The Mystery of 108

Came across these explanations when I was trying to find the logic behind using 108 Rudraksha beads in Japamalas.

The number 108 is very auspicious for Hindus. It is the number of beads of a rosary and of many other things in Indian cosmology. But why is this number considered to be holy? The answer to this mystery may lie in the fact that the ancient Indians took this to be the distance between the earth and the sun in sun-diameter units and the distance between the earth and the moon in moon-diameter units. Two facts that any book on astronomy will verify : Distance between earth and sun = 108 times sun-diameter Distance between earth and moon = 108 times moon-diameter. Indian thought takes the outer cosmology to be mirrored in the inner cosmology of the human. Therefore, the number 108 is also taken to represent the 'distance' from the body of the devotee to the God within. The chain of 108 'links' is held together by 107 joints, which is the number of marmas, or weak spots, of the body in Ayurveda. We can understand that the 108 beads of the rosary must map the steps between the body and the inner sun. The devotee, while saying beads, is making a symbolic journey from the physical body to the heavens. - India First Foundation

I checked NASA website to see if this is true. I noticed that the ratio of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, to Diameter of the Sun works out to be 107.55; also, (distance between Earth and Moon)/(diameter of the moon) = 110.63. These numbers are close enough to 108. However, Dr. Koenraad Elst thinks that this is just a coincidence. His argument is, while the distance between the sun and its planets is fairly stable, the distance between the earth and the moon is subject to steady and ultimately very sizable changes.

Here is one more explanation I found, among many:

Perhaps 108 was given special status because of its relationship to the number 9, which also has been conisered+ an important number in Hinduism and other Asian cultures*. Some examples follow. When 108 is divided in half the result is 54; 5 + 4 = 9. Half of 54 is 27, and 2 + 7 = 9. When 108 is multiplied by 2, the result is 216; 2+1+6 = 9. When 108 is multiplied by 3 the result is 324; 3+2+4 = 9. And, of course the sum of 1+0+8 is itself 9! - Chelsea Yoga

This explanation begs for a new question. Why 9 and why not 6.74?! May be 9 for Navagraha? Though I did not find a satisfactory explanation for the choice of 108, I think that a Japamala is a good tool for meditation, and that meditation is good for health and spirit. I guess that would be sufficient knowledge for now - just keep using it while continuing the quest for knowledge:-)

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest - Henry David Thoreau

+ noted the spelling mistake (conisered), but left it uncorrected as it is a quotation.