Evening star., 1923-01-21

ORMIDABIE NUMBERS, luScrlo-
- ed on slip Of paper, were
handed to slender, dark
young man, who embarked
upon the process OF multiplying them
mentally
He was Somesh Chandra Bose,
prodigy from India, who claims to be
the greatest mental calculator In the
world. He had visited the newspaper
ONCE to display some Of his magic
and had offered to multiply mentally
numbers of sixty digits by each other.
None of the assembled journalists had
felt strong enough to take pencil and
paper and multiply sixty digits by
sixty digits, so that the mental calcu-
Iation might be verified. But, finally,
after much labor and correction, a
committee had multiplied ten digits
by ten digits with reasonable cer-
tainty that the answer was some
where nearly correct.
Somesh Chandra Bose smiled at the
figures and bent his head, muttering
a rapid succession Of strange sounds,
which were Hindu for our own well
forty-two, two down and four to
carry; three times eight is twenty
four and four is twenty-eight. After
several minutes of this chatter, dur
ing which he several times took part
in the general conversation, he took
q pencil and wrote down a number.
It was 27,6ss.475, ,4s1, ,12o,1s1 .004. The
committees answer differed in two or
three figures. The calculator quickly
showed where the errors were in the
written multiplication.
X x K x
FOLLOWING this came a mental di-
i vision Of colossal figures, and
then large cube root, got out of an
arithmetic. The calculator offered to
call the correct day of the week for
any date back 500 years - to the
change in the calendar-or forward
indefinitely. The interrogators tried
him on what dates they could sum-
mon, and he replied correctly in every
case.
nary capacity for mental computa-
tion. His secret?
1t was, of course, a matter of con-
oentration. that greatly treasured fac
ulty. The man could focus his atten-
ton upon the numbers so sharply
that they engraved themselves in his
memory like numbers written on a
sheet of paper. He did his figuring on
a page in his Imagination. The rows
n nd ne
out in his mind, and he could refer
back to them, as one may on pen
ciled tablet. How had he acquired
this faculty of concentration?
1T Is partly inborn," he spoke in
clear English, "and partly a result of
our normal Indian training.
In India" he continued, children
are taught concentration. That is a
vital part of our upbringing. They
are made to practice focusing their
minds on some word or thing for long
periods and to the exclusion Of every
distraction. This usually takes the
form OF our mode Of prayer. An In
dian child is taught to pray by re-
peating constantly some sacred word,
say one OF the names OF God, or the
dame of a saint, or Of a virtue. While
he repeats this sacred word he keeps
his mind focused upon the word and
the thing it signifies. It is no matter
of mechanical lip work, but distinct
~, one of concentration, CT which
the verbal repetition Is but means.
Now, I did not, when a child, follow
this course Of concentration In prayer
v
ssMY father was the manager of
A the estate Of a local proprietor
in Bengal. He had a considerble
talent for figures, and kept his extern
sive accounts largely In his mind. MY
mother. too, had an exceedingly re-
fentive memory for numbers. Whom
they gave me concentration exercise
they gave me. not prayers. to M my
mind upon, but numbers was
taught to repeat set Of numbers and