What are beads for? That’s a simple question that we may not consciously think of very often. I personally prefer my beads to be more beautiful than useful 🙂 But one way they’ve been consistently used over the centuries is as prayer beads.
You may know about rosaries, but here are a couple more kinds of prayer beads you might want to be familiar with:
Rudraksha beads — this is a natural-material bead, made from the seed inside the fruit of a tree in India. We’re told that traditionally, people talk about “how many faces” or segments these beads have. Some say the number of faces relates to the particular spiritual powers the rudraksha has; numbers from 1 to 108 have been reported. Interestingly, there are 108 rudraksha beads on a mala, which leads us to…
Malas are prayer necklaces, used very much like rosaries to help a person keep track of prayers being said. (This is mostly in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions.) Malas are made with any of several varieties of beads, including rudrakshas. Another mala bead that I’ve been really impressed by are 
sandalwood beads, as fragrant as the wood they’re made from. 
Rosewood mala beads are pretty too, with a rich dark red luster.
…and the great thing is, they make wonderful jewelry of all kinds, for everyone.
