Shri 108 and Other Mysteries

- By Subhash Kak The Golden Ratio, 1.618033989, is at the basis of stock-market data, petal patterns of flowers, and e en the planet periods. !t is the ratio obtained b" di idin# consec$ti e elements, the lar#er b" the smaller, of the %ibonacci series& 1, 1, ', 3, (, 8, 13, '1... where the ne)t term is the s$m of the precedin# two terms. The Golden Ratio is the sol$tion to the e*$ation ) + 1 , 1-). .hen raised to the powers -3, -1, 0, 1, (, /, the Golden Ratio #i es the periods of 0erc$r", 1en$s, 2arth, 0ars, 3$piter, and 4at$rn in "ears, s$##estin# that the solar s"stem m$st be iewed as a sin#le whole. %or the ph"sicist, the n$mber 13/, the in erse of the fine str$ct$re constant, is more m"sterio$s. !t is a dimensionless ratio that e*$als the prod$ct of the 5lanck6s constant and the speed of li#ht di ided b" the s*$are of the electron6s char#e. 7ct$all", the n$mber is sli#htl" lar#er 813/.03(989(9, b$t it is s$fficientl" close to the inte#er 13/ that people ha e wondered if it is related to some deep propert" of nat$re. This n$mber shows $p at man" places in atomic ph"sics, and it has been e en seen in the motions of 3$piter6s satellites. 4ome of the #reatest minds of the ph"sics of the last cent$r" ha e so$#ht form$lae for it. :ne theorist considered it partic$larl" si#nificant that 13/ e*$als 1'8,8,1, each of which factor is a power of '. 7 less esoteric and more interestin# n$mber is 108, the n$mber of beads of a rosar" and of man" other thin#s in !ndian cosmolo#". ! first heard of it in the title of swamis in !ndia, as in 4hri 108 so-and-so, which irked me not onl" beca$se of its pretentio$sness b$t also beca$se no one seemed to know wh" it was 6hol"6. ! also had heard of 1,008, another e*$all" m"sterio$s n$mber $sed b" swamis. 0$ch, m$ch later, ! asked professors abo$t these n$mbers. :ne #entleman told me that its secret la" in the 6holiness6 of the n$mber 18, as e idenced b" the ei#hteen Puranas, and the ei#hteen chapters of the ;ha#a ad Gita< and the n$mber 108 was obtained from 18 b" slippin# a =ero in between, and doin# this a#ain led to 1,008. ;$t this e)planation didn6t con ince me. .h" is 18 hol", to be#in with> 7nd if it is, wh" doesn6t slippin# a =ero in between 1 and 8 destro" that holiness> !f it doesn6t for whate er reason, leadin# to 108 and 1,008 in two sta#es, wh" doesn6t it lead to 10,008 and other lar#er n$mbers> 7nother #entleman said that 108 was '/ times ?, that is '/ nakshatras 8constellations in the moon6s monthl" circ$it9 m$ltiplied b" fo$r of the fo$r cardinal directions. ;$t wh" sho$ld this be important> 7lso, in realit", the moon takes '/ and one-third da"s to complete its circ$it, and not e)actl" '/. ! $ltimatel" fo$nd the answer to the m"ster" of these n$mbers while researchin# earl" !ndian astronom". ! disco ered that the !ndians took this to be the distance between the earth and the s$n in s$n-diameter $nits, and the distance between the earth and the moon in moon-diameter $nits. Three facts that an" book on astronom" will erif"& @ Aistance between earth and s$n + 108 times s$n-diameter,

