Significance of numbers in Hinduism!

"The ingenious method of expressing every possible number using a set of ten symbols (each symbol having a place value and an absolute value) emerged in India. The idea seems so simple nowadays that its significance and profound importance is no longer appreciated. Its simplicity lies in the way it facilitated calculation and placed arithmetic foremost amongst useful inventions." 

-Laplace, a French mathematician

In this new series and post we will try to explain the symbolic significance of numbers from one to ten from Hindu perspective and their association with some important concepts and divinities of Hinduism. It also explores how ancient Indians used these numbers to organize the information they had about creation and the order of divinities in a systematic way to arrive at a picture of Hindu cosmology from a numerical perspective. Most of the information that is provided in this article is a product of this writer's intuitive awareness and personal study and is unique. This article is an attempt to present before the readers the idea that numbers were used in religious ceremonies and rituals as symbols of divinities and their energies.

In ancient India people lived very religious lives. They prayed and worshiped several divinities in whom they had faith. They believed that the purpose of human life was to achieve liberation from the cycle of births and deaths and ascend to sunlit worlds. They did not believe in withdrawing from life or abnegation of duty as a necessary condition to pursue God. Enjoyment of life and material wealth were important goals of human life but not the ultimate. The highest aim was moksha or liberation from the delusions and distractions of life through spiritual discipline and self surrender. The best way to achieve it was through a divine centered life, where every activity was meant to achieve inner purity and experience God as the witness, guardian, guide and rescuer
They reflected this attitude in many aspects of their lives. Whether it was the practice of a profession, or study of the Vedas or tending of the cattle, or engaging in some mundane affair, they sought the intervention of divinities through the practice of dharma. They reflected the same attitude in using the numbers and believed them to be symbols each having a potency and symbolic significance of its own They believed that the numbers could be used in the practice of religion and spiritual discipline to reference the divinities and their attributes.

To the intuitive seekers of Brahman, the numbers offered many opportunities to meditate upon and realize the hidden symbolism. In the following paragraphs we will try to explore the symbolic significance hidden in the numbers from zero to ten. And in doing so we will also realize why the decimal system and the use of present day symbols for numbers originated in ancient India.

Zero, Shunya
----------------
Zero is a numerical or symbolic representation of Nirguna Brahman or the Brahman who is without a form and without qualities. Nirguna Brahman is an eternal mystery. Very little is known about him. He is the known unknown. So is zero. No one knows for sure what this number is, what it represents and what its true value is. What we know about it are but assumptions. The physical laws of the universe do not apply to zero. It stands as a bridge between physical and the metaphysical realms and between reason and faith. It is indefinable and can be explained only in terms of "not this" and "not that". It is indivisible, without form, without qualities, without a beginning and without an end.

It is difficult to say whether it exists or not, whether it is a number or not, because no one knows for sure. It is a void, where nothing else exists but itself. Finite as well as infinite, the first and the last, the smallest and also the largest of all, it could neither be destroyed nor created. You can find it everywhere, hidden in every other number. Any number that you try to multiply with it becomes zero, but if you know the right way you can enhance the value of a number infinitely. Zero is thus a very apt symbol of the primal Being. There is no other symbol in our knowledge that can represent Brahman with such clarity and simplicity.

-by Jayaram V