Rudraksha beads from the rudraksha tree

What is a mala?

Malas are made up of 108 beads, a sacred number of wholeness of existence in Vedic culture. Mala meditation is practiced in a cycle of 108 mantras, forming a complete cycle of the mala back to the main 'guru' bead. Rudraksha beads used in spiritual jewelry and for meditation come from rudraksha trees, which have rich, ancient spiritual myths and scripture surrounding the sacred power of rudraksha trees. Rudraksha beads comes from a seed inside a blue fruit of Elaeocarpus Ganitrus tree and Hindus believe that this tree grows from where Lord Shiva shed his tear.

Creating Aum Rudraksha Malas - Soma Temple’s story

Soma Temple, the founder of Aum Rudraksha malas in Bali, began her journey with malas and meditation over 22 years ago in India. In the late 90s, whilst in India, her well known teacher Papaji told Soma that because she lived so close to the source of the highest quality Rudraksha beads in the world, her Dharma (destiny) was to spread them to the western world. Already used for centuries by hindus and buddhists, Papaji believed that because of the pure power of the Rudrakshas themselves, “The world would be at peace if everyone was wearing them”.

Rudraksha beads used for Bali Malas Aum Rudraksha

“He told me that it was my dharma in life to spread Rudraksha Beads to the west and around the world.  He stated that the world was in Chaos and for millenniums the rudraksha’s were kept in India and NOW was the time to share them”

– Soma Temple

Inspired by Hindu spirituality, guided by Papaji (H.W.L. Poonjaji) and created by Soma Temple, Aum Rudraksha Designs was born in 2003 here in the beautiful island of Bali, Indonesia. Aum Rudraksha uses over 40 different gemstones in their stunning mala collections with each 108 sacred rudraksha beads. The beauty of Aum Rudraksha malas is that the way you use your mala is completely up to you. You may want to use it as a meditation tool, or as a media for manifestation and affirmation, to self heal and as the first step to change your lifetyle, or you may not have a reason but are just drawn to the beauty of it. Malas are a personal choice, with their own purpose and design and each person makes their malas completely their own. 

Girl meditating wearing Aum Rudraksha mala in Bali

Aum Rudraksha and the power of Malas – spreading to Bali and beyond

In Bali, the spiritual energy and strong Balinese Hinduism culture has inspired spiritual jewelry, healing crystals and conscious fashion companies to create their art on the island. There are only a handful of countries in the world where rudraksha trees grow: in the foothill of the Himalayas, Indonesia, Nepal and Hawaii. Indonesia's Rudrakshas are well known for their powerful seeds and did you know, more and more people opt for Indonesian Rudrakshas rather than Nepalese of Indian Rudrakshas.We simply begin as a hobby of working with Rudraksha beads and are now having distributors throughout the world and supply more than 60 stores in 5 different continents.

“I immediately saw how the staff loved to work with these beads and how all of our lives started to improve and become more serene. We have an amazing team of forward thinking people and we get to wake up every morning doing what we love." - Soma Temple

Making Aum Rudraksha malas in Bali

Bali's Spiritual & Sustainable Jewelry

Not only are rudraksha beads sustainable, because they grow on trees but Soma Temple and her team continue to plant more and more rudraksha trees in Bali and around the world. Soma and her company work with the Pedanda High Priests of Bali and gift the Priests with ceremonial mala’s. It was an ancient traditional for the Pedanda High Priests to have ceremonial malas but the source of their beads in Bali was lost. Through Soma’s planting of more Rudraksha trees she has helped provide more ceremonial malas into the lives of the Balinese, their priests and also into the world of yogis and spiritual seekers. Soma continues to fulfil her mission from her Guru to spread rudraksha’s around the world.

Soma’s company, Aum Rudraksha is rooted on giving back as a core value. They have a profit sharing program that includes the farmers of the rudraksha beads and all of their employees. Aum Rudraksha give 20% of their profit to charity and sponsor uplifting events such as the BaliSpirit Festival and sponsoring trips for High Priests on Yatra’s to India (their mother land).

“We believe in honoring and empowering each person who comes across our path in hopes that as we empower those around us, we invoke change one bead at a time. We love integrity and authenticity, working from this premises we pray that we make the world a better more beautiful world for all us to live in.”  – Soma Temple

Soma Temple and her Aum Rudraksha team in Bali during a ceremony

Aum Rudraksha is an eco friendly ad sustainable company, based on the principal that we are all ONE energy and that we all need to look out for our Mother Earth and for one another. Soma and her team have taken her Guru Papaji's message literally and she is fulfilling her dharma by spreading the sacred rudraksha beads and malas around the world.

“We as human beings and as a company are dedicated to living in awareness and truth. Our main goal is to encourage peace and love amongst all the people of this world.  A strong message of ours is ‘Sharing is Caring’ and that what we do in this life impacts our eternal karma.” – Soma Temple

Their hope is that they entice and inspire you with their Mala creations so you can collaborate in bringing to life ideas of your own. Soma’s wish is that through Aum Rudraksha, we may unify to share the healing energy of these rare and sacred beads with one another and they may help you to abide in and act from the ONE true Heart of pure consciousness.

Learn more about Aum Rudraksha: www.aumrudraksha.com