office even once, having worked there for a decade, finds that memory starts coming back every day more than once. "How could I forget all those people with whom I had an intense life for over ten years?" he wonders, when the memory suddenly shows itself. We are so constituted as to make progress through material that is immediately important. While engrossed in one experience, the others are forgotten.

In the life of an earlier period, one may have something more to learn from it. Then it presents itself through the device of memory. A person began to value gratitude in life very late in his career. Then he thought of a friend to whom he owed a debt of gratitude. With that, his memory passed away. After some years, it struck him that gratitude is more valuable than he understood until then. From that day, the memory of the friend to whom he is grateful came to him several times a day, as if it was pleasantly haunting him. There are people who forget a roommate with whom they have lived for two or three years. They are unable to recollect the roommate in spite of all promptings. It means the roommate does not matter to them now, and perhaps not even when he was a roommate.

One who has never mentally denied a help he could do will never forget an occasion where he was forced to deny someone. In that case, he will never be able to forget it even if he is unable to fulfil it even now. What goes against the grain never goes out of memory. It will disappear only when he is able to discharge his obligation. A man suddenly thought of a lawyer to whom he went some twelve years before. He was wondering why that lawyer appeared in his consciousness. A week later, his brother said he had gone to the lawyer on work. His brother in this case proved to be a subtle link with the lawyer. Memory is an asset in life. Memory is a bar in Spirit. Mother says one cannot be sincere to the Divine as long as memory survives. The experience of the Divine is all-inclusive. When memory takes one thought away from us, the perfection required for the Divine is not there. Therefore, the Divine refuses to enter our Being.