What is the significance of the number 108 in the yogic system? Sadhguru explains the relationship to one’s chakras and the cosmic geometry. Yogi, mystic and one of the foremost authorities on yoga, Sadhguru is a spiritual master with a difference. An arresting blend of profundity and pragmatism, his life and work serves as a reminder that yoga is a contemporary science, vitally relevant to our times.

Sadhguru: Yoga essentially understands aligning your system with the cosmic geometry. There is a certain geometry to the physical existence and to the energy existence. Everything in the universe, from the atomic to the cosmic, works the way it does because of geometric perfection. One of the most fundamental and the most stable forms in geometry is a triangle. In the human energy system, there are two equilateral triangles – an upward-pointing one below, and a downward-pointing one above. Normally, these two triangles meet just above the anahata. To work with your mind and imagination, it is important to adjust the alignment of the two triangles at least some extent. The ideal alignment would be that the upwardpointing and the downward-pointing triangles intersect to such an extent that they form a perfect sixpointed star with six equilateral triangles on the outside.

See in the yogic system, There are one hundred and fourteen chakras in the body. The seventy two thousand nadis, or energy pathways in the system, have one hundred and fourteen significant junction points, where the nadis meet in substantial numbers and redistribute themselves. These points are generally known as chakras, which literally means “wheel” or “circle,” though they are actually triangles. We call them “chakras” because that suggests movement – moving forward. Out of these two are outside your body, one hundred and twelve inside the body. Of these one hundred and twelve, there are four about which you don’t have to do anything. They are like that. If other things work, they will flower by themselves. So there are only one hundred and eight with which you can work.

So, hundred and eight has become significant. If you wear any beads, people wear hundred and eight beads. If they say a mantra, hundred and eight because these are the hundred and eight chakras that you need to work with. This hundred and eight number is significant and you will see it in the East, everything is hundred and eight. The distances between the Sun and the Earth, the distances between the Moon and the Earth, the way the planet rotates and the impact it has—all these things have been looked at with great care. The diameter of the Sun multiplied by 108 equals the distance between Sun and Earth, and the diameter of the Moon multiplied by 108 equals the distance between Earth and Moon. The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth. That is why we have 108 beads in a mala.

And in this body, there are one hundred and eight chakras that we can work upon. So the cosmic geometry I can go into a lot of arithmetic which will match with your human system and these things we have been conscious of and that is how we came up with eighty four basic asanas. Out of these eighty four, if you do twenty one of them properly and you just master one, your system will be aligned with the cosmic system. Once it’s aligned, everything that you need to know about the cosmos is right here.

Author: Sadhguru

Sadhguru’s book, INNER ENGINEERING: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy presents a sophisticated guide to self-empowerment based on the teaching and principles of classical yoga. This system is a means to create a framework of inner stability, helping those who practice become architects of a joyful life.