What should I do if my japa mālā breaks, and can I use someone else’s mālā?

collect the beads and restring them; generally keep a personal mālā for your own japa, though a blessed gift from a guru or elder is welcome.

A breaking mālā worries many people, but it is not a bad omen — threads simply wear out with use. Gather all the beads, including the meru (the head bead), and restring them on clean cotton or silk thread with knots between beads, or have it done at a shop that strings rosaries. If beads are lost or cracked, replace them or keep the old ones respectfully and start a new mālā.

Most traditions treat a japa mālā as personal: it absorbs your practice, so it is not lent around casually. Many keep it in a cloth bag (gomukhī) and do not let it touch the floor. A mālā received from a guru, a parent or a holy place is a special blessing and is gladly used.

A mālā you wear as an ornament is usually kept separate from the one you use for counting japa. Old mālās that are no longer used can be kept in the mandir or placed under a sacred tree.

Keep the japa mālā in a gomukhī bag · Source: common japa tradition

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