Our Story
Our Story
The summer that changed everything
In the summer of 2009, just before my 26th birthday, I lost both of my parents within a few weeks of each other.
I didn't know how to survive it. I had grown up in a Gujarati Jain household in New Jersey, surrounded by ancient Indian traditions, rituals, and a deep belief in something beyond the physical world. When everything fell apart, I turned to that inheritance. Not because I had a plan, but because I had nothing else.
What I found there saved my life.
The practice
The long road back
Grief has a way of burning everything unnecessary away. What remained for me was a hunger to understand energy, healing, and the ancient wisdom my ancestors had been carrying for generations.
Over the next fifteen years, I studied everything I could find, not casually, but seriously, rigorously, the way I had been trained to learn.
B.S. Electrical & Computer Engineering, Cornell University
MBA, UCLA Anderson School of Management
200-Hour Vinyasa Teacher Training · Advanced Sound Healing & Therapy, Nepal · Biosonics with Tuning Forks · Sound Healing Apprenticeship · Gong Camp with Don Conreaux · Five levels of Pranic Healing including Healer's Mastery · Ayurveda & Aromatherapy · Essential Oils · Cord Cutting · Cellular Healing
I tell you this not to list credentials, but because I want you to understand who made the tools you are considering. Soul Tara products were not designed by a lifestyle brand. They were built by someone who has been doing this work for fifteen years, in her body, in her practice, and in her life.
I still work full-time at Google. I know what it means to carry a demanding career and a spiritual practice at the same time. I know what it costs to feel the energy and have no structure to work with it. That is exactly who I made these tools for.
The journal
How Cosmic Starlight was born
In late 2021, deep in my healing journey and navigating a demanding career in tech, I wanted to be more intentional about my life but didn't know where to start. So I did what I always do, I built a structure.
I created a set of questions to answer at the end of the year. My husband Amit and I filled it out together on December 31st and found it to be one of the most meaningful things we had ever done.
We did it again the next year. And the year after that.
After three years of refining it privately, I knew it was time to share it. In 2024 we launched Soul Tara and ran a Kickstarter campaign, our community raised over $1,900 and we have not looked back.
Co-founder
Meet Amit
Soul Tara would not exist without my husband and co-founder Amit Budhiraja.
Amit is a Reiki and Pranic healer, a long-time meditator, and a men's mental health advocate with over ten years of his own practice. He provided vital feedback throughout the development of Cosmic Starlight and co-developed the formulations for our aura sprays and bath salts alongside me.
Every product Soul Tara makes has been shaped by both of our hands and both of our practices. If you have encountered Soul Tara in the world — at a market, on your feed, in a boutique — that is Amit's work.
The name
The meaning of Soul Tara
The name is personal. "Soul" is the English word for what exists beyond the physical body. "Tara" is the Sanskrit word for star. The Soul Star chakra sits approximately twelve inches above the head and connects us to a higher power and to supreme consciousness.
The name reflects my life as an Indian American, one foot in the ancient wisdom of my ancestors, one foot in the modern world I navigate every day. It reflects what I believe Soul Tara can do for the people who find us: bring them a little closer to their own light.
Our community
A space that was built for you
We are proud to be a WOC-founded company in the wellness space.
We know what it means to walk into a healing space and feel like you have to translate yourself, your background, your traditions, your way of knowing. We built Soul Tara so that would never be the experience here. You do not have to explain your practice or justify your beliefs. You already belong.
Our products are rooted in ancient healing traditions — yoga philosophy, chakra healing, pranic energy work, sound healing — made accessible for the modern life you are actually living.
Recognition & community
Soul Tara in the world
If you found your way here, something brought you. Maybe you felt the energy but did not have the tools to work with it. Maybe you have been carrying something for a long time and you are ready to put it down. Maybe you just needed to know there was a space where you would not have to explain yourself.
You are in the right place. We built this for you.
— Asmi
Explore our products →