The number your grandmother never explained
You have held a mala. You know it has 108 beads. You were probably told to count each one as you repeat your mantra, and you did, and you never asked why 108. Not 100, which would be round. Not 1000, which would feel grand. 108, an odd, specific, slightly awkward number that appears in every corner of Hindu sacred life with a frequency that eventually stops feeling like coincidence.
