Why Chanting Malas Should Have 108 Beads?

Hindu mala or rosary generally entails around 108 beads including the merubead. In few sects but the numbers of beads the quantity of beads differs, for example in Shaiva sect the mala has thirty-two beads. As per few holy texts the mala must have just nine beads and one must count 108 with twelve of its turns. The alphabet mala is made of Rudraksha beads. It is made of fifty-one alphabets of Devanagari script like ‘a’ to ‘ksh’. In this ‘a’ to ‘l’ are measured on the usual beads and ‘ksh’ on merubead. While chanting by this, 1^st you start in natural order by ‘a’ to ‘l’ and then after from ‘/’ to ‘a’.

Why chanting of mala should have 108 beads?

Anger, attachment, greed, desire, envy, and pride are the 6 enemies or defects of the soul. Frequently more than one defect is dominant at one time. Rarely even 2 defects can be leading. Hence one originates 6 variations of defect, for example desire-anger, instance desire, desire-envy, desire-pride, desire-attachment, and desire-greed etc. hence by the 6 defects, 36 variations are gained. These 36 permutations have either raja, or tama, or sattva as their main component, for example desire-anger-raja, desire-anger-sattva, and desire-anger-tama. Hence, 36x3=108 variations are gained. Each bead in the mala is a representative of such kind of permutation. The merubead manages its separate existence despite of being with rest. Hence lastly the mala entails 109 beads.