[Fwd: Sabda - Bhartrihari]

[Swarna Venkateswara Swamy]

Dear Kenji,

Many thanks for a thought provoking mail. I need o
read it several times and digest. I did read about
numerology earlier, but from a point of predicting the
future. This is a different perception. Will get back
to you.


--- ken knight <hilken_98 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
> --- Swarna Venkateswara Swamy
> <truthseeker123x at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>  Can a similar
> > connection be established between Siva and
> numbers?
> >
>
>
> --- Swarna Venkateswara Swamy
> <truthseeker123x at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>
> > this, somehow caught my attention. Can a similar
> > connection be established between Siva and
> numbers?
>
>
> Namaste Swamy,
> This is similar to a question that I asked myself
> some
> years ago.  I was teaching a class of ten year olds
> when the boy who was the least able numerically
> became
> very persistent one day. I was teaching fractions
> when
> he asked, "Where does that number come from?"
> Thinking that he was asking about the factors of a
> number that had suddenly caused these magical
> changes
> I went over factors again. However he was persistent
> in his demands:'Where does that number come from?'
> Suddenly I realised that he was asking about the
> very
> nature of number itself so we changed topics for a
> couple of weeks and explored number. We found that
> there is only one number: 1. The others are merely
> shorthand for writing sets of 1 or ratios. We had
> fun
> trying to convince everyone that 1+1=1 and other
> such
> truths.  However we were left with real questions as
> to the inner meaning of numbers.
> There are mystical numerological traditions in
> Egyptian, Greek and Jewish traditions but personally
> I
> have been unable to connect with that which I have
> read. I believe that for Pythagoras 1 is the
> Absolute,
> 2 is feminine and 3 masculine and 4 justice. These
> then sum up to the Divine Tetractys (10).
> I did purchase a copy of BhAskarAcArya's
> 'LIlAvatI'but
> as it is all in Sanskrit it takes me ages to
> translate.
>
> Although the list of letters (phonemes) may be
> finite
> the way they can combine is infinite which is the
> same
> with number.
> The only other offering that I can give is the
> eneagram in which the numbers are placed on a circle
> (ie. a point, bindu, in expansion) and each given a
> step in consciousness:
> 1   brahman
> 2 avyaktaprakriti unmanifest nature
> 3 yaktaprakriti    manifest nature
> 4 mahatattva       I am
> 5 akASha           ether
> 6 vAyu             air
> 7 agni             fire
> 8 jala             water
> 9 prithivi         earth
>
> One interesting point on this is that when you take
> it
> as a reflection so that brahman appears at 9 then
> akAsha still appears at 5 giving it an immoveable,
> stable quality as we experience in true listening.
>
> So if we take numbers as a denary system then we
> could
> explore this eneagram a little further but maybe a
> binary (0,1) system makes more sense in terms of
> advaita, although I am sure that the Babylonians
> might
> have been able to tell us the meaning of their
> system
> based on 60.
>
> Final point is that if there is a hierarchy to the
> VedA~ngas thene ShikshA,Chhanda, vyAkaraNa, Nirukta,
> Jyotisha and Kalpa would be the order.
>
> Final final point as I struggle to remember
> something
> from Shankara's writing. He refers to the story of
> the
> ten men crossing the river and suddenly being awoken
> to the whereabouts of the missing tenth man.
> In that story we have the the  manifestation of the
> nine points on the eneagram and One observing and
> doing the counting.  Together they make 10, one with
> zero.
>
> I would like to hear from those with more insight in
> advaitin terms to reply to the above question,
>
>
> Ken Knight
>
>
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=====
in search of truth and with prayers to Govinda to help reach  that goal in this life itself, and with best wishes to you that your goals may be reached,

yours sincerely,

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