Buying Prayer Beads in Little India

Buying Prayer Beads in Little India

Just got back from Little India on a prayer bead expedition.

Kris has got us all chanting mantras these last number of weeks and I have been using a necklace of wooden beads that had been around the neck of the Buddha in my bedroom… [that would be a great novel title... The Buddha in My Bedroom...]

But I err. These beads were not wood. Upon close inspection they turned out to be plastic. Each one identical right down to tiny blemishes. The Buddha in my bedroom who had been wearing these beads until now made it clear, in no uncertain terms… “Something’s gotta give here…”

My friend Serge told me he got a nice, functional mala in Little India, here in Toronto… Coxswell and Gerrard to be precise… He said it was tulsi wood and only about seven dollars. Serge does a couple of hours a day plus on mantras so he gives a mala a good workout. So a recommendation from him was meaningful.

So after a lovely coffee with Myrna and our new friend Leslie at the Bulldog Café, I headed off to Little India on the streetcar in search of prayer beads. This part of Toronto is a hodgepodge of stores and restaurants and clothing stores and a little of everything.

To give you an idea of the creative flux of this neighborhood, I ended up buying my malas from a very nice man who apologized for the name on the receipt he handed me… “Bridal Fashions for Her.” (never mind that the name on the store was “Kitchen Queen” and he had myriad aluminum cooking pots in graduated sizes on display in front of his shop.

His charming little shop had a lot of things in it but no bridal fashions for anybody were visible amongst the shelves of brass elephants and dancing goddesses and the stacks of incense in front of the checkout, the latter filling the long, narrow space with indescribable scents and aromas that somehow insinuated a lovely, resonant dimension into the experience.

Anyway, I bought two malas. Perhaps I should elaborate that a mala is a strings of 108 beads with a larger ‘guru bead’ and a little tassle hanging off. (see pics) They have been used from time immemorial as aids to chanting in Hindu, Buddhist and many other belief systems.

They are used for counting many repetitions of a mantra given to you by your guru – in this case Kris is the ‘guru’, I guess – since he is the one giving us the chants, and it is he/them who have been such a startling source of inspiration for lo these many years…

I like that both of these malas are made of seeds. One of the words in my current chant, ‘beej’ means seed in Sanskrit. A literal seed is a perfect material manifestation for each repetition of your mantra. What else are you doing but planting seeds in consciousness?

The Lotus Seed mala is particularly attractive to me because of my history with lotus imagery. Let us not forget Kris’ “The Lotus Mind” workshop of great fame and repute.

The beads I bought today were ‘five-faced’ Rudraksha seeds, a point the proprietor and I discussed in some depth, [with frequent reference to a book he showed me that had more information about Rudraksha seed than any rational person would ever even attempt to dream of... ]

When I decided to follow his advice and get the Rudraksha mala, he said he was going to show me something very special. He ordered his young daughter who was at the front of the store, to go into the back and get something.

As she found what he wanted with much shouting back and forth, he pulled from some little drawer a silk pouch and he opened it reverentially and pulled out this huge seed with 21 faces. This extremely rare object was greatly revered as a physical expression somehow of the Divine Shiva himself!

“How much is this?” he asked unbidden, motioning reverentially towards the huge seed in my hands which I was examining with very evident satisfaction through the magnifying glass he had provided me with.

He looked down. “You don’t want to ask!” with a small smile.

So I didn’t ask… and truth be told the actual dollar value had not occurred to me as worthy of enquiring about, but this didn’t dampen my pleasure in getting my two new malas (or is it ‘mali’…?)

I was reading on the net… if you are starting a new mantra… get a new mala. The reason is that by chanting a bagillion times we ‘infect’ the beads of a particular mala with the energy of that particular chant, as it is channeled through ourselves at that particular time in our lives, and through our very hands and fingers, no less, over a cycle of thousands upon thousands of heartfelt (hopefully) expressions. [we couldn’t possibly dream of a better way to magnetize something to our vibe, than this ancient and enduring process...]

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And just FYI – following is some stuff I picked up on the web…

Lotus Seed Mala

5-Faced Rudraksha Seed Mala

Rudraksha Japa Mala

Hindu Japa malas are usually worn around the neck when not in use. Rudraksha are used to recite mantras, holding the mala with the right hand. Hindu Style malas are usually made from Sandalwood, Seeds or Rudraksha beads.

Five Face Rudraksha
Product Code: CSR05

Five faces is the most commonly available rudraksha. Rudra himself blesses this rudraksha which embraces the energies that are useful for maintenance of Health. Once the nature of human Kama (Lust), Lopa (Greed), Mooha (Attachment), Krodha (Jealousy), and Ahankar (Unwanted Ego) is rectified, we attain the sound health. This is achieved by the use of five face rudraksha. Wearing in the mala of 54+1 or 108+1 in the collar is highly beneficial for people with heart diseases, blood pressure, stress, anxiety, eczema, gastric ulcer etc.
Ruling Planet: Jupiter
Mantra: Om Namaha Shivaya

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Benefits of Rudraksha Japa Mala
Rudraksha, Rudraksha Rosary, Rudraksha Japa Mala, Rudraksha Beads, Rudraksha Beads, Rudraksha from India

Rudraksha is very sacred bead which is credited with many mystical and divine properties. It also possesses number of healing and curative properties hence it is widely used in traditional healing system. Rudraksha emitted electro magnetic waves that provide it amazing spiritual as well as medicinal powers. It is amass of shakti (energy) and helps to rise Kundalini. Rudraksha also open the heart charka, helps to lower blood pressure and creates stability within the entire system. Hence, Rudraksha mala is always considered good for meditation and protection.

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