Navagraha beej mantras in English

Day, hour, direction, and count

Manuals differ on the compass point for a few of the nine. The directions above follow the Vastu graha-dik. The temple navagraha mandala arranges the murtis differently, which is a statement about the shrine rather than about your japa. Where you are unsure, the older and more general rule holds: sit facing east or north.

On the counts. The 108 is one mala and is not in dispute anywhere. The anushthana totals are, and honestly so. The first number in each row is the line the Mantra-mahodadhi carries and most North Indian household manuals repeat. The second is the japa sankhya a South Indian temple works to when it performs graha japam on your behalf, and it differs on six of the nine. Neither is a corruption of the other. If your family or your temple keeps one of them, keep theirs.

How to chant a beej mantra

Bathe first if you can, and sit at the same time each day. The hour listed against the graha is the traditional one, but a practice you actually keep at seven every morning beats a perfectly timed one you manage twice a week. Sit facing the direction in the table, or east if you would rather not think about it.

Say the sankalpa before you begin. That is one sentence, spoken aloud or held in the mind, naming what you are doing and for how long. Forty days is the standard commitment for an anushthana and it is long enough to notice something and short enough to finish.

Then one mala, 108 repetitions, counted on the beads so the mind is not holding a number. Keep the volume low. The mantra should be audible to you and to nobody else, which the texts call upamshu japa and which is the recommended register for householders. When you finish the mala, sit for a minute before you get up.

Two things worth being plain about. Do not run remedies for several grahas at once, because you will not be able to tell what is working. And nothing about a beej mantra is dangerous if you mispronounce it while you are learning. The scare copy attached to these mantras online is a sales device.

Common questions

What is a beej mantra?

Beej means seed. A beej mantra is the shortest form a mantra can take, one or two syllables that carry the sound-signature of a deity or a graha without any surrounding sentence. The navagraha beej mantras follow a fixed shape: om, three seed syllables in the aa-ee-au sequence, the syllable sah, the graha name in the dative case, and namaha. Once you have chanted one you can predict the shape of the other eight.

Can I chant a beej mantra if I cannot read Devanagari?

Yes. Sound is what a mantra is made of, not script. The transliterations on this page are written for an English reader rather than for a Sanskritist, so read them as printed and take the pronunciation line seriously, particularly the aspirated consonants bh, dh and kh where the breath is part of the letter. If you can, listen to someone chant it once before you begin.

How many times should I chant a beej mantra?

One mala, 108 repetitions, is the daily practice and no source disputes it. The larger totals are for an anushthana, a completed undertaking, usually finished inside forty days. Those totals differ between the North Indian manuals and the South Indian temple japa sankhya, and both sets are given here rather than one being passed off as the only number.

Which beej mantra should I chant?

The one for the graha that is under pressure in your own chart, which is a chart question rather than a lookup. A Sun in the sixth house and a Sun running its Mahadasha ask for the same mantra for different reasons, and a chart with a clean Sun does not need it at all. Generate a free kundali and ask on the chart itself.

What time of day should I chant?

On the weekday the graha rules, at the hour listed against it in the table. Sunrise for Surya and Mangal, mid-morning for Budha and Guru, after sunset for Chandra and Shani. Consistency matters more than precision here. The same time every day for forty days does more than a perfectly timed session once.

Do I need a mala or a guru to start?

A mala helps because it keeps the count without the mind having to hold a number, and 108 beads is the standard. A teacher matters most for pronunciation, which is the part a written page cannot fully carry. Neither is a gate on starting. Sit at the same time each day, chant one mala, and correct the pronunciation as you learn it.