Tulsi Or The Holy Basil Plant

This is Holy basil in English and Thulasi in Tamil, and Tulsi in Hindi. The entire plant is considered to be very sacred and is auspicious to Lord Vishnu. This plant is considered to be a form of Goddess Lakshmi. Based on Hindu customs this plant is placed in a pot called 'maadam'. This maadam is placed or constructed either in front of house or at back of house based on Vaastu or fengshui. The ladies regarded as sumangali does pooja to this plant daily in the dawn after shower. She has to clean the pot, put sandal tikka and kumkum tikka on the pot and decorates it with flowers. Lamp has to be lit in front of it. After reciting mantras aarti has to be shown. One who does regular pooja to Tulsi matha, is benefitted with a pleasant life and longitivity of  their husband's life span.

Garland of cotton with turmeric and kumkum(saffron) tikka is special to tulsi matha and doing such garland gives a prosperous life.

Tulsi plant is venerated by all Hindus, throughout the length and breadth of the world mainly in India, and Nepal. Its botanical name is Ocimum Sanctum, also commonly known as Basil in English. Other names of Tulsi are derived mostly from its qualities as Sulabhaa - easily available, Bahumanjiri - with many flowering stalks, soolaghni - destroyer of troubles, Vishnupriya - beloved of Lord Vishnu, surasa - full of good juices, sap , as also Gauri and Devadandoobhi.

Commonly, Tulsi is of two types - the Krishna Tulsi - dark leaved and the Shwera tulsi light leaved. This is sometimes also known as Ram Tulsi. Occasionally one may have come across Tulsi which grows in the wild. This is known as Vana Tulsi.

While doing a prayer ceremony, the leaves and its flowers are given the foremost importance. It is believed that at the tip of the Tulsi leaf, Lord Brahma - Prajapathi - The lord of creation resides and Shri Krishna - Vishnu - Lord of Saviour resides in the middle and Lord Shiva - Lord of destroyer of evils resides in the base. Its body is the Rig Veda, Yajurveda is its neck and Atharvaveda is its prana - life force. Because of its sanctity, the Tulsi plant is associated with mankind, our ancestors and the devas. A Tulsi leaf is always placed in the mouth of a dead body before it is taken for cremation, thus ensuring the smooth onward journey of the departed soul. Almost every Hindu household therefore, has a Tulsi plant and the special pot in which it is planted is called Tulsi vrindavan.

Every women in the family are cultured to go round the Tulsi vrindavan daily morning after the daily routines as a manner of saying pranams or respects and also garlanding her with cotton tied with turmeric and kumkum to make buds as shown in figure above. Ekadesi coming in the month of Vaikasi - probably in October is very auspicious to Tulsi and on that day make the Tulsi pooja so as to get all the desires fulfilled.