True Way of LearningTrue Way of LearningTrue Way of LearningTrue Way of Learning
  • Inspirations from Sri Aurobindo
    • Bande Mataram
    • Essays Divine and Human
    • Essays on the Gita
    • Karmayogin
    • Letters on Yoga – I
    • Letters on Yoga – II
    • Letters on Yoga – III
    • Letters on Yoga – IV
    • Savitri
    • The Mother with Letters on The Mother
  • Inspirations from The Mother
    • Prayers and MeditationsA record of the Mother’s early spiritual life, from her diaries. Most entries are from 1912 to 1917
    • Questions and Answers 1929-1931Early conversations on various aspects of spiritual life; and commentaries on the Dhammapada
    • Questions and Answers 1953Conversations based on the Mother’s conversations of 1929.
    • Questions and Answers 1950-1951Conversations based on Sri Aurobindo’s book The Mother, the Mother’s essays on education and her conversations
    • Questions and Answers 1954Conversations based on the Mother’s essays on education and three small books by Sri Aurobindo: Elements of Yoga, Bases of Yoga and The Mother.
    • Questions and Answers 1955Conversations based on three works by Sri Aurobindo: Bases of Yoga, Lights on Yoga and The Synthesis of Yoga.
    • Questions and Answers 1957-1958Conversations based on three works by Sri Aurobindo: Thoughts and Glimpses, The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth and The Life Divine.
    • Some Answers from The MotherCorrespondence with fourteen sadhaks and students
    • Words of The Mother Vol. IShort written statements on Sri Aurobindo, herself, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Auroville, India and nations other than India; and a few conversations.
    • Words of The Mother Vol. IIIShort written statements on various aspects of spiritual life; and thirty conversations.
    • White Roses

True Way of Learning

  • Home
  • Questions and Answers 1955
  • True Way of Learning
The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram
How to save yourself from Depression in Sadhana
12/17/2022
The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Self Dynamising Meditation
12/19/2022
Published by The Mother on 12/18/2022
Categories
  • Questions and Answers 1955
Tags
  • how to study
  • learning
  • remembrance
The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Sweet Mother, when we learn something by heart to recite it, what is the true way of learning, so that it remains?

The true way so that it remains is to understand, it is not to learn by heart. You learn something by heart, it is mechanical, you see; but after some time it will be effaced, unless you make use of it constantly. For example, you are made to learn by heart the multiplication tables; if you constantly use them, you will remember them, but if by chance for years you remain without using them, you will forget them completely. But if you understand the principle, you will be able to remember them. You see, the principle of multiplication, if you understand it with a mathematical sense, you will no longer need to learn it by heart, the operation will be done quite naturally in your brain; and for everything it is the same.

If you understand the thing, if you have the sense of the principle which is behind, you can remember it indefinitely, for hundreds of years if you live for hundreds of years; whereas something you have learnt by heart… after some time the brain-cells multiply, are replaced, and some things are wiped out. You are still too small for experiences of this kind, but later one realises that in one’s life there are things which remain like landmarks, there are others which are totally effaced to the extent that one doesn’t remember them at all, they are gone. But there are things like that, truly like milestones, like landmarks in life. Well, these things were conscious experiences, that is, they were understood; so the experience remains indefinitely, and with just a tiny movement of the consciousness you can bring it forward. But something that is learnt mechanically—unless, I tell you, you make use of it daily, it is effaced.

Ref : Questions and Answers 1955

Share
0

Related posts

The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram
07/11/2025

How to act truly?


Read more
The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram
05/23/2025

Is the reason always right?


Read more
The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram
04/18/2025

Super Ego


Read more
An offering at the lotus feet of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother by In Search of The Mother