Prayer Beads

Prayer beads are looped strands of wood, stone, berries, or glass beads that are used for chanting or recitation of prayers, hymns, or meditations. Practically, they allow the devotee to keep count of the repetition of prayer without losing focus on the prayer itself. Often prayer beads are held as sacred, and the number of beads relates to a tradition's theology: Muslim prayer beads—misbaha—for example, have 99 beads representing the 99 names of God.

Although the use of beads for religious practice is believed to have its earliest roots in India, the practice is global, and humanity has invariably tended toward iteration of prayers in repetition. Mainstream orthopraxy in Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism uses prayer beads, as do many new religious movements. On the Indian subcontinent, prayer beads, or japa mala, typically have 108 beads and are used by Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Hindus. For some, the base is mathematical—for example, the product of self powers of 1, 2, and 3 equals 108 (1 × 4 × 27); for others, it might relate to ideas such as Krishna's 108 consorts or the 108 Hindu Upanishads or all of the above; and for still others, chanting on prayer beads is not simply a method of keeping a spiritual score, it is the core practice of faith. The Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition is especially telling in its orientation toward mantra yoga and the use of prayer beads for meditation. The Gaudiyas craft their beads out of the sacred tulasi (“holy basil”). After reciting a round of 108 prayers, the practitioner arrives at the “Godhead” bead, which separates the smallest bead from the largest and is not supposed to be crossed; this is the marking point for a completed round of prayer, to start the next in the opposite direction.

This tradition shows reverence for the beads that is noteworthy: They are never placed on the floor, taken into the bathroom, or touched by the feet. If any such events occur, a devotee will touch the bag to the head to indicate penitence and respect for the sacred beads. Moreover, the beads themselves are characterized as living and requiring food, which takes the form of prayer. When a devotee has not chanted on the beads for a substantive time, the beads are said to be “fasting.” In the early Gaudiya tradition, initiates would strive to complete 64 rounds of japa mala a day, which amounts to about 8 hours of meditation. However, the number can be altered, as in ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), which cut the number to 16 rounds as the movement spread to the Americas and Europe.

Although using prayer beads is seen as a generally acceptable practice, there is also resistance. In Christianity, Catholics, Anglicans, and even Lutherans have rich traditions with rosaries. Yet this practice is not acceptable to Baptists or Presbyterians, who shun their use and, like the [Page 1025]Wahabbis do in Islam, even proactively encourage others to do the same.