Many people have already heard of Malas or Mala beads, which are a string of unique beads which individuals can use for meditation so they can easily keep track of their mantras or breathing. If you are a regular meditation practice or would like to improve your meditation practice, you can use Malas to ground your meditation method and make it better. As you recite your mantra, you can touch each bead of the Mala so you can trace where you are going until you reach the guru bead or central bead. Some people also use it for divination. You also have the option to choose Mala necklaces, bracelets, or Mala rings.
If you would like to enhance your spiritual and devotional practice and become calmer and more centered, then a Mala is definitely for you. But there are definite ways you can use your Mala ring. Here’s everything you need to know about Mala rings – and how you can use them.
Using your Mala ring
There are three ways you can use your Mala ring, as follows:
- First, you should identify the Mala ring’s guru bead. This guru bead (also known as the ‘mountain bead’) will often hang perpendicularly to the beads you use for counting. You can use the guru bead or central bead as a place where you can rest your fingers while you are concentrating during meditation or devotion and reciting a mantra. The guru bead can also be connected to a special tassel which is made from a different material compared to the other beads (the counting beads). Simply put, you can use the guru bead as a marker from where you begin your meditation to where you end your meditation.
- Some people who are just starting out in meditation also have an important question: which hand should they place their Mala ring on? Most devotees place their Mala ring on their right hand since the right hand is where Malas are traditionally placed in some cultures. Perhaps the prime reason for this is that the left hand is seen as ‘impure’. But you can place your mala on either your right or left hand, depending on how you want to use it or your preference. If you want, you can learn more about the tradition you practice so you will be sure about where you should put your Mala ring.
- Now the next question is pretty basic as well: on which finger should you wear the Mala ring? Once you have chosen the hand on which to wear your Mala, the best answer to which finger to place it on is the third finger or the ring finger. In many traditions, such as Buddhism, the third finger or ring finger has a symbolic meaning. In Hinduism, on the other hand, the Mala ring is often placed by wearers on any finger, as long as they don’t wear it on their index finger. But in the yogic meditation of Kundalini, it is believed that every finger has a corresponding quality. For instance, a person’s index finger stands for wisdom and knowledge as well as prosperity and good fortune, while the middle finger stands for patience. The ring finger, meanwhile, symbolizes vitality and health and the strengthening of the nervous system, while the little finger or pinky finger stands for communication and intelligence.
At the end of the day, you can essentially place your Mala ring anywhere on your hand, but this may depend on the particular tradition you would like to follow. Mala rings usually have 18 beads on them, and if you go around the Mala ring a total of six times, you will have reached the propitious number 108.
