What's Your Number

As a kid, I was always mesmerized by numbers. They seemed to carry some magic. I saw patterns in numbers. They looked like geometrical figures and I always thought that there was some hidden connection between the shapes and the numbers.

Someone asked me my favourite number and i started finding the answer.

1. Nunero Uno

The first, the best, the unique, one at the top. This is the king of numbers. Neither prime nor composite, beyond it. It shows unity, shows power (in hands of one).

It stands for one god, single truth. It stands for completeness.

It's a lonely number although.

2. Duality

Two is company. Two is split. Black & White, Darkness & Light, Good & Evil. Two is pair, complementing each other and incomplete alone. Nar & Narayan, Atma & Paramatma, Prakriti & Purush. This number reminds me of Ardhnarishwar.

Two is state. Happy & Sad, On & Off, 0 & 1: origin of the binary system and the whole of information revolution.

Two is contrast. Yes & No, Right & Left ( in every sense- right brain vs left brain, right hand vs left hand, right wing politics vs left)

Well talking about two, I must share a joke I read somewhere: "There are two types of people- Those who split everything into two and those who don't."

3. Trio

Three is magic. Three is mystery. I love triangles. They are magical. They represent strength. I always wondered (until I learnt later), why every structure you see is made of triangular shapes. Three is stability ( a tripod never shakes).

Three draws parallels: Trilok, Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh, Mahakaali-Mahalaxmi-Mahasaraswati. This is not a split of contrasts but of facets.

Three dimensions of space and a fool lost within.

4. Quad

Four is flat. Emotionless. Four directions, four walls. Equal in measure, precise and dull.

Four faces are quite common in Hindu mythology and forms our national emblem as well (Ashok Stambh)

5. High Five

Pentagon rules the world (literally :P). Five fingers, Five senses, Five elements ( and not four. i am an Indian you see ).

Coming back to geometry, a regular pentagon has an angle of 108 degrees (another magical number ! )

6. Hex

God does play dice. How can he resist the temptation?? I love this number as I love cricket and I love hexagons.

I am hexed by the way :)

7. The Queen

This number definitely deserves the status. Biggest single digit prime number. Seven notes, seven colours, seven seas, seven births, seven vows, seven days, seven stars (saptarishi).

You just can't ignore the beauty, you are bound to fall in love with the queen.

8. Oct

Complexity personified. Eight is cube of two. 3D split.

I remember the rangoli's by my mother with eight petals. Kind of elegant.

9. On cloud nine

This is another magical number. Derived from three, it carries its magic and mystery to next level. But it looses the simplicity in the process.

0. Nothing

I missed this one. I remember another incident like this. The first law of thermodynamics had already been discovered (law of conservation of energy) and later a law was discovered which was even more basic. This one in fact defined the whole branch of study. So this one was called the Zeroth law of Thermodynamics.

This number represents nothing. And includes everything. The basis of every number system- binary, hexadecimal or decimal; whatever.The India's contribution to the world of mathematics and philosophy. It's the fifth element that Greeks had left- the SPACE.

It's synonymous to nirgun- 'without attributes' ; the all pervading, all including. The ultimate bliss, the Nirvana.

This is what differentiates, the Indian philosophy from rest of the world.

Well... white is my favorite colour. Someone may say that it's not a colour but for it is. It contains every colour and is still so pure, so complete.