How can we better remember philosophical points and scriptural verses?

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Any other questions? So, how can we basically retain the verses or retain important points from different scriptures so that we can present in a integrated, coherent way when it’s required? A recollection is largely a function of connection. That means, if we consider a memory to be like a city. So, now, if say, you know, you want to meet a person X. So, you know their house is here.
You go along this way, this is the path you know. But then you know person Y’s house is here. Person Z, her house is there.
You know, okay, from here also you come here. From here also you come here. So, sometimes even if you forget this path, you might go there and okay, from there I can come here.
So, like that, we need to try to whatever facts we know, try to make as many connections as possible of that fact. Many times when we hear classes, the mind tends to switch off a little bit. This is a familiar point.
So, then after a few years, we start feeling, I have heard this. Which is fine, we may have heard it, but what we could do is, we could just turn that around and ask, where have I heard this last time? In what context was that spoken? You know, yeah, it’s the same example, but that time, you know, this was the flow going on. Now, this is the flow going on.
So, if you see, Srila Prabhupada quotes the same verses, but sometimes he is making a different point from a verse. So, even Gita daily also may take the same verse, but analyze it from different perspectives at different times. So, the point is that we make more connections.
So, the more connections we make, the more easily recollection will happen. And, that’s why I say, if you take a particular point and you want to memorize it, or you want to put it, just try to think, okay, this could be connected over here. Say, Pratap Rudra sweeping the street in front of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu instead of Raghunatha Yatradhara.
This could be used to talk about how the kings themselves were Rajarushis, they saw themselves as servants of the Lord. This could be used to say how by service attitude, one gets the mercy of the Lord. It could be seen as how Raghunatha Yatradhara was so important at that time, that everybody would come out, even the king would come out.
This could be used specifically to illustrate the character of Pratap Rudra himself, how he was such a humble person. This could be used to illustrate how in the story of Pratap Rudra and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, this was the act that transformed Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s attitude towards him. So, like that, we could just take one point and try to do some connections.
The more connections we do, the more recollection will become easier. And also for making connections like this, it is good if we have a habit of speaking scripture. Not necessarily speaking in terms of giving classes.
If we have the forums for that, that is good. But informally also, we may decide, we may have some friends and we discuss one point every day. And then, not just the other person does not hear the point.
You can make a habit that the other person responds by something connected. Now, when that other person responds by something connected, I didn’t think this connection. So, what will happen by that? The connections will increase.
So, we may decide every day, we will just, every day, once a week or whatever it works out, we discuss one point. And then, we speak one point and the other person, even just hear, responds to that point. What that point reminds them of.
That way, the connections will happen more and more. And a third thing which we could do for putting, for getting the facts at the right time is that use them whenever possible. So, for example, if you memorize verses, we can use them informally while talking or use them formally in our classes.
The more we use them, the more they stay in the accessible, in the front part of the brain, you could say. So, I remember Gopalakrishnan Maharaj giving a class in Pune. One devotee was asking this question, Maharaj, when we read Prabhupada’s books, we feel it’s all the same.
Maharaj said, it’s always the same. If you read it, it will stay in the front part of your brain. Otherwise, it will all go to the back of the brain.
So, what happens is, it’s in the front, we can immediately get it when we need it. So, after we remember a verse, again, we can just recite it with some friend, you know, I memorized this verse, and then they can say, I memorized this verse, or whatever. So, trying to have some association where we share, that will be very helpful in reinforcing that particular fact in our memory.
And then, the connection will be much easier. And the last thing which I would recommend for this is, try to hear devotees with your structured classes. And then, try to understand the structure.
It may require a little more time and application. Say, after you hear a class, how was this connected over here? Try to sit back a little bit and look at the flow. Okay, this was going like this, like this, like this, and what was this? Maybe this was a little, this was maybe just a tangent.
Was it really a tangent? So, just that, appreciating the thought flow if we do, of others, that will trigger our thinking also, for thought flow. So, it requires some time initially to think in that direction. But, there are some devotees who give structured classes, and the structured classes may not always be personally inspiring, in the sense that if some devotee, some spiritual master, or the senior practitioner, they inspire us, then whatever they speak inspires us.
So, structured classes may not have that kind of inspiration. The inspiration, that may be more intellectual inspiration. But, structured classes are also important if we want to be systematic teachers.
So, I will say that, trying to understand the structure of others’ classes, and sometimes even in the structure you can’t find it. This could be the flow that might have been there. That itself will get the thought process, the thought processing in that direction happen, and then it will be easier.
Okay?