How To Chant On The Beads

To meditate using the beads, hold them in your right hand. Hold the first bead with your thumb and middle finger and chant the complete maha-mantra-Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Then go to the next bead, holding it with the same two fingers, and again chant the entire maha-mantra. Then go on to the next bead and then the next, continuing in this way until you have chanted on all 108 beads and have come again to the head bead. Do not chant on the head bead. Turn the beads around and chant on them in the opposite direction, one after another. By chanting on all 108 beads, from one side of the head bead to the other, you will have completed one "round."

Although there are no hard and fast rules for chanting, if possible one should try to chant sixteen rounds daily and also give up the four habits of materialistic life: (1) eating meat, fish and eggs, (2) taking intoxicants such as liquor, coffee, tea and cigarettes, (3) indulging in illicit sex (sex performed outside of marriage or with contraceptives) and (4) gambling. To gain the greatest benefit from chanting, one should also read a portion of Bhagavad-gita As It Is every day.