The
Faculty of Knowledge – 4
25 May
1980, Calcutta
Following are the final
paragraphs of this discourse, as formatted and printed in the AMPS
Electronic Edition as well as five AMPS books. In these final
paragraphs, Bábá provides sentences illustrating the principle
that repetition of similar sounds within a sentence makes that
sentence more memorable. The English Sentence examples given by
Bábá are highlighted in blue,
and the Hindi examples are highlighted in green.
Notice how both the English and Hindi sentences are recessed or
hidden within the many lines of this large paragraph. And the two
Hindi sentences were collapsed by the Tiljala Publishers into one
sentence. This Hindi language example given by Baba was not
maintained in Hindi by the Tiljala Publishers but rather translated
into English, erasing any trace of the fact that they had been given
as explicit Hindi language examples.
Whereas the Bengali poem, highlighted in red and recited by Bábá to illustrate the same principle of similar-sound repetition, is displayed prominently as a separate paragraph and maintained by the Publishers in Bengali language, simply transliterated into Roman script. Note that our Tiljala Publishers have also issued a special footnote below to further highlight the Bengali (whereas they have not placed any footnote to acknowledge that Bábá has given Hindi language examples here too):
Whereas the Bengali poem, highlighted in red and recited by Bábá to illustrate the same principle of similar-sound repetition, is displayed prominently as a separate paragraph and maintained by the Publishers in Bengali language, simply transliterated into Roman script. Note that our Tiljala Publishers have also issued a special footnote below to further highlight the Bengali (whereas they have not placed any footnote to acknowledge that Bábá has given Hindi language examples here too):
- - -
- -
As I
have already mentioned, when anyone says something, the eyes are
engaged in seeing, the ears in hearing; and the mind dances in
rhythm. In the absence of rhythm it is difficult to memorize. That is
why since ancient times, for fifteen thousand years, the common
practice has been to bring every valuable branch of knowledge within
the scope of rhythm. Human beings do not easily forget rhythm. One
may forget the contents of knowledge, but not the rhythm. That is why
all Vedic rks were composed in 7 metres: Gáyattrii, Uśńik,
Triśt́up, Anuśt́up, Brhati, Jagati and Paunkti. All literary
compositions were brought within the gamut of these seven Vedic
metres. And different figures of speech, particularly alliteration
and punctuation, are all highly important, because they are valuable
for the memory. If we say, “He shall be
punished,” it is easy to remember for there is assonance
of the “s”. “On Saturday, a goldsmith
saw a snake near Satyasarai, and on Sunday a shoemaker severely
assaulted a saintly person with a shoe.” There is
assonance on the sound, or wave, “s”. “I
came to Patna junction, and I came to the conclusion that the
matriculation examination is a botheration.” There is
consonance and assonance of the sound “tion”. Consider the
Bengali poem:
Áji
utarol uttar báye
Utalá
hayeche tat́inii
Sonár
álok paŕiyáche jale
Pulaki
uchali d́heu chalachale
Lakśa
máńik jhalasi áncale
Nece
cale yena nat́inii.(1)
Such
poems are easy to remember for they quickly become imprinted in our
memory. The science of figures of speech was invented in the past
mainly for this purpose, not only to make the words sweet-sounding,
but also to help us grasp them quickly.
Footnotes
(1)
This is a poem written by Rabindranath Tagore in rhythmic resonance.
–Eds.
25 May
1980, Calcutta
