How to Use Japa Mala: Premanand Maharaj's Way

The mala turned, but my mind was at the market

It happened one morning. The mala was in my hand, my thumb was moving the beads along, and my mind? My mind was adding up the day's shop accounts. The whole mala went around, and not once did the name reach my heart.

I think this happens to all of us. That is why people ask how to use japa mala the right way. Which finger, how many rounds, which direction. But that is not the real question. The real question is simpler: whose chant is this, the mala's or the name's?

Shri Premanand Ji Maharaj catches us right here. He does give a method, yet he never lets the method harden into a rulebook. The mala is only a support. The name is the real thing. Once that small point lands, your whole practice changes.

Is the mala the point, or the name?

The name is essential. The mala is its helper, not a condition you must meet. A japa mala has walked beside devotees for centuries because it keeps you from forgetting. Its job is that of a servant, not a master.

Maharaj Ji puts it very plainly:

"यहाँ तक पहुँचने के लिए बहुत बड़ा सपोर्ट है माला। इसे व्यर्थ न समझा जाए। अगर आपके हाथ में माला है, बात भी करना हुआ तो आपको लगेगा कि माला है, और बात करना बंद होगा।"

"The mala is a big support on this path. Do not treat it as pointless. If a mala is in your hand and you start to chatter, you will feel it there, and the chatter will stop."

Shri Premanand Ji Maharaj

Look at what the mala is actually for. It is not a counting machine. It is a reminder. If a mala sits in your hand and you drift into gossip, the next bead under your thumb nudges you: the name has slipped. That nudge is its real service.

So what about someone who has no mala? They chant anyway. The name depends on nothing. In the beginning the mala just holds the mind a little, and that is all it does.

How to use japa mala, the right way

The right way rests on three things. First, the name keeps moving on your tongue. Second, your heart stays connected to it. Third, it happens every day, without skipping a single one. The count serves these three. The count is not the destination.

Take the new seeker first. In the early days the mind runs everywhere, so a fixed rule holds it steady:

"हमें नियम के अनुसार जपना हो, इतनी माला जपना है, इतने मिनट जपना है, तो फिर मन को हम बाँध सकते हैं।"

"If we chant by a rule, so many malas, so many minutes, then we can hold the mind in place."

Shri Premanand Ji Maharaj

That is why he gave one devotee a rule of eleven malas. Five suit one person, fifty-one another. It rests on you and your day. Keep a rule, but do not turn the rule into God. Maharaj Ji corrects the common slip of treating the count itself as the goal:

"इन संख्याओं से कोई मतलब है? हमें तो हर समय भगवान में लगे रहना है। जो संख्या बताई गई वो मन लगाने के लिए बताई गई। संख्या तो कोई है नहीं, बात है।"

"Do these numbers really matter? We are meant to stay with God at all times. The number was given only to fix the mind. There is no number, there is only the connection."

Shri Premanand Ji Maharaj

And how does the name settle inside? When the tongue and the mind move together. The name on your tongue, and in your mind the form of the Lord or of your Guru. Maharaj Ji says the name should keep running on the tongue while that form stays in view. That together is the whole practice. Parroting is one thing. Joining the name is another.

As for the beads, the direction, the finger, that is our old tradition, and it is a good one, but it is not the whole story. The questions below explain it too. Hold this core point first, and the rest falls into place on its own.

How do you keep count: mala, fingers, or an app?

There are three honest ways to keep count, and all three are fine. A cotton or tulsi mala. Counting on the joints of your fingers. Or a japa counter app. Whichever one sits you down every day and keeps you on the name is the right one for you.

Let one thing be clear. Maharaj Ji does not count his own rounds:

"एक करोड़ हो गया है संख्या हमारी, हमें कोई दूसरा नहीं बताता। हम भी नहीं गिनते। प्रभु पर छोड़ा कि गिनने का काम आप करो, हम धुआँधार जपते हैं।"

"My count has crossed a crore, and no one keeps it for me. I do not count either. I left the counting to the Lord and simply chant without stopping."

Shri Premanand Ji Maharaj

So the count is like a staircase. Climb it at the start, and once the name flows on its own, the staircase falls away behind you. Until that day the count earns its place, because it keeps the practice daily and does not let it lapse.

