Why 18?
18 books in Mahabharata
18 Chapters in Bhagavad Gita
18 Days the Mahabharata war lasted
18 Akshauhini Sena in the war
Above are just a few examples...........There are so many such incidences ie so many 18s, coincidence? Or is there a meaning to this?
You need to be a member of ISKCON Desire Tree | IDT to add comments!
Replies
This is unnecessary mental concoction, in my humble opinion. Total waste of time :))
You can take any number and can come up with a bunch of things.
No,it is not the waste of time; It is wise to know the fact about the use of number 18 in ancient time to compile Mahabharata epic.etc.
Hare Krishna!
Maybe from 1...to 9= one cycle. From 10...to 18 = next cycle. Actually those are not exactly a cycles, but full part of a spiral. And at least 2 9 are needed in order to form a segment of a spiral.
Hare Krishna, Hare Rama
In Katapayadi Sankya, a system about which you can read here: Katapayadi system - Wikipedia the number 18 (1 and 8) stand for the letters Jaya. That’s why Mahabharata is also known as Jaya. (Just as a matter of abundant caution. This Jaya means victory, and not the name—you mean whom I mean! :-))
This is explained by the stalwart Pauranika of ‘60s, Sengalipuram Anantharama Dikshidhar, whose discourses on Mahabharata were fortunately recorded and now available in CD form—in case you understand Tamil discourses.
Thank you,
Hare Krishna!
Other examples:
Krishna killed Kamsa at His age of 18,
Jarasandha attacked Krishna 18 times,
Sisupal was killed at his age 54 (18x3).