Navarna Mantra for Navratri 2026:
Meaning, and How to Chant It 108 Times, Together

The Navarna Mantra in five numbers

The mantra, and what it means

ॐ ऐं ह्रीं क्लीं चामुण्डायै विच्चे

om aim hreem kleem chamundayai vichche

O Divine Mother, who manifests as wisdom (Mahasaraswati), prosperity (Mahalaxmi), and power (Mahakali); O Chamunda, destroyer of negative tendencies, untie the knots of my ignorance and liberate my mind.

Navarna means nine letters — nava, nine, and arna, letter. After Om, the mantra is nine syllables: ऐं ह्रीं क्लीं चा मु ण्डा यै वि च्चे. It holds the three forms of the Mother in three seed syllables, names her as Chamunda, and ends in a single word of prayer.

Six words, one prayer

Read across, the six words are the meaning above, said in the order the mantra says it: the three Mothers, then her name, then what is asked of her.

• ॐOm

  The primordial sound with which every mantra opens.

• ऐंAim

  The seed of Mahasaraswati — the Mother as wisdom.

• ह्रींHreem

  The seed of Mahalakshmi — the Mother as prosperity.

• क्लींKleem

  The seed of Mahakali — the Mother as power.

• चामुण्डायैChamundayai

  To Chamunda, destroyer of negative tendencies.

• विच्चेVichche

  The prayer itself: untie the knots of my ignorance, and liberate my mind.

How to pronounce the Navarna Mantra

Listen to the recording once or twice before you chant along. Each of the three seed syllables closes on a soft hum — the dot written above the letter, the anusvara — rather than on a hard m.

• Om

  A long, open o closing into a hum — ommm.

• Aim

  Like the English word I’m, ending on a soft hum.

• Hreem

  A breathed h straight into reem, the ee held long.

• Kleem

  Kleem, the ee long, closing on the same hum.

• Chamundayai

  Chaa-mun-daa-yai: the two long aas carry it.

• Vichche

  Vich-che: the ch doubled, a small catch before the last syllable.

Where the mantra comes from

The Durga Saptashati — also called the Devi Mahatmya or Chandi Path — is the text of Navratri: seven hundred verses in thirteen chapters, read through the nine nights in temples and homes. The Navarna Mantra is chanted alongside it, and its three seeds follow the text’s own shape. The Saptashati falls into three parts, each presided over by one form of the Mother:

Chamunda gets her name in the seventh chapter. Sent against the Devi by Shumbha and Nishumbha, the generals Chanda and Munda are met by a fierce form who springs from her brow; when she lays them both down, the Devi names her Chamunda — she who ended Chanda and Munda. That is the form the mantra addresses: the Mother as the end of what holds the mind in knots.

How to join, and how to chant 108 times a day

108 — one mala — is the standard daily count. Sit at the same hour each day if you can, before the kalash if you have set one up on Ghatasthapana.

1. 01

   Join

   Open mantrarepeater.com on your phone or your computer and open Navratri Sankalp (you will find it under Sankalp). Tap Join. Joining is free and it works in the browser; nothing to install.

2. 02

   Choose your daily count

   Ek Mala is 108 a day. Madhyam is 324, three malas. Purna Anushthana is 1,100. Pick the one you can keep for all ten days rather than the one that sounds best on the first.

3. 03

   Begin chanting

   Press Begin chanting and the mantra starts. It repeats on its own and you do not have to keep count. Sit before the kalash or the Devi’s picture, hold your mala, or simply close your eyes.

4. 04

   Watch it join everyone's

   The big number is everybody’s chanting together; your own count sits quietly beneath it. Shared counting opens on 11 October and closes on the night of 20 October.

108, 324 or 1,100 a day: what each one asks

Three counts, at about six seconds a repetition. Choose for your busiest day, not your first one — a smaller count kept all ten days is a fuller sankalp than a large one dropped on the fourth.

A single Purna Anushthana, kept all ten days, is 11,000 repetitions — on its own, the size of the whole sankalp’s first milestone.

How to chant the Navarna Mantra: the traditional way to sit

None of this is required to join, and households keep it in their own ways. It is the shape a japa sitting has traditionally had, for anyone who wants it.

1. 01

   Take the sankalp once

   On the first day, before you begin, hold a little water in your right palm and say — aloud or inwardly — your name, the mantra, your daily count and the ten days, and for whom you offer it. Then let the water go. It is said once, and it holds the whole ten days.

2. 02

   The same seat, the same hour

   Before the kalash if you set one up on Ghatasthapana, or before any picture of the Devi. Many people face east or north. Morning or evening sandhya are the traditional hours; the hour you can keep every day is the right one.

3. 03

   The mala, if you use one

   A japa mala has 108 beads and one larger bead, the meru. Turn at the meru and go back the other way rather than crossing it. With the sankalp counting for you, the mala is for the hand and the attention, not for the arithmetic.

4. 04

   Aloud, whispered, or in the mind

   Tradition names three ways: vachika, aloud; upamshu, a whisper only you can hear; and manasika, in the mind alone. Begin aloud with the recording, and let the voice grow quieter as the sitting settles.

5. 05

   Close, don't just stop

   At the end of the count, sit for a minute in the silence the mantra leaves behind, and offer the sitting with folded hands. On the tenth day the whole ten days are offered together.

Navratri 2026, day by day

Shared counting opens at midnight as the first day begins and closes at midnight at the end of the tenth. Every repetition in between goes into one total.

• Day 111 OctSunGhatasthapana · counting opens
• Day 212 OctMon
• Day 313 OctTue
• Day 414 OctWed
• Day 515 OctThu
• Day 616 OctFri
• Day 717 OctSat
• Day 818 OctSun
• Day 919 OctMon
• Day 1020 OctTueVijayadashami · Purnahuti

Which day carries Ashtami and Navami this year differs between almanacs — follow your family’s or your temple’s panchang for those.

Why it is chanted together

Through Navratri the Saptashati is read aloud in temples and homes, often by many voices at once, and the japa is offered on the last day in everyone’s name. This sankalp is the same practice for whoever cannot be in the room: your 108 goes into one shared count, and what is offered at the end is offered for everyone who chanted.

The shared goal climbs in steps. A sankalp kept alone is easy to drop on the fourth day; one you can see other people keeping is not.

• Milestone 111,000
• Milestone 225,000
• Milestone 351,000
• Goal1,11,000

Each milestone opens the next when it is crossed. There is no leaderboard: only everyone’s total, and your own count beneath it.

What happens to the count on the tenth day

On Tuesday, 20 October 2026, Vijayadashami, the sankalp closes with the Purnahuti — the completing offering. The count stops at midnight that night and the final figure stays on the page: not a score, but an arpan, offered at the Mother’s feet by everyone who chanted.

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