God of Numbers

Have you ever wondered how difficult, complex and chaotic our life would have been without Numbers? Or can you imagine a world without Numbers? Indeed, our existence inimitably dependent upon Numbers and our society would never have developed without it.

The scientific developments and the technological advances upon which the entire civilization is built depend upon mathematics, which in turn depends upon numbers. But how these numbers came first into existence? who created Numbers? Did God create Numbers?

The origin of Numbers is cloaked with mystery. Some archaeologists believe, far before the civilization the cavemen use to communicate by their drawings on the rocks. However, numbers and counting, didn’t truly come into being until the rise of cities, which had begun about 4,000 BC in Sumeria, one of the earliest civilizations.

Though in the year 1960 the archaeologists found a bone in the region of Africa, known as Ishango Bone which is a Fibula of a Baboon. There are lines cut into the bone. They believe the lines were tally marks to keep track of something. Later on, the Egyptians needed accurate measurement to build Pyramid, Temples, Canals etc. therefore, around 3,000 BC, the number One became used as a unit of measurement to measure length.

According to Pythagoras whole Universe could be understood in terms of Numbers. in Mathematics numbers are considered to be the very fundamental elements. He says number alone possessed stability of relationship. According to him number is the essence and basis of all things. If we carefully observe we will find everything which exists in the universe follow a numerical order.

The living beings, Art, Music, business even the Nature is very closely dependent upon the numerical order. The entire Nature can be described mathematically. There is an order, pattern and symmetry that surrounding us.

It is very interesting to see that the petals of every flower follow a mathematical series, known as Fibonacci series. Bee hives have a particular geometrical shape which is hexagonal. When many bubbles get pushed together on the surface of water, they also take the shape of hexagons.

It is amazing to see how the spiders are able to weave their webs of the shape of circle with near-equal-distanced radical supports. Human beings always looked at the nature in search of patterns. Looking at the stars a pattern was discovered we call it ‘constellation’. Even coming to believe that they control our destiny, we watch day turns to night and back to day, and seasons as they come and go, we call that pattern ‘Time’. We see symmetrical pattern in human body and tiger’s stripes too.

Music is an art and a form of expressing emotions through particular variation of frequencies. The entire field of Music dependents upon counting, rhythm, scales, intervals, patterns, harmonies and pitch. Number plays a vital role in musical notation. The sensitivity of sound itself is connected to the logic of our human brain. Each step of Music follows the mathematical calculation.

Number 1 plays a significant role in the field of numeric. Number 1 considered to be the basis of all other integers since all the other numbers can be generated by either adding up or subtracting from 1. For an example 1+1=2, 1+1+1=3 while continuing the process we can obtain the complete series. The fundamental teaching of Sikhism is ‘Ek Onkar’ means there is only one Supreme, from which everything came into existence. The Rig-Veda, the oldest existing scripture of mankind, points out that truth is one, and men call it by various names.

Similarly, number 7 has its own importance and is more prevalent in nature. 7 is the number of completeness and perfection. In music each Octave has seven notes (Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do). Colour white is made up of Seven different colours (VIBGYOR). Human skin consists of his seven layers, each of which has a specific function. It took God seven days to create the entire universe, mentioned in the Bible.

Thus, we have observed that how numbers are inseparable from the things, exist in the universe, and how it is connected to human life. “Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the universe,” said Galileo Galilei. Certainly, he was trying to express an understanding of how mathematics is fundamental to our very existence.

Mathematics is a Language that describes, illustrates and also expresses the intricacies of everything in life around us. That’s why mathematics is called ‘the language of God’. Famous mathematician Ramanujam once said, there is nothing in the universe which couldn't be represented by numbers. Without numbers our life will be like a boat lost in the midst of infinite ocean.