Direction of Worship of Mantra The person shall take bath, and sit in a comfortable position in a clean place. He shall mediate on the Ishat Dev with his heart. He should sit face north or east, with concentration of the mind, purifies the five principles by means of rituals.

He shall perform the mantra and make his body worthy and pure, and mediate on the Lord. Then he shall perform the Japa of the five-syllable mantra. The rosary contains 108 beads is the most excellent. The 100 beads is excellent and 50 beads is good but the one with 54 beads is very good.

A rosary contains 30 beads of Rudraksha for the Japa gives wealth. A rosary containing 27 beads of Rudraksha give good health and vitally. A rosary of 25 beads gives salvation.

The Use of the hand and fingers: The use of the thumb in counting the number of mantras gives salvation. The use of the index finger destroys enemies. The middle finger bestows wealth. The ring finger brings calmness and peace. The use of the index and little finger in the Japa shall be avoided as this is said to be for Maya or ego.

The Japa shall be performed by means of the thumb in contact with other fingers as required excepting the use of first finger. The Japa performed in the holy places and temple is more fruitful. Japa performed in the presence of the Sun, fire, Moon, lamp, water, and one’s Ishata Deva is to be desired. The south position gives the result of the black magic.  The west position gives riches and the north is mainly for the peace. The desired sitting position is east.

• One should never perform Japa with the turban on, or wearing Armour, in the nude, or with the hair not combed, or the neck covered, or without the Pavitra in the hand or while impure or while lamenting. While performing Japa the following must be avoided- anger, drinks, sneezing, spitting, yawning etc.

• One should not perform Japa without a seat to sit on nor shall it be performed lying down, or standing up and walking. One shall not perform Japa in the open street or in an inauspicious place or in darkness.

• Japa shall not be performed when one is worried. If one is competent one shall perform many Japas. Weak persons shall perform Japa according to one’s capacity.

• A person of good conduct, performing Japa and meditating purely attains welfare. Good conduct is the greatest virtue. It is the greatest wealth, knowledge and the greatest goal. Faith is the conviction that happiness and misery are attained by means of good and evil deeds hereafter too just as in this world.

• In the case of this mantra, the auspicious hour, date, star, day of the week etc. need not be taken into consideration too much. And this mantra shall not be used for the trivial benefits or against opponents.

• Thus the Lord Shiva himself for the benefit of the worlds explained the mode of repeating this mantra of five syllables. He who glorifies this with devotion or listens to it with a pious mind is liberated from all sins and attains the greatest goal

• "AUM NAMAH SIVAYA". The Mala should not be visible to you or others. Cover it with a towel or Cloth, which must be pure and washed daily OR AT LEAST WEEKLY. Do not cross the head of the Mala while rolling the beads of the Mala.  

Turn when you finish one Mala. Hold the Mala in your right hand, hanging it over the three fingers, the middle finger, ring finger and the little finger. Count the beads by pushing them one by one by the Thumb and the middle finger, but as a rule, the index finger is avoided in chant. The reason is that index finger represents the individual ego which differentiates.

Take bath before commencement of chant. If due to climatically conditions or other reasons, one cannot have a bath, one can simply wash hand and feet. Wear white clothes if possible.

Sit in a posture and lit incenses; close the eyes and meditate in between eyebrows (Bhru Madhya), or the hearts lotus (Heart Padma) or the thousand-petal lotus (Sahasrara Chakra). One can meditate on light (Jyoti) or on a sound (Nada).

Number of Mantras to be chanted at a stroke.

Generally any one particular Mantra can be repeated for 11 times or 108 times or multiple of 108 or 1008 times or 10008 times or 100008 times. Once you start chanting a Mantra for any of the times mentioned above, you couldn’t decrease the number in the subsequent times/days, but you can always increase the number as per your convenience.

Initially you can have a session of 15 minutes and slowly increase the intervals as also from one time to two or three times a day, if you wish.

Direction for chant: The sadhaka or the chanter should sit facing either the East or the North, if chanting is during day sit facing East and facing North if chanting is at nights.