@ Aistance between earth and moon + 108 times moon-diameter, and most remarkably, @ Aiameter of the s$n + 108 times the earth diameter. That the !ndians knew of the first two sho$ldn6t s$rprise, beca$se it can be calc$lated b" an"one witho$t the need for an" instr$ments. Take a pole, mark its hei#ht, and then remo e it to a place 108 times its hei#ht. The pole will look e)actl" of the same an#$lar si=e as the moon or the s$n. ! don6t belie e !ndians knew the third fact, that the s$n is 108 times as lar#e as the earth, beca$se there is no e idence of that in the old astronom" man$als. !f the" did, it wo$ld be as ama=in# a coincidence as the knowled#e of the correct speed of li#ht before modern meas$rements. !ndian tho$#ht takes the o$ter cosmolo#" to be mirrored in the inner cosmolo#" of the h$man. Therefore, the n$mber 108 is also taken to represent the 6distance6 from the bod" of the de otee to the God within. The chain of 108 6links6 is held to#ether b" 10/ Boints, which is the n$mber of marmas, or weak spots, of the bod" in 7"$r eda. .e can $nderstand that the 108 beads of the rosar" 8 japamala9 m$st map the steps between the bod" and the inner s$n. The de otee, while sa"in# beads, is makin# a s"mbolic Bo$rne" from the ph"sical bod" to the hea ens. The n$mber 108 Boined to the name is merel" a boast that one is a spirit$al adept, a master of the Bo$rne" of 108 steps thro$#h the intermediate re#ions of dan#er. The other n$mber 1,008 has a sli#htl" different basis. 2arl" !ndian astronom" di ides the kalpa -- the total period within a creation, the da" of ;rahma, which is part of an infinite c"cle -- into 1,008 yugas. The $se of this n$mber as a title is to boast that one knows the m"ster" of time from creation to annihilation. The n$mber 108 appears in man" settin#s in the !ndian tradition. The Natya Shastra of ;harata speaks of the 108 karanas -- combined mo ements of hand and feet -- of dance. 7 few months a#o in Chennai, 5adma 4$bramaniam, the #reat dancer and dance theorist, told me a stor" of disco er" connected with this n$mber. !n the 1960s, 5admaBi had come to the reali=ation that the fo$r hands of the 4hi a fi#$res in ThanBa $r represented animation. Then, in 1980, 4ri Chandrasekharendra 4araswati 4wami#al, the 4hankarachar"a of the Danchi 5eetham -- who was to pass awa" at the a#e of 100, fo$rteen "ears later -asked her to desi#n a fresh set of karana fi#$res for the panels of the new Ettara Chidambaram FataraBa 0andir in 4atara, 0aharashtra, based on the Natya Shastra descriptions. 2ach panel had to show 4hi a and 5ar ati. 4he first had to decide whether to $se 4hi a with fo$r arms as at ThanBa $r or 4hi a with two arms as at D$mbakonam, to#ether with 5ar ati with two arms as at Chidambaram. 4he took pict$res for ad ice to the 4wamiBi, b$t he said there was to be no cop"in# of e)istin# ima#es. Eltimatel", she chose fo$r arms for 4hi a and two for 5ar ati, and created the 108 new desi#ns. Gater in the 1990s, 5admaBi was approached b" 7lessandra !"er, an !talian scholar, who wished to st$d" the infl$ence of the Natya Shastra on the %ar 2ast. The" disco ered that the 4atara temple panels of 5admaBi were similar in form to

the (3 s$r i in# dance panels of the 9th cent$r" 5rambanam temple of 3a a, !ndonesia, that was lar#el" destro"ed b" earth*$ake in the 1(th cent$r". This established that 5admaBi6s choices were ri#ht and her $nderstandin# of the fo$r-armed poses as fro=en mo ements was correct. 4ince her reconstr$ction were based on brief description, it also s$##ests that the karanas are archet"pes of motion. The idea of archet"pes brin#s me to .olf#an# 5a$li and Carl 3$n# who, in a book the" wrote in 19(' called The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche , ar#$ed that o$r disco eries are a conse*$ence of the pree)istin# patterns in o$r mind. 5a$li wrote once, H! prefer to sa" that mind and matter are #o erned b" common, ne$tral orderin# principles 6that are not in themsel es determinable6.I The idea of archet"pe, borrowed b" 3$n# from Jo#a, makes it possible for $s to see how different people can come to the same disco er" independentl". 5arentheticall", 3$n# took the idea of di init" as male-female 8Karihara9, s$##estin# that each man had a female within 8anima9, and each woman had a male within 8anim$s9. !n his contrib$tion to the book, 5a$li indicated how the #reat Depler had come b" his three laws of planetar" motion $pon the $se of %ibonacci se*$ences. %rom there the ne)t step was the Fewtonian s"nthesis that iewed the $ni erse as a machine. ;$t now we ha e come f$ll circle in o$r reali=ation that if the $ni erse is a machine, it is one where the components are all connected to#ether -- it is a holistic machine.
Reading: To #et an o er iew of the astronom" and cosmolo#" of the ancient world, see 4$bhash Dak, The Astronomical ode of the Rg!eda. 0$nshiram, '000.

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