Our Tulsi left us just over two years ago during the first winter in our new home. She was a six years old Tulsi and guess she couldn't stand less light and temperature fluctuations in our new home and during that winter she got spider mites and bacteria that I didn't manage to save her.
We didn't try growing a new one as soon after she left we found we were expecting a baby. Our baby is almost 16 months now and recently I had several questions to answer on this blog and started thinking it is time to sow Tulsi seeds again. It does not seem right for me to give advice on how to grow Tulsi at home unless I actually grow one at my home.
However, it is late to saw the seeds as the spring, as the best time to start a seedling, is long gone and winter is too close to have a chance of young seedling surviving the first winter in Melbourne as it would be too weak.
So last week our good friend calls me to say one of her friends who is leaving to India for a month or so needs someone to baby sit her Tulsi's while she is gone and she wouldn't go if she doesn't have someone to take care of her Tulsi's. As you might expect I was more than happy to take that service and she exchanged our numbers.
My wife was to pay her a visit and pick up Tulsi's during day and while chatting with her to organize pick up we found out she had two Tulsi's and one of them was torn apart by one of the boys living in the student home she lives at. One day she politely asked him not to smoke near Tulsi's as they are sacred plants and soon after he moved out of that student home and after moving all his possessions out he came back just to tore her Tulsi apart.
This was a surprising story to me. Why would you do this to any plant just to make someone feel bad escapes my understanding especially because the boy is from India and should know about the significance of Tulsi. Perhaps it was just a pastime to show the glory of Tulsi.
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| In the pot you can see the stem of original Tulsi |
Short time after she ended up with close to 50 Tulsi's growing roots in water waiting to be transplanted into soil which I am about to do in the morning and then add some pictures to illustrate what happened.
I explained her that she will have to give most of them away as she will otherwise in a year or so end up in a jungle of Tulsi's at her home and it might be almost impossible to take care of all of them in a small student room. You can see that even now they are taking one smaller kitchen table. I suggested she should start looking for devotees interested in taking care of Tulsi at home and this post might be helping her.
If you are reading this and you are in Melbourne and wanting Tulsi we might be helping her spread the glories of mother Tulsi and finding her new homes.
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| Roots out, ready for planting in a pot |
It also feels so special to have a part of Tusli growing at your home that was so potent to go through this ordeal so gloriously.
Here is a couple of quotes:
"Every home with a Tulasi plant is a place of pilgrimage, and no diseases, messengers of Yama, the God of Death, can enter it."
Skandapurana 2, 4, 8, 13 Padmapurana Uttarakhanda
"Vishnu, the Lord of the Three Worlds, takes up abode in the village or the house where Tulasi is grown. In such a house no one suffers calamities like poverty, illness or separations from dear ones." Padmapurana, Uttarakhanda, 6-24-31-32
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| I've transplanted 13 of them that had roots |
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| Soaking sun in a partial shade |
All glories to mother Tulsi!