Black beads on Mangalsutra are a reminder of duties that both husband and wife should follow. The string black beads symbolically represent Lord Shiva and it is associated with fertility and origin of creation. Black represents the stillness before creation. This stillness is ended with the sound created by Shiva. In Hindu society as per some communities, the black bead today suggests – reproduction and nurturing of children. The black beads ward off evil, which might harm the married couple. It is worn to keep out all kinds of evil eye. The black bead Mangalsutra is not worn by all Hindu married women. It is limited to specific region and communities. Some married women today wear the black bead Mangalsutra as it simply looks good on them. Some Hindu communities have only just two prominent black beads in the Mangalsutra.

Article source – Swami Ashokananda, When the Many Become One (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1997), 94-6. You feel like becoming one with the whole universe. You do not want to be separate from anything but to become one with everything. There was a time when I liked that idea very much. I had finished my education in the university and was living in a small town. It was a very unusual kind of place, with the habit of becoming inundated with floods. Every year a good part of the town would be under water, as was the neighboring land for miles and miles and miles all around. Well, it was a beautiful thing to see… I made a habit in those days of going into the backyard of the house where I lived. From there I could see miles and miles of this water, and there I would sit. There was no rain at that time. I would sit there and lose myself in the utter oneness of these undivided waters. No waves there; the water not moving. And there was the sun. I looked towards the eas