Magic Number

Little One is 108 days old today! I'm not typically one to go in for numerology and the like (or counting days for that matter), but the number 108 and its significance to so many traditions and belief systems has always fascinated me. I was familiar with a few of the allusions to the number in Vedic traditions-- for example: there is a belief that each individual has a spiritual family of 108 other individuals; the Upanishads, Sanskrit stories and philosophical texts on the nature of existence and consciousness, are often numbered at 108; there are 108 beads on the mala, or prayer beads, used in various eastern faiths. Also, 108 figured often in the wild puzzle and madness that was Lost. I did a bit more research for this post and discovered that:

*The distance between the Earth and moon is 108 times the diameter of the moon and the distance between Earth and the sun is 108 times the diameter of the sun.

*In Hinduism each deity is believed to have 108 names.

Map of Ayurvedic marmas

*In Tibetan Buddhism there are believed to be 108 obstacles, or impurities, to be overcome on the path to nirvana.

*In Ayurvedic medicine there are 108 marmas, or vital points, on the body.

*108 suitors covet the wife of Odysseus, Penelope, in Homer's Odyssey.

*A baseball has 108 stitches.

 *In 1961, Yuri Gagarin, the first man is space, completed an orbit of the earth in 108 minutes.

*108 is a Harshad number- a number that is divisible by the sum of its digits. Harshad comes from the Sanskrit word for "great joy."

So I don't know exactly what all of this means, but the nerd in me loves finding patterns and coincidences. Also, in spending far too much time thinking about this one number I realized that at 108 days out in the world, Little One is almost exactly one year from the date she would have been conceived! Harshad indeed!