It's in the bag?

[c.smith]

Hari Om!

My query is multifaceted at best, but am wondering why a mala must be covered whilst doing japa. I understand that keeping beads in a bag help to keep them clean, etc but I personally prefer to chant without the covering. Is this inauspicious or forbidden in some way? Do the scriptures give and guidance here?

Part of my difficulty lies in the fact that the beads get tangled up in a bag while chanting and this makes meditation near impossible.

Of note, a pandit told me that beads are covered because japa is between the seeker and god. I agree but had never thought of japa coming from a place of ego. The only place aside from my own home that I would do japa would be in the mandir in the same manner of having beads uncovered until hearing this. Now I don't chant in mandir with beads due to the reasons listed above. I would however like to spend more time in the temple taking darshan of the gods and doing japa at the same time. The beads have always been a great meditative tool.

Thank you in advance for what may seem like a trivial query but is important to me.

Om

[Ram11]

Hari Om!

My query is multifaceted at best, but am wondering why a mala must be covered whilst doing japa. I understand that keeping beads in a bag help to keep them clean, etc but I personally prefer to chant without the covering. Is this inauspicious or forbidden in some way? Do the scriptures give and guidance here?

Part of my difficulty lies in the fact that the beads get tangled up in a bag while chanting and this makes meditation near impossible.

Of note, a pandit told me that beads are covered because japa is between the seeker and god. I agree but had never thought of japa coming from a place of ego. The only place aside from my own home that I would do japa would be in the mandir in the same manner of having beads uncovered until hearing this. Now I don't chant in mandir with beads due to the reasons listed above. I would however like to spend more time in the temple taking darshan of the gods and doing japa at the same time. The beads have always been a great meditative tool.

Thank you in advance for what may seem like a trivial query but is important to me.

Om

Namaste Ji,

I can understand what you feel yet I would suggest that it is good to do as suggested by Panditji.What he said is true,it is a personal relation.

[brahma jijnasa]

Namaste c.smith

Gaudiya vaishnavas have a great book that provides detailed instructions on many matters concerning the practice of spiritual life, including chanting of mantras, performing japa, ... etc, it's called Hari-bhakti-vilasa, written in the 16th century.
I suggest you to read here a detailed description of the contents of the book volume by volume: http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/d...lation-IDG275/

The book has five volumes, 20 vilasas, Rasbiharilal & Sons, Translation into English by Bhumipati Das, edited by Purnaprajna Das.
All five volumes: http://www.exoticindiaart.com/find.p..._submit=Search

Here also: http://blservices.com/books/previous...na-goswami?p=1

I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to learn all this spiritual matters because the book is written in a very scholarly and elaborated fashion and elaborates on each topic with a lot of quotes from various scriptures, Tantras, Agamas, Puranas, Upanishads, etc., indeed a plenty of quotations. Even those who are not Vaishnavas can learn a lot from this book because the authors did not quote selectively, so that they quoted from many Shaiva scriptures also.

During japa it is important to keep beads in a bag as it is prescribed so in the scriptures. If your bag is too small, supply a larger one.
Here is a quote about it from the 2nd vilasa: http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/foru...pa-mala-bag-or

Here are some quotations regarding the chanting of japa from the 17th vilasa: http://www.salagram.net/Japa1.htm

Much more about all that you'll find in the book because on the web there are just some excerpts from the book.



regards