Yoga On & Off the Mat

Saluting the Sun 108 Auspicious Times

By Brooke Hewes, 1-10-08

A couple weeks ago, on the shortest day of 2007, my husband and I saluted the sun 108 times. Starting in tadasana, mountain pose, we faced our feet and gaze toward the orange-tinted sun setting outside our window. Following our inhalation, we raised arms and gazes upward. With an exhalation, we bent forward, letting our fingertips fall beside our feet. Straightening our backs, we looked out toward the darkening sky, and as our breath emptied once again from our lungs, we dropped into another forward bend. And so on—in and up, out and down— through the 11 postures of Surya Namaskara A until the sky turned dark and the shortest day of the year fell behind us.

I had participated in this ritual once before, on the Summer Solstice. Three friends and I rocked out to Krishna Das as we cheerfully witnessed spring’s officially lengthening into summer. One hundred and eight times, we undulated through the familiar pattern of breath and movement and fell easily into meditation. Both instances celebrated the passage of seasons—the two times of year when the sun and earth are separated by the least and most amount of space.

Celebrating the comings and goings of the sun with sun salutes makes sense. As does the synchronicity of body and breath within the context of yoga. The 108, however, is less obvious. Sure, people say it’s an auspicious number, but after bending, straightening, and jumping forward and back this many times, my tired arms and legs demanded a little more than blind trust.

And sure enough, as soon as I searched, I found plenty of reasons to substantiate repeating this ritual the next time a season bows to its successor.

Eating, Praying and Loving 108 Different but Connected Ways
In the introduction to the bestseller novel Eat, Pray, Love (if you haven’t read this fabulous book, proceed swiftly to a bookstore or library and begin … now!), author Elizabeth Gilbert introduces her one-year journey to three continents with the number 108. Because this number culminates one full round of mantra prayer as represented by a japa mala, Gilbert uses 108 to structure the retelling of her journey.
Japa malas are strings of 108 prayer beads that Hindus and Buddhists (and Catholics with their rosary beads) use to keep count of prayers. After working through the beads with the fingers of one hand, practitioners pause to reflect upon their spiritual teachers before ending or beginning another round. And just as mala beads temper mental monkiness during mediation, Gilbert uses a symbolic mala to organize her “spazzy free-for-all” self searching. And indeed, this scheme works. Her stories, bolstered by a funny and fresh writing style, flow together as easily as 108 little round beads slide around the string that fastens them together.

As Gilbert points out, 108’s auspiciousness partly depends upon its parts. There are three digits in 108, and these three digits (1 + 0 + 8) add up to nine, a number that itself consists of three threes. And three, as well all know from Bob Dorough’s Schoolhouse Rock tune, is a magic number…

Yes it is, it’s a magic number. Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinity. You get three as a magic number. The past and the present and the future. Faith and Hope and Charity, The heart and the brain and the body, Give you three as a magic number …

Barstools, tricycles, triangles. Body, Mind, Spirit … You get the point.

Still, there are many numbers besides three that are ubiquitous in this world and also lend a sense of balance and stability. (Tables and squares, for instance, have four legs, are universal, and are pretty darn sturdy.) Maybe 108 jumped from average to auspicious because of one or all of the following:

• 108 is considered the numerical equivalent of OM—the syllable so significant in yoga that, when chanted, is said to align chakras and resonate the frequency of divine consciousness throughout the body.
• Traditional Hindus count 108 Upanishads, the ancient scriptures that emphasize mediation and the importance of the guru-student relationship.
• In the comprehensive book The Yoga Tradition, Georg Feuerstein writes that there are 108 mudras, or symbolic gestures, in yoga. And though there are many more, he admits, this is the official, traditional count.
• Planetary connections: The distance between the moon and earth is 107.6 (roughly 108) times the diameter of the moon, while the distance between the earth and sun is 107.6 times the diameter of the sun. The sun’s diameter is 108 times that of the earth.
• Astrological connections (and we know how important these are”and we know how important these are): There are 12 constellations (and 12 houses in an astrological chart) and nine arc segments called namshas or chandrakalas. 9 X 12 = 108.

Ponder more theories at SwamiJ.com

Within the Buddhist tradition, 108 stands strong as well. There are said to be 108 symbols of the Buddha and 108 describable feelings—sadness, gladness, and all highs and lows between. 108 steps lead to many Buddhist temples, and 108 is the number of times theses temple bells ring to welcome another calendar year.

Yogis also welcome the New Year with 108. Just as my husband and I ushered in a new season with 108 salutations to the sun, many practitioners mark the passage of another year with this same tradition. In addition to honoring the fortune-infused number (and, perhaps, receiving a small sliver of all that favor yourself), there is just something exceptional in ritual, and 108 sun salutes, repeated prayers or cascading steps seems as good a number as any. Especially when the ritual, unlike others I have indulged in on the eve of a new year, sets an intention of health and wellbeing for you and all those other warm bodies reaching toward the sun 108 meditative times.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.