Growing Sacred Basil

“You  are nice folks but you don’t have a Tulsi plant in your home,” my maid Kailashben had said with some visible annoyance a few days after she stepped into my home to look after the toddlers, some fifteen years ago. Now, Tulsi or Sacred Basil is a must in every Hindu home. It is believed to be essential to a home to ensure happiness. Many legends are associated with the Tulsi in Indian mythology. Tulsi is Lakshmi, Lord Vishnu’s consort, or Radha, Krishna’s beloved. Tulsi means matchless and it is essential in the worship of Hindu dieties.

Tulsi grew wild at my parent’s place. No special care was needed to nurture it as such. However, at my home it was a different story. No matter how hard I tried  to nurture it in my clay pot, it just would not grow. It was at one such point of  time that Kailashben had walked into our lives. Peeved at her admonition, it was priority for  us to get a Tulsi plant, for our home. Off went I and my husband to the nearest nursery, on our way back from work, to choose a Tulsi plant which we hoped would flourish. We selected a healthy plant, ordered the ‘mali’ to repot it with good soil and manure, and zoomed off home with our prized possession. At home we fussed over it, watering it, putting the pot atop a wrought iron stand near the ledge of our little balcony. Enough sunlight and adequate water would do the trick with our sacred plant, we hoped. Alas that was not to be and the plant began to wilt a few days later. The same story was repeated over the years, with the Tulsi just refusing to bloom in the clay pots, which we then threw out in despair. Such was our pleasure to see a blooming Tulsi elsewhere that we felt like stealing it for  home!

Tulsi has many ‘gunas’. A couple of Tulsi leaves in one’s mouth can make one less thirsty. The leaves are medicinal too, giving relief in coughs and colds and taking care of digestive problems too. Tulsi oil also destroys bacteria and other insects.

According to the Padma Purana, even the soil around the Tulsi plant is considered holy. If  a Tulsi twig is used as a lamp for Vishnu it is equivalent to several million lamps. The soul of a dead person whose body has been cremated with Tulsi sticks attains a permanent place in Vishnu’s heaven and is not reborn, it is believed.