Japamala
A Japamala is a collection of prayer beads commonly usually used by the Hindus, while doing meditation or worshipping the god. Japamala would be in the form of Tulasi Mala or Rudraksha Mala. Ancient sages and saints used this Mala in order to attain liberation. The main purpose of using Japamala at the time of performing meditation is whenever we count the number of the beads contains in the Japamala, our mind would be involved in that only, and we would be interested to do Japa (meditation) for a long period of time.
Most of the people who use Japamala would chant the names of the deities and they would count the number of beads in their hand. For one count of the bead, one of the names of the gods and goddesses would be recited. This type of practice is followed since ancient times, in order to generate more bhakti on the almighty.There would be usually 108 beads in the Japamala, and in some Japamala, there would be more than 1000 beads also. While using Japamala, various mantras of the deities also would be chanted.
At this present period of life, it is a must for us to use the Japamala while observing fasting and while doing meditation. Japamala is made out of Tulasi wood, and it contains its own spiritual significance. The great child devotee Prahlada used to perform penance on Lord Narasimha by using Japamala, and still at his present avatar of Guru Raghavendra, he is using the Japamala by chanting the names of Lord Rama and other holy avatars of Lord Vishnu, for several hundreds of years.
People belonging to other religions are also using Japamala in order to get spiritual energy. Japamala boosts our energy, cleanse our mind, and chases the negative and evil thoughts from us. Nowadays lot of puja shops are offering good Japamalas at reasonable rates, and those who require, can approach the shops either directly or they can purchase through online also.
“OM”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR