Dear Khalsa Ji,

Numbers are all created by we humans for the needs of our lives. It has nothing spiritual in it. However, ancient scripture of our land considers 108 as a spiritually important number along with other numbers which Gyani Ji have spoken of in his post. As for as Sikhi is concerned this number has no special meaning in spiritual domain.

Mala also has nothing to do with spirituality. Yet it is a tool to stablise the mind and its thought process. Moving the beats is the minimum mechanical work needed to hold mind on Jaap. As one makes progress, this tool is no longer meeded. The individual by that time has stablised her or his mind. The mechanical work them gets limited to utterence of Jaap. With progress this utternce too stops and the individual does the Jaap mentally. In the final stage the Jaap too stops, the individual remains in rememberance of 'The sat' without Jaap, this is referred too as Ajaapa Jaap. Further progress takes the y the individual into Samadhi which the end of this long process.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-sikhi-sikhism/1771-108-mala-beads.html
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=1771

So one can see all these are means and not the end. The goal is Samadhi.

With love and respect for all.

Amarpal Singh