'Dissolve your memories'

Anil K Rajvanshi *

Afamous work of surrealist painter Salvador Dali is called Persistence of Memory. Here, Dali has shown melting clocks, all showing the same time. This was probably Dali's interpretation of Einstein's theory of relativity where the spacetime continuum is shown to be interlinked — space is flowing and time stands still.

It is as if the memory of time got fixed in the painting. Memories persist whether they are in the human brain, in matter or in space — the movement of planets. Memory can be defined as an arrangement: whether it is of numbers as in 0-1 in computing; atoms and molecules in material or neural pathways in the brain.When the arrangement is changed by any means including an external force,memory is transformed.

The building blocks of memory,however, just like mass and energy, are never destroyed; only the arrangement changes. We still do not know where memory is stored in the human brain. Scientists have identified 'engrams'— basically, small neural circuits — which are signposts for the memory of certain objects.

However, the exact location of the memory of an object in the brain has remained a mystery and that of an abstract thought, is an even bigger mystery. For mundane or shallow memory, the arrangement changes quite easily and regularly in the brain. This helps us in forgetting day-to-day events and removes clutter from our brain.

However, deep thought, which can produce very powerful memory, can reside in Knowledge Space (KS) and can be there for a long time leading to the persistence of memory. Deep thought is produced via sanyam,combination of focus and meditation on a single idea for a long time. This helps in producing a memory, which may reside outside the brain and in higher dimensional space called Knowledge Space.

Sage Patanjali calls such memories as sanskars. Thus KS may contain deep emotions and fundamental knowledge produced in the past and is continuously fed by the ever-increasing knowledge from various civilisations. A prepared and focused human mind can access knowledge from this space and great discoveries of mankind have come from such access.

It is also possible that as earth moves around the sun and the solar system revolves around the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, periodically we come across KS, which helps mankind to evolve. Similarly a younger civilisation than ours may come across KS developed by us and this is how evolution continues.

The brain also has a memory of the body map and the map is an outcome of one's whole life's worth of memories and experiences that produce deep impressions on the mind and could be the basis of the 'memory of form'. At the time of death, it is the shedding of this body map or memory of form, which is painful.

Thus it is the continuation of memory of form which makes us fearful of death and gives us the instinct of survival. This instinct exists in all life forms and could be the basis of procreation and proliferation of species.

Advanced yogis have used the technique of raising kundalini, which somehow allows shedding memories of the body,making death a less painful experience. Memory of form can persist for some time after violent physical death and could become apparent as ghosts and ghouls.

This happens because the body and brain do not get enough time to dissolve all memories. It is this persistence of memory,which also gives rise to the theory of karma, since the strong memories in KS decide and guide one's life in subsequent births.

These memories in KS may also bring people and other life together, via reincarnations, through the ages, because of past connections. The old adage 'Janam janam ka saath' is probably the outcome of such a process. With each birth, memories and connections either become stronger or weaker, thereby changing the dynamics of bonds and relationships.

For making and breaking long held memories either in the brain or in KS, a powerful mind is required. It is only possible through a human brain and thus getting a human body is a cause of celebration and the best thing to happen for a living being on earth in the present evolutionary timescale.

It is quite possible that in future we may evolve into entities, capable of changing dimensions of space and KS memories much more easily than presently possible. The fundamental principle of yoga is to dissolve these memories either in the present brain or in KS so that one can get out of the cycle of birth and death. It is then that the persistence of memory vanishes.