Here is a real difficulty. When a cotton mala is in your hand and you chant while walking, talking, or working, the bead often slips and the count goes wrong. Many people give up chanting altogether over this small tangle. For them, a japa counter app is an honest support. It keeps counting even when the screen is off, so you can drop the worry about the number and stay on the name. The app does not replace the mala. It just makes the same job easier, reminding you and keeping the practice daily.

When the mind won't settle, sleep pulls at you, or the count slips

Keep chanting anyway. The mind not settling does not make the chant worthless. Perhaps the biggest misunderstanding in all of this is the belief that the fruit comes only once your focus is complete. Maharaj Ji pulls that fear out by the root.

One picture of his stays with you:

"हम रोटी खाएँ तो पेट भर जाएगा कि नहीं भर जाएगा? ऐसे ही हम नाम जप कर रहे हैं, ध्यान नहीं लग रहा, पर लाभ मिलेगा। भाव कुभाव अनख आलसहुँ, नाम जपत मंगल दिसि दसहुँ।"

"When we eat a roti, does the stomach fill or not? In the same way, we chant the name; the attention may not hold, yet the benefit still comes."

Shri Premanand Ji Maharaj

The stomach does not check whether you ate with full attention. It fills. The name works in just that way, even while the mind drifts here and there:

"यह चिंता मत करो कि मन विषय-चिंतन करता है तो नाम का फल नहीं मिलेगा। नहीं, वह अविनाशी फल देता है। वह अपना काम करेगा।"

"Do not worry that the name bears no fruit because the mind thinks of other things. No, it gives an imperishable fruit. It will do its work."

Shri Premanand Ji Maharaj

And the restlessness you feel early on is not bad news. His words here sound like they were made for people today:

"नाम पहले पापों को नष्ट करता है, इसलिए धैर्य रखो। हृदय जलेगा, मन नहीं लगेगा, गंदी बातें आएँगी। लगेगा पहले ऐसा नहीं आता था। नहीं आता था क्योंकि पहले स्टॉक जमा हो रहा था। अब नाम जप कर रहे हो, सब डिलीट हो रहा है।"

"The name first burns away old sins, so be patient. The heart will burn, the mind will resist, unclean thoughts will rise. You will think they never used to come. They did not, because earlier the stock was piling up. Now that you chant, it is all getting deleted."

Shri Premanand Ji Maharaj

Now a fear that troubles many. Yesterday a hundred names, today only fifty, could this be an offence against the name? On this Maharaj Ji is clear: among the ten offences that are named, a smaller count is simply not one of them. The saints say that some days the singing is little and some days it is vast. Do not lose heart, and do not go looking for another path.

But if the mind truly will not hold anywhere on some day, and nothing is coming together, do not force yourself into ugly thoughts:

"मन लग ही नहीं रहा, कहीं कुछ नहीं बन रहा, तो सो जाएँ। हम अपराध न करें।"

"If the mind will not settle at all, and nothing is working, then go to sleep. Let us not commit an offence."

Shri Premanand Ji Maharaj

Sleeping too is a kind of practice, if it saves you from an offence. Allowing that much is Maharaj Ji's kindness.

The real mala is showing up every day

One last point ties everything together. The right way is not one special posture or direction. The right way is that you stay with the name, every day.

"चलते-फिरते, उठते-बैठते, खाते-पीते, सोते-जागते, हर समय निरंतर नाम।"

"Walking, sitting, eating, drinking, sleeping, waking, the name goes on at every moment."

Shri Premanand Ji Maharaj

It sounds like a tall order, but the start is small. Maharaj Ji gives the example of a rope and a stone. For years a rope was drawn over the hard stone above a well, and in time a groove wore into the stone. Our mind is far softer than stone. Chant a little each day, and the mark will surely form.

This is what I settled on for myself: at least one mala every day, without skipping a single one. On the days the mind will not join, one mala still. I put my trust in the name, not in my own mind. That is the whole of it.

Radhe Radhe.

Related reading

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• Why the mind wanders during naam jap
• How to calm the mind with naam jap
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