Sankara And Tape Recorder

The techniques of photography and sound recording came
to man rather very late in human history, but human brain
possessed these much earlier. Leonardo da Vinci is said
to have possessed the extraordinary faculty of photographic
memory while Sri Sankara carried all along a very efficient
tape recorder in his brain. One is tempted to believe that
he owned the other gift too. If not, how could he conquer
such intellectual heights within a short life of32 years?
Here is an anecdote in proof of the tape recording faculty
of his amazing brain:
In the history of Sanskrit literature, Sakthibhadra has earned
a niche as being the first from the South to contribute a drama.
'Aascharyachoodamani'(The Wonderful hair ornament) is the name
of the play and the reference is to the Choodamani Sita sent
to Rama through Hanumaan. Sakthibhadra was a Keralite
belonging to Adoor in the present Patthanamthitta district
and was a disciple of Sri Sankara. After writing the play,
he took it to the Kalady ashram for his master's approval.
The Acharya was busy with the arrangements for his north
Indian tour and so he told him to read it out to him. He obeyed,
but even at the end of the reading, the Guru did not utter a
word about it. The sishya was upset. Presuming that his
work was worthless, Sakthibhadra threw the entire palm
leaf stuff into the fire.
When the Guru returned to the Ashram after a long time,
the Sishya reached there to pay his respects. Acharya asked
him about the drama he wrote. The Sishya was embarrassed
as he did not expect this enquiry. He said:"Sire, as you didn't
say a word about it, I thought that you didn't approve of it and
I destroyed it."
The Guru smiled:" My dear fellow, do you remember any part of it? "
"No,Sire".He replied apologetically.
" It was in deed a good work. I should have responded then."
He asked somebody to bring writing material and told
somebody else to write down what he was going to dictate.
Then he dictated non-stop the entire drama!
But for this marvellous feat, none would have heard
the name of Sakthibhadra.
The annecdote brings to my mind another incident.
Once way back in 1940s or 50s someone was interviewing
Maha Periyavaar @Kanchi Paramacharya Chandrashekara
Saraswathi..That gentleman recorded the interview using a
tape recorder. Periyavaa then posed a question.
"Does anyone know which is the oldest known tape recorder?"

Nobody was able to answer. Then Maha Periyavaa asked
another question.
"How did Vishnu Sahasranamam come to us?"
Someone said Bheeshma gave it to us.

All agreed. Then Maha Periyavaa posed another query .

"When all were listening to Bheeshma on the battlefield,
who took notes at Kurukshetra?"

Again silence.
Maha Periyavaar explained...
When Bheeshma was glorifying Krishna with Sahasranamam
everyone was looking at him including Krishna and Vysa.
After he finished the 1000 Namas all opened their eyes.
The first to react was Yudhistira.He said, 'Pithamaha has chanted
1000 glorious names of Vasudeva. All of us listened but none of
us have noted it down. The sequence is lost'. Then all turned to
Krishna and asked for His help. As usual He said, 'I also was
listening like the rest of you. What can we do?'
Then all beseeched Krishna to help them recover the precious
rendition. Then Krishna said, 'It can only be done by Sahadeva
and Vyasa will write it down.'
Everyone wanted to know how Sahadeva could do it. Krishna replied,
'Sahadeva is the only one amongst us wearing SPATIKAM.
If he prays to Shiva and does dhyanam he can convert the
SPATIKA into waves of sound and Vyasa can write it down.
Then, both Sahadeva and Vyasa, sat in the same place,
under Bheeshma, where he had recited the Sahasranamam.
Sahadeva started the dhyanam to recover the sound waves
from the Spatika.
The nature of Spatika is that it will capture sounds in a calm
environment which can be got back with proper dhyanam of
Maheswara who is Swethambara and SPATIKA. So, the world's
earliest tape recorder is this SPATIKA which gave us the wonderful
Vishnu sahasranama. when Maha Periyavaar explained this all
were stunned... From the Spatika recording, the grantha came to
us through Vyasa.
No wonder,when Sahadeva who was a devotee of Shiva could
bring back the sound waves from Shiva dyaana, Adi Sankara
who was an incarnation of Shiva, could recite the
entire drama out of his mind
and reproduce to be recorded again.
Jayasala 42