TULASI/BASIL

[Guest guest]

Ocimun Sanctum

 

Family : Labiatae

Sanskrit name : Tulasi

Hindi name : Tulasi

 

"tulasi kananam chaiva grhe yasyavatishthate tad grham teerth

bhoot

yama kinkara "

 

This popular plant has been widely praised and excoriated during the

course of herbal medical history. Some ancient herbalist asserted

that basil damaged the internal organs and the eyes and caused

insanity, coma and the spontaneous generation of worms, lica and

scorpions. Subsequent writers argued that basil did none of these

things, but was good both as condiments and for a variety of

medicinal purpose. These opposing viewpoints were argued in herbal

medicine through the centuries.

 

In folklore as in medicine, Tulasi had a reputation for both evil and

good. In some lands it was associated with the legendary reptile

known as the basilisk, whose breath and glance could kill. The

ancient Greek believed that Tulasi would grow only if gardeners

vilified it while sowing it. People in other countries, however

cherished it as a protection against witchcraft and as a symbol of

love.

 

For Hindus, wherever Tulasi is planted in grooves or in house holds,

that place becomes sanctified as a place of pilgrimage. Modern

sciences has established that the Tulasi perceptibly purifies the air

within a wide radius of the vicinity, proving most effective just

before sunrise, the time when it is ritually circled by the devount.

Even dried leaves retain their original properties.

 

It is believed that even the Lord of Death : Yamdoots dare not enter

or gives way before this holy plant. Tulasi is perpetually associated

with goddess lakshmi. Each year, at the waxing of the autumn moon,

the plant is married in a religious ritual to one of the three gods

of trinity : Vishnu.

Any domestic courtyard which is centered around the holy Tulasi is

considered in India, a place of peace, piety and virtue. Hence Tulasi

is worship by all.

 

It is much branched erect bushy plant of about 4 feet heights. Its

leaves are aromatic and are dotted with minute glands; the flowers

are purplish, in small clusters on slender spikes and the seeds are

yellowish or reddish.

 

Medically, the plant provides a pharmacopoeia for the entire

household. Its leaves are crushed in a honey and use to cure cough,

colds, bronchitis and to reduce fever. Infusion of Tulasi leaves and

ginger is a popular remedy for stomachaches especially in children.

Its essential oil is an antiseptic and insect repellent, while its

roots reduced to paste, sooths bites and stings, acting even as an

antidote to snake venom and scorpion bites.

 

The plants roots symbolizes religious pilgrimage, its branches

divinity, its crown an understanding of the scriptures.

Traditionally, once the plan has been planted in an Indian courtyard

it is nurtured for three months before it is worshipped with

offerings of rice, flowers and lighted lamps. After that, virgins

pray to the holy Tulasi for husbands, married women for domestic

peace and prosperity.

 

Thick branch of Tulasi, when dried, is cut into beads of equal

shape'size to make rosary beads for the devotees. A mala or

necklace

is also prepared with beads and devotees wear it with faith.

 

Rishis had ordained that if a ghee-lamp or incense sticks or even

flowers are not available for performing puja or worship, Tulasi

leaves can be offered to the diety. this explains the importance and

valus of Tulasi, which is even otherwsie a MUST for every solemn puja

or celebrations.

 

 

OM ParaShaktiye Namaha

[Guest guest]

Eve ...

 

You are a strange and wonderful genius of some sort! Thanks for

sharing (and glad to hear I'm not the only one who's ever overanalyzed

and agonized over the unsuccessful transplant of a seedling ...)

[Guest guest]

Thanks for this.

 

You said, "In some lands it was associated with the legendary reptile

known as the basilisk, whose breath and glance could kill. The

ancient Greek believed that Tulasi would grow only if gardeners

vilified it while sowing it. "

 

I am growing Tulsi right now and I grew about a hundred sprouts in

one large pot. Then I recently moved and have transferred the sprouts

to the soil itself in the SE corner of home. As I was transplanting

the sprouts I was thinking things like, "sorry sprout, I can give you

soil and water and the rest is up to you guys." And such mental

tripe, my point being that some sprouts didn't transfer for one

reason or another. But about two thirds did. And at some point I

was thinking about it being a holy plant and that I was killing some,

so the concept that some places focus on the negative while growing

the plants seems a sort of mental white wash but it's something I can

relate to. You see if you have to raise babys to full grown then you

will make mistakes. One can only wonder at the guilt of say dropping

baby Jesus or Krishna on their heads. So my point is that it

definately helps in the sprouting stage of things when they are weak

to have a certain stoicism (if not actually counterbalanced or

unbalanced even sense of vilification of them). Why, it helps keep

one sane. (Don't take me for an example of this)

[Guest guest]

Thank you eva and devi bhakta

 

 

I got my tulasi plant from my brother in law. His plant never make

it, but mine grow beautifully and in abundance. And he asked me

once "how come, your Tulasi grows so well" I replied " I talk to my

plant". I know some of you might think : there she go again. Now she

talk to her plant( previously my neighbours asked me : you talk to

your black cat? ) Some people might not believe this, but I believe

plant do respond when you talk to them, what more such a sacred plant

like Tulasi. I just finished reading a book entitled : The Secrets

life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. It's a

fascinating account of the physical, emotional and spiritual

relations between plants and man.

 

To summarise, the authors suggested said that :

1) Plant are the only living creatures able to produce their own

food.

2) Grasses are the greatest single source of wealth on earth

3) All flesh is grass – even coal and petroleum are plant life

in the past

4) Recent experiments in communication with plants indicate, as

Paracelsus and Mesmer foretold, that all living things – man, plants,

earth, planets and stars – are interconnected: what affects one

affects them all.

 

If we were to trace back to the ancient times, how could early man

doubt that plant are magical or having medicinal value? Lacking the

vantage of science, how else could he explain the mysteries of the

pant kingdom? Every autumn in temperate climes, prehistoric human

beings watched the forests die: the trees shed their leaves; grasses

and flowers withered; only a few evergreens retained a semblance of

summer's vitality. Yet come spring, all were reborn: buds burst into

leaf, and fresh shoots sprouted from the earth. Surely any beings

that resurrect themselves each year must be filled with magic.

 

In the tropics, there was no killing winter chill. A huge variety of

plants grew, reproduced, and spread, with a vigor and speed that must

have seemed no less miraculous than the seasonal cycle of growth and

dormancy.

 

Our distant ancestors did not need to be trained botanists to observe

and appreciate the remarkable energy and diversity of the plant

world. Necessity made them dililgent students of the local flora.

Plants furnished foods, medicines, clothing and shelter. Some plants'

behaviour must also have filled our ancestors with wonder.

 

Why did the sunflower's blossom turn to track the sun moving across

the sky?

Why did the morning glory's trumpets open only at daybreak?

Unable to find any apparent cause for such behaviour, our early

ancestors used their imagination. They animated trees and flowers

with guardian spirits and benign and evil. In Peru for example sun

worshippers venerated the sunflower as the earthly embodiment of the

sun. And in Japan, morning glories became "jewel of the heaven"

because their beauty lured the sun goddess back into the sky at dawn.

 

Already depended upon plants for material needs, human beings turned

naturally to the plant kingdom for air in the daunting struggle to

achieve mastery over their environment and fate.

 

 

Om Parashatiye Namaha