ॐ स्रां स्रीं स्रौं सः केतवे नमः ॥
Frequently asked questions about Ketu Mantra
When is the Ketu beej mantra chanted?
On Tuesdays and Saturdays, and during a Ketu mahadasha or antardasha, before a multicoloured or grey flower with a til-oil lamp. Ganesha worship is usually kept with it.
What is the prescribed count?
Seventeen thousand is the classical sankhya for Ketu, kept as a sankalpa over a period, with a mala of a hundred and eight as the daily practice.
What does Ketu signify?
Detachment, sudden loss, spiritual insight, and skill that arrives without being learnt. He is the moksha-karaka - where Rahu grasps, Ketu lets go, which is why his periods strip things away and deepen understanding.
What is given in daan for Ketu?
Sesame, a multicoloured blanket, a flag, a coconut and iron. Feeding dogs, and worship of Ganesha, are what the tradition names with it.
Is a Ketu period bad for worldly life?
It is difficult for accumulation and favourable for renunciation and depth. Whether that reads as loss or as relief depends on what the chart is asking of you - the Mahadasha tool shows when his period runs.
About the Ketu Mantra - Om Sraam Sreem Sraum Sah Ketave Namah
The Ketu Mantra - the beej mantra of Ketu (the south lunar node), chanted to pacify Ketu and gain its protective, spiritual grace.
Meaning
With the seed-syllables of Ketu, the mantra bows to the shadow-planet Ketu, the headless node of detachment, intuition and liberation.
Benefits
Chanted to reduce the obstacles, anxieties and unexpected difficulties of Ketu and to gain its protection, detachment and spiritual benefits.
How the Mantra Is Built
The seeds Sraam Sreem Sraum carry Ketu's hissing sa sound through the three vowel energies, with Sah as the release and Ketave Namah as the salutation - "to Ketu," the headless trunk of the eclipse serpent, the south node of the Moon. Where Rahu is hunger without satisfaction, Ketu is detachment without direction: past-life momentum, sudden severances, mysticism, moksha and the intuition that arrives without reasoning. He is called the flag (ketu) - a sign pointing beyond the world.
How to Chant
Chant on Tuesdays or Saturdays, at dusk, facing south-west; his offerings are mixed-colour or smoke-grey cloth, horse gram, and a lamp of sesame oil. The classical vowed count for Ketu is 17,000 repetitions; the everyday practice is one mala of 108 weekly. Because Ketu is the moksha-karaka - the significator of liberation - his japa is traditionally accompanied by a few minutes of silent meditation after the count, letting the mantra dissolve rather than rushing on.
When Astrology Prescribes It
The Ketu mantra is prescribed through Ketu dasha (seven years), for Ketu with the Moon or in the lagna - showing as unexplained anxiety, rootlessness, sudden losses or health puzzles that evade diagnosis - and as the paired remedy with Rahu's mantra in Kaal Sarp Dosha; see the Kaal Sarp Dosha calculator. Worship of Ganesha, Ketu's presiding deity, is his traditional companion remedy. Pacified, Ketu gives the finest of his gifts: penetrating insight and genuine contentment.
Ketu's wider regimen matches his renunciate nature: charity of mixed grains, blankets or an umbrella to the poor; feeding stray dogs, the animal of the nodes; and the deliberate simplification of life - fewer possessions, fewer entanglements - which the tradition reads as cooperating with Ketu rather than resisting him. His gemstone is cat's eye (lehsunia), worn only under proper astrological advice. Those in Ketu dasha are counselled to take up meditation and pilgrimage, the two activities Ketu is said to reward beyond all others.
The Ketu Mantra - Om Sraam Sreem Sraum Sah Ketave Namah above is given in both Devanagari (Sanskrit) and Roman transliteration so you can read it in whichever script you are comfortable with - switch between the two using the buttons above, share the link, or download a PDF.
A mantra is a compact formula for japa, not a long hymn. Forty-verse hymns live under Chalisa; lamp-songs under Aarti; longer stotras under Stotram. Browse every formula on the Mantra index. Count repetitions with the online japa mala counter.
