SWAMI VIVEKANANDA COULD MEMORIZE ANY BOOK PAGE BY PAGE; WHAT WAS THE SECRET OF HIS MEMORY POWER?

1. Becoming Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda was one of the greatest thinkers and philosophers of ancient India. A devout follower and chief disciple of the 19th-century mystic monk Shri Ramkrishna, Swamiji gave up his affluent life and bright future in the material world to service humanity.

2. Becoming a mystic

He became a monk to help the masses invoke within them the religious consciousness and connect with their higher conscious self.

3. Swamiji's memory power

Of the many qualities in Swamiji, one of his greatest virtues was sharp memory power, some would argue that he was blessed with a photographic memory.

4. Practicing Brahmacharya

Many experts associate the power of his memory to practicing Brahmacharya, i.e. observing celibacy for life. Scholars believe that the loss of semen through a sexual act or through an act of self-gratification reduces memory and will power.

5. Affecting the body structure

Gradually, it reduces the cogitative and sensory powers in the human body, affecting the structure of the body, even the marrow of the bones.

6. Mindful learning

For example, Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati was a Naishtika Brahmachari. He learned the entire English dictionary, memorized it by reading it once.

7. Exercising his memory power

It is said that Swami Vivekananda memorized several volumes of the encyclopedia in one reading much to the surprise of his disciples.

8. Memorizing encyclopedias

A conversation with Swamiji recorded by his disciple Sharat Chandra Chakravarty in 1898 is as follows: Throughout his life, Swamiji practiced Brahmacharya, i.e. he abstained from sex in his thoughts, deeds, and words. Therefore, he developed tremendous mental prowess and therefore, he could memorize volumes of text in one reading.

9. Reading challenge

At the age of 35, Swamiji was residing at the Belur Math Monastery in Howrah, Kolkata. A new mathematics encyclopedia was brought for the Math and on seeing the size of the volumes, a disciple exclaimed that it was impossible for one to read the entire contents of the encyclopedia in a lifetime.

10. Swamiji and his disciples

The disciple was unaware that Swamiji had read ten volumes already and had started the 11th one. On hearing the disciple, Swamiji challenged him to ask him anything from the volumes and he would answer them. Bewildered the disciple questioned him asking him if he had read them all to which Swamiji replied, he had and therefore, the disciple could ask him anything!

11. Swamiji's memory power

Swamiji, it is said, reproduced every little detail written in the book, even the places where the language was very difficult. The shocked disciple then exclaimed that this was beyond human power.

12. Swamiji on memory power

Swamiji then explained, “Do you see, simply by the observance of strict Brahmacharya (vow of celibacy in thought, word, and deed) all learning can be mastered in a very short time — one has an unfailing memory of what one hears or knows but once. It is owing to this want of continence that everything is on the brink of ruin in our country.”

13. The Unique manner of reading

Once when Swami Vivekananda was staying in Meerut with his disciples, he was accompanied by Swami Akhandananda. On Swamiji’s request Swami Akhandananda used to gets books from a local rolling library. A particular request was of works by Sir John Lubbock which was spread across volumes.

14. Could a human really read so fast?

However, Swamiji completed one volume a day and Akhandananda would return the book to get the next volume. On seeing the speed at which books were returned, the Librarian commented that Swamiji was simply returning the books without reading!

15. Swamiji challenged the Librarian

On hearing this comment, Swamiji visited the librarian and asked him to question him on the books and he would answer. However, the Librarian was taken aback by the great monk and backed out of the challenge.

16. Kaleidoscopic reading

Later on, Swamiji explained to Akhandananda that he managed to read one volume a day and memorize it as he never read the book word to word but sentence by sentence. Even at times, paragraph by paragraph. This was like kaleidoscopic reading.

17. Curious incidence of Swamiji's memory power

A similar experience is recorded by Haripada Mitra, a sub-divisional forest office in Belgaum.

18. Reading Charles Dickens

It is said that every literature scholars have managed to read Charles Dickens books once in their lifetime. But when Swamiji recited a large paragraph of the Pickwick Papers, he was shocked and more so, because Swamiji had read the book twice!

19. Can you achieve this memory power?

There are many such incidents that talk about Swamiji’s memory power. Can a normal human being achieve it? If we cannot achieve memory powers just like Swamiji, can we enhance our memory to a larger extent?

20. Key to memory power

Swamiji said that to achieve such powers of the mind that which seems beyond human reach, one needs a) continence, b) practice and c) concentration.

21. Secrets to memory power

Here are Swami Vivekananda’s secrets to increase memory power and concentration:

22. Concentrate

Concentrate. It is the essence of all knowledge. No knowledge can be gained without it. We, humans, waste 90% of our thoughts and therefore, we commit grave blunders. Train your mind. A trained mind never makes mistakes.

23. One single idea

Have one single idea to live your life by. Dream about it; eat, sleep, drink this idea. Your mind, body, soul, nerves, every body organ etc. needs to be aware of this idea. It will help keep away all the other ideas that could distract the mind.

24. Degree of concentration

The major difference between man and animal is the power of concentration. It also distinguishes one man from another. The difference is the degree of concentration.

25. Concentration is the key

It is through Brahmacharya, concentration, and idea can be learned and mastered in a short period of time. One has to have the unfailing memory of what they hear and learn, know in one go.

26. Practice continence

Without continence or self-control, the world is in chaos and on the brink of ruins.

27. Essence of learning

The essence of learning, knowledge, and education is the concentration of the mind. Collecting mere facts doesn’t make you educated. We need to concentrate and then detach, and then through this instrument, we can collect facts when we want.

28. Exploring the human mind

We can gain knowledge if we train our mind to concentrate. The strength, force, and blow etc. all come through concentration. The fact is the human mind remains unexplored and limitless.

29. Secret to power

The more we are able to concentrate, the more power we can achieve. This is the only secret.

30. Key to success

Success too depends on the power of concentration. Intellectuals know that clarity of thought and focused concentration will lead them a long path, making their path easier.