How many times we need to chant a mantra

Question: I recently was listening to some speeches regarding mantra usage. It was mentioned that any mantra should be repeated for at least 1 lakh time for it to work. Is it true? Pls throw some lights on it whenever you have time.

According to the Tantric texts, to attain Mantra Siddhi you have to repeat the Mantra a specified number of times. Normally the number of letters in the Mantra multiplied by a lakh (100,000). Another way we can put it is 100 rounds of a mala (of 108 beads) per letter. In doing a practice of counting the number of repetitions of the mala, 100 are counted as completed. The remaining are said to cover errors or omissions. The 8 are also said to be an offering to God and Guru. For example for Navakshari (Navarna) Mantra it is 9,00,000 times. Suppose you are doing purascharana of “Om Namah Shivaya”, then there are five syllables in the mantra, not counting Om. So you have to do five and a half lakhs (550,000) to complete the purascharana. Complete purascharana of Gayatri is twenty-four lakhs (24,00,000).

At every stage of mantra japa, blessings are received and a level of empowerment is achieved. Initially it seems a tedious task to chant the mantra, but as you start doing it regularly it takes over you and you start getting dissolved in its sweetness and energy.. The closer you get to completing one stage, the more the mantra pulls you towards its completion. You get power of achieving miracles once you do mantra Siddhi of a mantra and invoke its full power.

A Guru often passes a mantra whose Mantra siddhi he has achieved to his disciple which enables the disciple to invoke the mantra power instantaneously.

I find that in today’s hectic life a very practical solution is to get Pundits to do mantra siddhi for you and then you can use the mantra to receive blessings in everyday life by chanting it few times everyday.