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Saturday, July 26, 2025

Importance of the rosary in Hinduism

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12 days ago
20250714
Vijay Maharaj

Vijay Maharaj

A rosary – a string of beads put to­geth­er – to keep count of the num­ber of times a per­son has re­peat­ed a mantra, is an im­por­tant prayer item in most Hin­du homes. Com­mon­ly re­ferred to as a mala, it typ­i­cal­ly has 108 beads. The source of the beads could be rudraksh (seeds of the tree, Ut­tra­sum Bead Tree), tul­si (the gar­den of Lord Vish­nu), coloured glass, pearls or even pre­cious or se­mi-pre­cious gems. A rosary made of rudraksh is con­sid­ered best. Rudraksh pos­sess­es ger­mi­cide and mag­net­ic qual­i­ties.

Some 108 beads are stringed to­geth­er to make a rosary be­cause it is re­lat­ed to the fre­quen­cy of our breath. In 24 hours, one breathes 21,600 times. Twelve hours are spent in the dai­ly rou­tine. That leaves us 12 hours of de­vo­tion to God. This means that each day, 10,800 times breath­ing should be utilised for de­vo­tion to God. How­ev­er, since this is not prac­ti­cal, the two ze­roes have been re­moved. There­fore, breath­ing 108 times is ap­pro­pri­ate dur­ing prayers.

An­oth­er ex­pla­na­tion per­tains to the sun. In re­la­tion to the Earth, in one year the move­ment be­tween the sun and the Earth is 216,000 de­grees. Since for six months the north­ern part of the Earth faces the sun, and for the next six months the south­ern part faces the sun, the num­ber is re­duced to half, that is, 108,000 de­grees. When three ze­roes are omit­ted, the re­main­der is 108. Each of the 108 beads in the rosary is sym­bol­ic of each de­gree of the change.

The third ex­pla­na­tion is based up­on as­trol­o­gy. The en­tire uni­verse is di­vid­ed in­to 12 seg­ments. Each rep­re­sents a sign of the zo­di­ac. In Hin­du re­li­gious texts, there are prin­ci­pal­ly Nav­grah (nine plan­ets) that af­fect us. With 12 seg­ments and nine plan­ets, when the two are mul­ti­plied we get the fig­ure 108. There­fore, the num­ber 108 rep­re­sents the uni­verse and con­trols our suc­cess.

The use of a rosary en­ables one to keep count of the num­ber of times a mantra or prayer has been re­peat­ed. Each rosary de­notes 108 times. On the top of each rosary, there is a big­ger bead called Someru – a name de­rived from a moun­tain of the same name that al­le­gor­i­cal­ly rep­re­sents be­ing com­posed of gold and gems. This moun­tain is ac­cord­ed a cov­et­ed po­si­tion in the uni­verse. The same cov­et­ed po­si­tion is ac­cord­ed to the Someru in a rosary.

One be­gins us­ing the rosary from the Someru, and when one reach­es it again on com­plet­ing one round of the rosary, one re­vers­es the rosary and con­tin­ues pray­ing, mov­ing one bead at a time. Ir­re­spec­tive of the num­ber of times the rosary is ro­tat­ed, one does not cross the Someru. Each time one reach­es the Someru af­ter com­plet­ing one round of the rosary, one must think rev­er­ent­ly of the God to whom prayers are be­ing of­fered. At this point, the Someru is brought in con­tact with the fore­head with the same rev­er­ence of­fered to God.

In the Shiv­pu­ran, Pan­chak­shar Mantra, it is said that when us­ing a rosary, if one us­es the thumb, one achieves sal­va­tion. If one us­es the fore­fin­ger, it en­ables the con­quest of foes. When one us­es the mid­dle fin­ger, pros­per­i­ty is achieved. By us­ing the ring fin­ger, one finds peace.

A rosary with 108 beads is the best. One with 100 beads is good. One with 50 beads is mod­er­ate.

Be­sides be­ing ac­knowl­edged as an im­por­tant ac­ces­so­ry in prayer, a rosary made of beads of rudraksh, tul­si and oth­er di­vine gifts of na­ture is use­ful when worn around the neck or oth­er parts of the body. Dur­ing prayer, the use of the tongue, the vo­cal cords and the lar­ynx are un­der greater stress than in nor­mal use. Their con­tin­ued use can cause prob­lems per­tain­ing to the throat and the ad­join­ing glands. Use of a rosary around the neck helps aid in solv­ing these prob­lems.

Rudraksh beads come in many forms. They could be any­thing from one to 14-faced. Their ef­fec­tive­ness varies with qual­i­ty. It is cus­tom­ary to use a 26-bead rosary around the head, one with 50 beads near the heart, and one with 16 beads around the arm. One with 12 beads can be used as a wrist­band. It is be­lieved that wear­ing a 108-bead rosary around the neck en­sures ful­fil­ment and suc­cess.

One should wear a rudraksh rosary with de­vo­tion, as di­rect­ed in re­li­gious texts. This helps one grow spir­i­tu­al­ly, be­come free of world­ly ob­sta­cles and prob­lems, ben­e­fits the mind and heart, keeps blood pres­sure with­in con­trol, ban­ish­es imag­i­nary fears, en­sures men­tal peace, calms and bal­ances the flow of bile, and pro­tects the wear­er from sud­den death.


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