BLINDFAITH

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

From: Chelluri Nageswar Rao <Chelluri at AOL.COM>

> Namaste:    Yes there are 51 Shakti Peetas Out of which 18 are most
> important.  I dont know why 18 is a magic number.  18 chapters in Gita,
18
> Puranas even the steps leading to Lord Ayyappa are 18.  Can anybody
explain
> why 18 is chosen.
>

Well in this case 51 may be correlated with the letters of the alphabet
that play an important part in mantra shastra.  33 consonants and 18 vowels
(the long and short forms of a, i, u, rr, lr, e, o, anuswara, visarga,
jihvamulia, and upadhmaniya.)  But not being too familiar with Tantric
thought, this is just a guess.

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