Love = Mathematics

Since my childhood I had a liking for mathematics. Though many thought it difficult to understand,  numbers always fascinated me. The science of numbers was something that always connected me to reality. This love of mine with numbers till date always made the vehicle number plates attractive. Adding them, subtracting them, finding sequence, and this help me remember many identities at times. Like Amit Kothari’s car number is four consecutive numbers in shuffled order.

Numbers always shared some fancy relations with each others. Because of such relations with themselves, came into existence the concept of sequences like Arithmetic or Geometric progressions or even a Fibonacci series for that matter. Also came into existence various theorems and formulas and trigonometry, like say in a Pythagoras theorem the relation between sides and hypotenuse in a right angled triangle is a²=b²+c². So there are various relations of numbers amongst number.

Numerology: A relationship

But since couple of years, I noticed an increasing trend in awareness about numbers. Many have explored this science of numbers. There has been an emergence of a science which people have started calling it as “Numerology”.  Basically Numerology was an ancient science which established mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events or connected the numbers to divine or astrological ideas.

But the modern day numerology belief has started developing a relationship of numbers with alphabets. Calculation of birth dates to find the lucky number and then to get it connected to the alphabets of the name of the person has become trendy these days. And people have started connecting these names to divinity or astrological ideas or to better fortune. You might have heard 3, 6, 9 serious or factor of 9. In-fact the number 24 is in lot of trend now a day. Isn’t it? Just observe.

So apart from people keeping their number plates to a desired number, people have started choosing alphabets in the name to desired number. A normal name like ‘Akshay’ has been started manifesting itself in the form ‘Akshaye’ or ‘Akksshay’ or what not. There are many types of systems existing to assign numerical values. To name a few you have Pythagoras numerology and you also have Chaldean numerology. Infact in India, southern states use Chaldean system to assign values to alphabets.

But when I got into the details of this Science of numerical values to alphabets, many questions and doubts like a koan, came to my mind. After all there is no science without Questions and Logic. Also when you are trying to associate a number to your fortune, you are trying to attach energies to it. So while I was carrying so many questions in my mind, I got to encounter a numerologist. Law of attraction you see. Let me try to share couple of questions with you and would like to get an answer back of what you feel.

Questions and Logic

Have heard in recent time, number 6 or 24 is the number of prosperity. And many have started changing their names from Akshay to Akksshay as mentioned earlier to match this number. And once you change the name accordingly who wait for the fortune to change. But what happens to someone who doesn’t know English nor can he read nor can he write English. Like for a Hindi medium guy, my name remains “अक्षय” in spite I write it as Akshay or Akksshay. I never become “अअक्षय” or “अक्षक्षय”. The entire sound changes.

There are many countries in the world who are not English speaking. They have different numerology system. Arabic have different, Chinese have different. And accordingly the value of the word Akshay changes. So in every country, or every place I travel to or reside in will bring different decree of fortune to me just because of my name.  But my name remains the same. The sound remains the same.

Also English is a language with diversity in itself. Proper nouns or Hindi names can be written in vivid pattern using Latin alphabets. Say a word “लक्ष्मी” can be written as “Lakshmi” or “Laxmi”. The numerical values keep changing for both the words. Similarly we have ‘Pooja’ or ‘Puja’, ‘Meenal’ or ‘Minal’, ‘Shreenath’ or ‘Shrinath’, ‘Dileep’ or ‘Dilip’. Same sounds, different scripts, different values. In Hindi its पूजा, मिनल, श्रीनाथ, दिलीप with same sound.

It’s not only for Indian names. Even English name like ‘Shawn,’ we write it as ‘Sean.’ Hansie Cronje, famous South African cricketer pronounced his name as “Hansie k-r-oh-ny-er.”  Now the effect of alphabet he used has no relation with sounds. We pronounce Lieutenant as Lew-teh-nant. Half of the times alphabets in English are silent.  So what happens when someone never writes anything in English or take no help of Latin Alphabets, not even his name. His fortune might never change?

Another doubt arises as to why we only add the value of the number or birth dates? Why there is no subtraction, multiplication or division. In mathematics everything is equally important, right? While calculating some lucky number from birth dates, we take Gregorian calendar as reference. What about different calendars and different dates in them. My birthday is 27^th February, 1989. So for calculation they take it as 27/02/1989, and do some arithmetic on it. What about number for Gautama Buddha who was said to be born on 8^th April, 563 BC. Do we take it as 08/04/-563???

In any system you talk of, the numerology doesn’t consider zero as number. It’s disappointing. Zero is a mystical number in itself. It’s different from all the other numbers. Mathematics is incomplete without zero. Apart from this, it’s the number invented by an Indian named Aryabhatta, so there is lot of Indianess attached to it. After an interaction with such doubts, few of my questions did get an answer, but few still remained as mystery.

Languages are primarily sounds. Just to preserve the language and sounds, scripts and text came into existences, is what I believe. Hence an alphabet can be used for different sounds, and different sounds can be made with same alphabets. Hence to give numerical value to an alphabet is limitedly true and not absolutely, is my belief. It’s just to bring a sense of positive vibe by changing name that eventually give rise to positive thoughts and to be joyful.

Numerology: A pseudoscience

It’s simply a device to convince your mind and have no direct relations with alphabets.  This might be the reason why many call it a belief or pseudoscience and not science as many questions are yet to be answered. I don’t know if changing the name changes fortune, but I surely know that changing the name on Governmental documents in India will surely make you rethink if you need to change your name.

99 for someone can be an incomplete century, but for others it can be the largest 2 digit number existing in its category. That is the variety of perceptions and energies one can have when it’s related to a number. I would surely like to know your feedback regarding numbering the alphabets, as till now the only co-relation what I could learn between them is the Roman series – where I is 1, V is 5, X is 10, L is 50, C is 100 and M is 1000. Cheers