The act of passing the beads through your fingers while focusing on each breath or each mantra provides the opportunity to reawaken each time a new bead crosses the fingertips. It is a tactile reminder that you are here, participating in this moment, breathing and honoring each second of life as it passes through you.

§   Keep the index finger and thumb spread so that they are perpendicular to each other. Thus, index finger points away from you and thumb points up.

§   Make a group of rest of the three fingers and bring them together to make them perpendicular to the index finger. The group of fingers point towards left.

§   Place the mala on the middle finger while keeping the index finger pointing away from you. This is indicate and feel that our ego going away from us during chanting.  Also, index finger symbolizes our ego. So, we need to ensure it does not touch any bead. In other words, we must park our ego separately during meditation.

§   Start chanting the mantra from bead next to the Guru bead, i.e. starting bead is above the Guru bead so that the Guru bead is not crossed.

§ Continue chanting the mantra for each bead till you reach the Guru bead.

§ When the Guru bead is reached, mala should be turned around to start the next cycle of chanting from the last bead(108th). As a matter of respect to the Guru, while counting the beads, Guru bead should never be crossed. Also, remember that the movement of beads should always be towards you, to invite the auspicious Divine Energy into you.

§ It is recommended to use specially shaped cloth bag called  gomukhi(means ear of cow)  to keep the mala while chanting. This ensures that mala is concealed so that others cannot see the mala while chanting. As per traditional experience, showing the mala to others reduces the energy acquired by chanting.